5 Reasons To Implement PTO Management Software
Paid time off (PTO) is a necessary implementation in today’s workforce. Research shows that people are more productive when they take breaks to rest and recharge. However, paid time off requests, scheduling, and paperwork creates more work for managers, supervisors, and HR employees. These conventional forms of time off management can lead to errors in scheduling and miscommunication, which leaves teams at a disadvantage. Time off management software is the key to ensuring that employees can take time off that they need without causing more work for other team members. This solution gives employees clarity and control over their paid leave and eliminates mistakes, given that everything organized is in one software.
What should you expect from a time off management software?
Here are a few key features that you’ll want to check are included in your software before adding it to your cart:
- Integrations: If your team uses a communication platform daily, like Slack or Microsoft Teams, a tool that is integrated into these software may be the best fit for you and your team. If not, opt for something cloud-based so you can quickly review time off requests from any device.
- Simple Time off Request and Review: The last thing you want is for your software to complicate time off management more than your current practices. Opt for a software with a simple dashboard, and one that offers easy review to lessen the time spent on time off communications.
- Notifications: If you don’t receive updates about new requests, you’ll spend more time than necessary checking the software for new requests. Or, even worse, miss upcoming requests entirely. Choose a software that offers notifications that work for your team. Whether this is notifications about new time off requests, upcoming employee time off, changes to work schedules, or a combination of these, your software should keep you in the loop about all things time off related!
- Auto-Updated Leave Balance: This is a key component of any functional time off management software. Employees and managers must know how much time off they’ve used and how much remains to plan future leaves accordingly. Your software should automatically update the balance of leave remaining.
Each of these features plays a key role in efficient time off management. But, you may wonder, how does a time off software benefit my team in the first place? Here are just a few of the many benefits of implementing time off management software.
Self-Service
By using software to manage paid time off, employees feel included in the process. They can see how much paid time off they have left within the software, eliminating back-and-forth emails to managers and other HR members. Time off management software allows employees to submit time off requests directly through the software, which are shown as a notification for managers or supervisors to approve.
Employees also have the option to log in to their account and view a history of the time they have taken off and ensure that days not taken have been carried over to the following year. This saves managers from having to respond to various emails and inquiries about remaining time off, allowing time to be spent more efficiently. Equally, employees feel more in control of their vacation time which leads to increased productivity and overall happiness at work.
Efficiency
As touched on above, time off management software increases the efficiency of internal processes by eliminating time-consuming tasks that take time away from more valuable work completed by HR managers and supervisors. Long email chains concerning when to take a summer vacation are eliminated. Calculating time off pay and transferring any leftover days to the next year are handled directly through the software. Managers simply have to click a button to approve or reject a time off request, and the software automatically calculates days remaining based on the quota given at the beginning of the year.
This saves time manually processing time off requests and avoids any chance for human error. Through implementing time off management software, managers spend less time processing various time off requests and have more time to focus on productive tasks and working towards company goals.
Innovative
All the different aspects of business are making their way into the cloud, and paid time off is one of them! Implementing time off management software eliminates the need for paper timesheets, memos requesting time off, and paper accounting records. Having all your business’s time off information available in the cloud means that it can be accessed from anywhere at any time.
Not to mention, saving paper promotes sustainable practices at work. Furthermore, competitive job seekers are more likely to be interested in your company if you implement time off management software that streamlines the request and approval process and saves time for management and employees.
Transparency
Time off management software increases transparency between management and employees. This eliminates the need for back and forth messaging to confirm dates. Employees can easily see how much paid time off they have left, and so can managers. Time off management software sends notifications to everyone, letting them know who is on leave right now and who has time off coming up so that team members can plan accordingly with projects they may be working on collaboratively. Managers can ensure that they rebalance workloads before employees leave so that one person isn’t overwhelmed.
Customization
Most time off management software is flexible and customizable to suit your company’s needs. Different kinds of leave for employees to request can be customized, such as vacation, sick leave, or business trips.
You can also specify who receives time off requests from which employees to manage departments more effectively.
Leave management software can be customized to handle all background tasks such as transferring days over to the next year, calculating pay, and scheduling.
With all this in mind, time off management software provides many benefits to companies.
It increases transparency between management and employees, saves managers hours spent reviewing time off requests, and inputs all approved requests into your shared calendar. Leave management software saves time for everyone by automating everything in one cloud-based software that gives employees clarity regarding their time off.
Time Off Management Tool
Kiku manages all of your time off requests in one cloud-based solution that is easy for both managers and employees to access. Request time off, customize leave, celebrate birthdays, work anniversaries, and more, all with Kiku integrated into Slack! Try Kiku today!
