Keeping track of holiday requests is a small part of business operations, but it takes up a lot more time than many companies realise. Inefficiencies in the leave management process can increase the workload of your managerial and HR staff, frustrate employees, and even lead to costly calendar clashes.
Keeping track of holiday requests is a small part of business operations, but it takes up a lot more time than many companies realise. Inefficiencies in the leave management process can increase the workload of your managerial and HR staff, frustrate employees, and even lead to costly calendar clashes.
When it comes to logging staff leave, is your firm under more strain than necessary? To help you understand how efficiently your company manages holiday requests – and where improvements can be made – take our quick quiz and rate your business:
Q1. How does your team currently submit holiday requests?
- Paper forms
- An online system
Q2. Is there a process in place for submitting and approving staff leave?
- No/it’s a work in progress
- There are guidelines but not all staff are aware of them or stick to them
- Yes, we have a clear process in place that works well
Q3. On average, how long does it currently take you to approve a holiday request?
- 4+ days
- 1-3 days
- Less than one working day
Q4. How often do staff have to chase their holiday request before it is approved or denied?
- Most of the time
- Some of the time
- Almost never
Q5. What happens after a holiday request is approved?
- Nothing/the individual employee just puts it in their diary
- The employee tells team members or puts it in their calendar
- Team members are automatically notified by our holiday management system
Q6. How many times in the past year have you been inconvenienced by certain team members being off at the same time?
- More than three
- Once or twice
- None
Q7. Do you record other types of absence – such as appointments and external meetings – as well as annual leave?
- No
- Yes but in a separate process/system to the way we manage holiday
- Yes, all types of leave are recorded in our holiday management system
Q8. Do you have a complete view of all holiday bookings for the rest of the year?
- No
- Yes, but I’m not confident that it’s up to date
- Yes
The results are in.
If you scored mostly A's: it sounds like your holiday management process is still very manual, which means it’s taking a lot more time, effort and energy than it should. It’s also hard for your workforce to see who’s off at any point in time, which can lead to diary conflicts or key team members booking leave at the same time.
Moving to an online leave management system as soon as possible will dramatically improve the way your company coordinates holiday requests, improving the process for everyone involved.
If you scored mostly B's: you’ve got a decent handle on who’s in or out of the office at any point in time, but you probably realise that there is room for improvement.
Integrating all your leave management activities through one central platform can make it quicker and easier to approve requests, and also provide an accurate overview of who is on leave at any point in time. This might be something you’ve had on your radar for a while; now it’s time to prioritise change.
If you scored mostly C's: sounds like you’ve invested in your leave management process and it’s running like a well-oiled machine. However, it’s important not to take your eye off the ball.
Make sure the online leave management platform you’re using can keep up with the demands placed on it as your business continues to grow. You may find it’s time for a change.
WhosOff: supporting staff leave management at every stage
Whether you fall into category A, B or C, WhosOff can help you to coordinate staff movements more effectively. Our online leave management system is simple enough to be used with minimal training yet sophisticated enough to control all types of absence through a single solution – so you can track all holiday requests in real-time alongside sickness, external meetings and other absences.
Our platform digitises the leave management process, automatically notifying managers and HR staff when new requests need approving, to speed up approval times and make controlling the holiday calendar much more sustainable.
Try WhosOff for free to see how our software manages staff leave more efficiently.
Photo by energepic.com from Pexels.com
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