Benefits HRMS brings to employee vacation tracking

Possibly one of the simplest functions of an HRMS is to keep track of attendance – who’s in work each day and who isn’t – and one logical and straightforward use for that information is to automate the management of employee time off. Here are 4 benefits of using your HRMS for employee vacation tracking.

Better service for employees

One clear HRMS benefit is that it involves employees in the management of their vacations. They can check their balance of paid time off, view the dates available for vacation, and put in a request for a break; all via the system. One clear advantage is that this makes flexible working much easier. When people are working from home, not only does the system (with remote/mobile login) track the hours worked, it avoids confusion between non-attendance in the office and non-attendance at work, with managers able to review employees’ working hours and vacation time.

Time off requests are automatically forwarded to the appropriate authorizing manager. And the broader dataset around vacation time taken in a team or department, or the entire organization, can be used to produce reports or contribute to predictive analytics; making better business use of the available information.

A better picture of the workforce

An automated system of attendance and leave management ensures a clear idea of what resources are available on a daily basis – i.e. who’s working and who isn’t (including anyone who’s “working” but isn’t putting in their full contracted hours).

Find out the top 10 HRMS modules to include in your requirements list using our free guide

Biometric attendance technology reduces (potentially to zero) the occurrence of buddy punching or other forms of time theft, including unpaid breaks. Consequently, not only is a more precise accounting of resources available, managers are able to plan better to employee absences due to vacation.

Furthermore, knowing who has worked when means much more accurate payroll and compensation calculation. With no manual data input, the likelihood of error is significantly reduced and thus employee satisfaction is less likely to take a hit.

Better compliance

Legislation and procedures are constantly changing and it’s all too easy as a business to be out of date on your information gathering and recordkeeping, possibly risking a federal penalty or sanction. Including vacation tracking in your HR automation ensures that employees are paid properly, accounting for time off (both paid and unpaid) and the appropriate taxes are withheld and then paid.

This improved accuracy of accounting also results in more accurate payroll (as mentioned above) and this, in turn, reduces the level of employee complaints and potential lawsuits for incorrect or non-payment.

What’s more, a clear record of attendance can be used to prove that, where necessary, you’re complying with relevant health and safety legislation by having the right number of employees on-site in the right roles.

Better for the environment

Finally, think of the planet! Any process that you automate, switching to an HRMS from a paper-based system, is greener. You save on office space (no need to store bulky paper records) and resources and the cloud-based format of the information in the system is easily accessed, shared, and transferred, as necessary.

As part of a wider time and attendance suite of functions, employee vacation tracking offers clear benefits beyond just checking individuals show up for work on time.