Quite a number of managers have complained about the time and efforts required to handle employees leaves, process the leave information of each employee and to ensure adherence of the company leave policy. Leave applications are meant to be handled on a daily basis and the procedure of processing them involves looking into the employee leave history, that is leaves utilized by the employee in a given period and the available leaves for future.
A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery of educational courses or training programs. They help the instructor deliver material to the students, administer tests and other assignments, track student progress, and manage record-keeping. LMSs are focused on online learning delivery but support a range of uses, acting as a platform for fully online courses, as well as several hybrid forms, such as blended learning and flipped classrooms. LMSs can be complemented by other learning technologies such as a training management system to manage instructor-led training or a Learning Record Store to store and track learning data. (Source: Wikipedia)
A good leave management system benefits both, the company as well as the employees. It allows for smart planning of an employee’s absence in advance. This way the employee’s can also plan their leave according to the staffing requirement of the company at a particular period of time. A good leave Leave Management System is basically a process within which the employees apply for leave online and the employer can customize different leave types and setup the leave policy suitable for the company. This process also enables employees to request leaves, view past leave history, and the employer can review and approve leave applications as well as track outstanding leaves as well.
Advantages of leave management system
Transparency:
Organisations these days are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of bringing in transparency in the workplace. By making all the information available to employees as well as their managers throughout the organisation, the leave system becomes all the more transparent. Thus every single member of the organisation is able to view their leave history and balance available to them. Their managers also share these details which makes leave approval or rejection becomes more transparent.
Assures compliance to leave policy:
The online leave management system, customized as per the company’s leave policy can ensure compliance with the company’s leave policy as it will use the inherent rules that will not allow employees or managers to allows leaves only their favourites in the workplace.
Precise and accurate information:
With an operational online leave system, you can access accurate information about employees’ leaves and number of leaves taken by them, leave trends, and leave balances instantaneously. This makes the process a single-step procedure rather than manually flipping through the leave register pages to cull out the required information. With the online leave management system being integrated with an online payroll software, it becomes easiest to generate accurate payslips, kicking off a number of benefits in succession.
Leave policy awareness:
The systems are designed to accurately display available number of leaves permissible, number of days required before applying for planned or long leave. Employees can, at any time, refer to the leave policy before applying for vacation days or even take sabbaticals if the company has a provision for it.
Implements discipline:
Leave management systems are designed to strictly follow company leave policies and the local labor laws. The employees and the managers can use the system without discrimination. Providing an easy access to personal leave history and leave availability can improve accuracy and build discipline in an organization. As a result, better employee attendance can also be expected as the employees will be well aware of the consequences of not adhering to the company leave policy.
Disadvantages of leave management system
Cost:
Cost is one of the most important factors when it comes to selecting a good leave management system. Invariably the good ones always seem to be priced a bit expensive. Especially for smaller companies, this can pose a problem. With any system, there are acquisition costs and maintenance costs. Typically these systems are easier to handle from a cost standpoint since they do not require much initial outlay.
Staffing:
For a limited number of employees, the installation process is quite short. However if the number is huge, there’s probably the cost of hiring an IT specialist to manage the system.
Scalability:
Smaller companies tend to break out of their status quo and expand after a period of time. Thus, initially they may have chosen a simple leave management systems for their limited number of employees. As they grow, the system should be able to scale along with them. It doesn’t make any sense for companies to change the system every time their number of employees increase.
Thus, before making a decision, be sure to carefully analyse the leave management system. It will save you a lot of time and efforts in the long run as well.
