Does Your Leave Management System Meet the Needs of 2017?

There have been several studies that prove its importance in the development of successful organizations. As HR managers, you must have researched upon various techniques that can help you engage your employees and provide them with more fulfilling employee experiences. You must have also tried technological solutions to make your organizational culture rich and positive. How successful have you been?

Instead of constantly looking for some new way to increase engagement, you should probably look at existing processes from a fresh perspective. Whatever technological product that we see around us always has one common feature – tracking. Though it is what this world requires now, how comfortable are employees with it? This question is even more important as flexibility is what employees increasingly prefer in this day and age with the world going mobile.

[easy-tweet tweet=”How does one “track” down an employee’s activities without lowering his morale or getting him frustrated?”]

There is not one single answer to this question. And it would also differ on the basis of what one wants to track. In this blog, we speak about a concept which is not much talked about, taken for granted and swept under the carpet when employee experience strategies are being made – attendance.

Attendance tracking and management is a critical aspect of every organization as information garnered by such technology can help leaders determine whether the business is on the right track. From an organizational perspective, managing attendance through attendance management software makes the task of managers very simple and effective, as they know the exact number of hours worked by each employee which enables smoother operations. For companies with a large fleet of the workforce, a good attendance reporting system is inevitable for an accurate graphical description of everything related to hours worked and time off. It also helps HR managers know which employees are working, when they are working and when they are taking leaves. Absenteeism has a big impact on businesses everywhere and hence needs to be tracked. Collation of attendance data goes way beyond just the number of hours worked by an employee. It can also help understand labor trends, vacation trends, employee performance, dedication and also having an audit trail for regulatory compliance. But if employees aren’t satisfied with all this, there is hardly any point of so much investment.

With employee loyalty and employee experience becoming the core objective of companies, even attendance tracking needs to be done in a way that does not make employees feel throttled. Investing in an attendance management software could be the answer for achieving such an objective. The adoption of an attendance management software can lead to better HR functioning and also engage employees in a lot of ways, such as –

Transparency

Earlier, attendance management was the job only of the HR department which would collect all the data and use it to carry out payroll functions, which is again a very critical function of HR. The employee never kept track of his own timings or leaves. In today’s day and age, this doesn’t work. If you want engaged employees, you need to be transparent about your processes.

Employees need to have access to their own attendance data which they should be able to check at any time of the day. The above image shows how Keka’s attendance management software lets employees make informed, independent and wise decisions which can massively reduce the scope of micro management for you as an HR manager. At the same time, they should also be able to see who all are in his/her team are on leave, so that the employee can plan accordingly. This not only motivates the employee of having control over his own profile, it is also good for the company as it gives an all round view of all employees.

Such comparison, as shown above, can also motivate employees as he/she can compare his own attendance data with the rest of the employees.

Employee Recognition

There are so many employees who do not mind working overtime every once in a while, and some who are even ready to burn the midnight oil if need be. Such passionate employees are your assets. And hence, their passion shouldn’t be taken for granted. The fact remains that putting in hours of overtime virtually every day for weeks or even months can eventually demotivate even the most enthusiastic of employees. This frustration can just multiply if the extra work is not duly recognized. Prolonged over time can also be a major cause of employee stress. With an attendance tracking system, you know which employees are working the most, and delivering more than expected. By duly recognizing them, you not only keep them motivated but also inspire the rest of the team as an example.

Most importantly, in an age of social media and a number of accounts that we manage, the availability of an employee profile which is configurable and accessible by each individual employee gives them a sense of control over their own data. Every employee should get a public profile which is configurable and provides an easy access to all kinds of information that might be needed by the employee – such as attendance tracking, the number of hours, payroll etc, thus letting employees have control over their own information.

Accurate Paycheques

Employees work hard. The remuneration at the end of the month motivates them to do better. Monetary compensation, if given on time and done in an error free way can do real good in uplifting the morale of your employees. In the case when employees get shorted on their paycheque, correcting the problem can take massive time and effort which automatically gets reduced with a tracking system that helps improve paycheque accuracy. The more accurate the records, the more accurate the pay cheques. An innovative attendance management software in place automatically calculates work hours, the data from which can be exported to the payroll systems, eliminating all roots of error.

Fair And Square

There are all kinds of employees within an organization, some who are extremely particular about coming on time and work, while some like to take their time while they do their own thing. However, all this can cause a lot of friction in the minds of employees. For example, for those employees who arrive on time and work a full day can get frustrated and demotivated when they see other people who get the same benefits with long breaks and lunch hours, late arrival and early departures. An attendance tracking system makes sure everything is fair when it comes to taking advantage of employee compensation benefits. A time tracking system in place will help highlight those employees who return a full day’s work and those who aren’t.