Holiday management in the age of paperless working
The HR department is in contact with all employees to manage working arrangements. The issue of leave can lead to a lot of back and forth, even though there are simple solutions for managing it more effectively. Read all our advice on holiday management.
Taking leave: an obstacle course
Find out how much CP (paid leave) you have to your credit
Want to take some holiday? Let's get started. First you need to get hold of your last payslip. There, you need to find the figure showing your remaining holiday entitlement.
A two-stage application
Once your balance has been checked, you move on to the next stage: submitting your request to your manager. This can take the form of a paper document with a given outline, where you indicate the dates concerned, or more simply sending an e-mail to make the request. Once this formality has been completed, your manager will forward your request to the HR department or the person in charge of payroll.
Validation to be entered twice
For their part, HR check leave entitlements to validate the request and enter the details in their tracking file: dates, hours, etc. When it comes time to prepare the payroll, the person in charge summarises the various forms of leave taken and enters them into the payroll software. The leave taken line is then incremented and the remaining leave balance updated.
This traditional holiday management process requires several manual exchanges and entries. This makes the process even more laborious and increases the risk of management error.
A paperless portal to centralise information
There are various HR software packages available today that can simplify holiday management, especially for companies with employees working at different sites.
An intelligent solution so you don't forget anything
Employees submit their absence requests via the management software. The HR department then receives the request in the form of a contextualised form, showing the reason for the request, the applicant's absence quota, the CP already taken and the CP requested. At a glance, all the elements are brought together in the Zéphir management solution to validate or reject the absence. There's no longer any need to search for information and cross-check it, which saves a considerable amount of time.
What's more, the tool automates the flows: once validated, the absence is charged directly to the payroll software. Other specific features can also be configured, such as transport passes, luncheon vouchers and bonuses. You enter them once, then the tool suggests or reminds you of them. Connected to the calendar, the solution also takes public holidays into account. All these safeguards considerably reduce the number of oversights or data entry errors.
Sharing information for better organisation
There's an interesting link to be made between your HR software and your teams' project management. When a request for absence is validated, it is indicated on the activity schedule.
- The other members of the team can anticipate and organise themselves accordingly. If another member of the team was also planning to take a day off, they will have the information to avoid any overlap.
- The project manager has real-time visibility of everyone's availability and the resources allocated. They can organise their work more effectively.
A wall for exchanging information
Some management or ERP software packages offer a personalised reception area. This space, through which all users pass when they log on, can become a place for exchanges. With Zéphir, personalisation is individual. Each member of staff can display the information or layout they want on their "wall". For example, a sales rep who uses the expense report module very often can create a shortcut for himself, just as he would on his computer workstation.
This space is also ideal for facilitating internal communication within the company. In a more informal and highly effective way, you can post messages in the application that are closely or remotely related to your business. For example, if you plan to close the company for the 14 July bank holiday, you can use the "wall" to remind everyone to take a day off on the 15th.
Simpler, more efficient management
Using a common interface
The first thing is to provide employees, their managers and the HR department with the same interface. As a result
- exchanges are simpler
- the approval process is faster
- the information shared is clearer.
Sharing the same information
As well as managing paid leave electronically, this involves the entire employee career path. With management software like Zéphir, you can also enter your expense claims in the solution. In this way, HR or the person in charge of accounting has direct access to them so that they can reimburse you.
Within the same interface, you can manage annual reviews. Employees, managers and HR are informed of the date of the interview. The interface can also provide a history of previous interviews. There's also a facility for sending reminder emails before the date.
Access the solution wherever you are
SaaS (Software as a Service) HR software means that information can be shared in the cloud. This is invaluable, particularly for companies whose teams are based offshore. Despite the geographical distance, the employee has access to the same up-to-date information as the rest of the team.
A company, even a small one, quickly has many HR issues to manage. The use of dedicated tools means that leave can be managed more efficiently, both in terms of applying for and validating it, and in terms of informing project colleagues. Gone are the days of the leave sheet, replaced by dematerialisation and the real time savings and efficiencies it brings.
Article translated from French