Showing posts with label leave cloud system. Show all posts

5 TimeTec Leave Features You Never Thought You Need Them Until You Do




Employee Leave Management is an important aspect in the Human Resource Department particularly businesses that require labor intensive industries such as manufacturing, retail, and services. For the management of employee leave, not only that Human Resources has to ensure the leave allowance details to be accurate at all times without compromising on the employees’ leave eligibility and compliance; they also need to keep on adjusting the overall leave balance to match with all the ongoing leave applications, approvals, rejections and etc, that have been submitted by the employees all year long. Nevertheless, no matter how complex the management of leave can be, those features are still the basics of any Employee Leave Management. Regardless of whether your Human Resource Department is still practising paper form application method or they have moved on to a more modern tool to manage employee leave, those features mentioned above need to be readily available and have to produce the correct outcome at all times. 

However, on top of the basic features, Human Resources also needs to know that there are features you never thought available or useful until the time you need them.

TimeTec Leave is a cloud-based employee leave management system designed to incorporate all features that a leave system should have as well as make them available on Mobile App and Web Application for added convenience. Cloud-based system definitely is a better choice when it comes to data collection, data centralization, data security and data management. In addition to providing crucial features, TimeTec Leave also presents 5 added features that might come handy to various organization and their Human Resource Department. Let’s explore those features.

Replacement Leave
This is a unique leave management feature whereby a company agrees to replace work hours with a replacement leave day instead of monetary pay. For example, a staff is required to work on a weekend for 8 hours and instead of paying the employee with salary, the staff is eligible to apply for a one day replacement annual leave. However, the application and approval is subject to the company’s leave policy and it has to comply with the labor law of the land. This feature might not be relevant to all industries but for selected industries like training and services, Replacement Leave is a sought-after feature.

Replacement Credit information for user

Restricted Leave Display Overview 
There are various types and sizes of organizations out there, and some practise transparency while some others prefer to keep certain things private. Therefore, in TimeTec Leave, the application offers a feature known as Restricted Leave Display Overview, where a company can choose whether everybody can view everybody’s leave in the Calendar or only the relevant Department is allowed to view their department’s leave details. For companies who choose to view by department, the information will thus not be available to other departments.

Leave Overview displaying leave information for all staff

Leave Restriction
In principle, employer cannot prohibit an employee from taking a leave if the employee do not break any rules or company policy. However, a company can restrict leave application during peak season or crunch period to maintain optimum operation. Hence, TimeTec Leave offers another feature known as Leave Restriction, where the company can restrict the number of users that can apply for a certain leave type within a certain period of time. For example, an admin can set a maximum of 10 staff who can apply for an annual leave in January 2019. Therefore, when this feature is set, the 11th applicant will not be permitted to apply for annual leave using the system. You probably thought you’d never going to use this feature? Think again.

Admin can set daily limit for specific leave type, for specific department


Leave Reminder
Who wouldn’t remember the leave that they have taken? You’d be surprise that many would or the fact that superiors approve the leave applications without paying attention to details. The purpose of this feature is to remind employees on their upcoming leave and at the same time it is intended to inform their superior that they are taking the leave to ensure that replacements have been properly placed as not to disturb the operation. This reminder feature can be set to a maximum of 3 times. E.g: 7 days, 3 days and 1 day before the leave date.

Example of email notification for leave reminder

Leave Attachment
This feature serves the company and Human Resource Department in two ways. One is to provide instant proof and second is to attach the proof to the correct data at all times. There are certain leave types which require proof such as sick leave = MC slip, compassionate leave = death certificate, marriage leave = married certificate, and etc. By having a feature that can tie all these attachments to the corresponding leave type, it is simply amazing and time saving.


So, if you haven’t heard this great Leave Management solution: TimeTec Leave, head over to www.timetecleave.com to get your trial account. Download the matching app TimeTec Leave on iOS or Android and experience the convenience first hand. We would be happy to assist you in adopting this system, email your concerns to us at info@timeteccloud.com
Blog

Role of Line Managers in Absence Management



Who are line managers?

 As with many other terms used in business, this can be a commonly heard but not so clearly defined term. However, for our purpose, we’re referring to those who are supervising frontline workers on a daily basis so you can also call them direct managers. These are the people with a significant influence over the staff and achievement of your regular business activities, whether it’s providing service to a customer, selling your products or even running a factory’s production line.  

 Depending on their workplace, line managers can have a large role in staff administration, as their duties usually include supervising work, staff motivation and engagement, performance management and disciplinary procedures.

 Improving Absence of Employees

 In this daily task of managing people and their performance, one of the issues they will inevitably have to address is employees’ absence. While staff taking days off for various reasons is expected routine, line managers will usually be concerned about unscheduled absences, especially if they occur regularly. A typical example is sickness absence, where the manager will be forced to make arrangements for changing shifts, searching for replacements or negotiating deadlines. Having to deal with this constantly will surely impact a team’s productivity. 

 So what can they do to mitigate this absence? In an advisory booklet provided by ACAS, the UK’s public advisory body for industrial relations, employers are recommended to tackle employee engagement, as it has found that the more employees are committed to their jobs, the less likely they are to be absent [1]. To improve staff commitment, measures proposed include providing good and safe physical working conditions, better job design, training, career development and emphasis on teamwork culture. 

 Overall, these are organizational level approaches and requires Human Resource (HR) intervention but a large part of implementing changes ultimately falls on the managers. Line managers are also essential in establishing good communication, as you need to consult the staff to work out these issues.

 Active Role in Monitoring and Managing Staff

 Another way these direct managers can contribute is by proactively monitoring and managing their staff’s sickness absence, a role that is traditionally within HR’s scope. In a poll of 339 employers done by Expert HR, it was found that most employers consider a line manager’s role as key to successful and effective absence management and in reducing both short- and long-term sickness absence [2].

 Those respondents generally believe that for short-term absences, line managers can reduce unnecessary sick leave through proactively measuring and managing the days off, using return-to-work interviews. Meanwhile, for those with long-term sickness, a managers’ role would be to keep in contact with the staff regularly in order to initiate any intervention and support options.

 Sharing Responsibility with Human Resources

 As mentioned earlier, the active personnel management role above is originally HR’s specialization. In recent years though, there’s a growing trend towards shifting HR’s personnel management work to line managers [3]. While there are both advantages as well as downsides to this strategy, what’s critical is that HR professionals need to provide adequate help to the managers who are given this role. Otherwise, the manager’s best intentions can be foiled by a host of problems. 

 For example, organizations can’t directly prescribe a policy for absence management and expect that line management practice will follow accordingly. There are many potential implementation kinks such as contradictory policy requirements, weakness in training and lack of specialist support that can undermine line managers’ efforts [4]. If they take a wrong approach, the managers also risk contravening anti-discrimination regulations.

 Some final points 

 As we consider what line managers can actually do in the face of absenteeism, we should take the following into account:

 * Is there a clearly worked out formal absenteeism policy and best practice guideline that covers all the necessary circumstances (e.g. what to do for employees absent due to long-term or critical illness and how to manage their return to work)

 * Where is the responsibility for personnel management- Centralised in HR or devolved to the line managers – Is that built into their performance ratings, job descriptions

 * When delegated to line managers, is there sufficient support available from internal and external specialists, especially HR and senior management 

 * Is there adequate training provided on how to handle situations with staff absenteeism

 * Are the managers empowered to make decisions 

 * Are there tools and information provided such as a recording and leave management system to monitor absences and identify problems

 For the list above, you could start to fulfill by entrusting the right people to formulate strategies or policies that best suit your organization. There’s no easy solution though and at the end of the day, actual implementation is possibly the trickiest part of this. How should we expect the managers to monitor attendance of each staff and identify absenteeism issues while also coping with all other demands on their time? 

 By deploying an automated leave management system like TimeTec Leave, you could be giving them the best tool to achieve this. Some of the features offered that could help your line managers include:

 An automated system that eliminates the need for manual applications, approvals and forms submissions to the HR for processing - Picture saving the time that line managers have to spend on processing, tracking and filing the application forms. This may seem minor but if they supervise a large team, it will all add up to a heavy task.
Everything is done from a smartphone

 Cloud-based leave system comes with multi-user access that is available worldwide to help maximize benefit from the information - Line managers can easily access and view real-time leave information and reports so that they can proactively measure and manage their teams’ days off. As previously mentioned, to actually enforce an absenteeism policy can be a real challenge, given there are time constraints. Without ready access to past records, it’s difficult for a manager to keep track and identify if there are any absenteeism issues that should be addressed or provide feedback on this matter during performance appraisals. At the same time, users also get fair access to their own balances and records so they can be more accountable for their absences. Leave records will no longer be contained solely for HR’s access where it provides limited benefit for management.
The Calendar provides line managers with the overview of their teams instantly 

All leave details are available without errors or mismanagement

Leave Overview displays calendar for information sharing - This is another convenient feature for people who work together in groups. Line managers can at least control their team’s scheduled days off (e.g. annual leave) so they usually need to take care while approving such leaves and ensure that there are sufficient people remaining in case of emergencies. To cater to that, we provide a Leave Overview so that managers can view the exact number of approved off-duty users so far for an upcoming day. Even if they can’t prevent staff shortages (e.g. holiday period), they can make plans to prepare once there are confirmed dates. In addition, before managers schedule important events or negotiate deadlines, they could also benefit from having such staff availability information while making plans. On the flip side, the staff themselves can use this for planning their leaves and minimize clashing dates so that there are higher chances of successful applications. 

    
Get the information right and plan your leave accordingly


System Roles & Admin function allows you to appoint user(s) as Admin that is given rights only over selected divisions - Direct managers can be assigned as Admin over their own team/division and therefore be allowed to view records and leave balances only for the staff under them. They will not be able to view users that are in other divisions so that proper authority is maintained. Moreover, they also have the flexibility to apply for leaves on behalf of their team members, e.g. when there is an emergency/user has no access to the internet. 
Manage leave approvals of your company easily and correctly

Assigned relevant managers to deal with leave approvals for their teams

Leave Restriction & Crunch time features can be used to manage staff availability and restrict absences during critical periods - When line managers are preparing for upcoming peak/critical work periods, e.g. Product launch event or production peaks, they can set a crunch time in the system to alert everyone and block their subordinates’ leaves for that particular period or use a restriction to limit the number of people that can take the day off. Likewise, if there are staff shortages due to any employee being away on a long-term sickness, managers can use the crunch time feature to temporarily block leave days for the rest of the team until alternative arrangements can be made.   
Be transparent and notify employees of the crunch time to maintain smooth operation



Let’s not stop there. You can also further complement TimeTec Leave with TimeTec TA, our cloud-based Time & Attendance system that automates scheduling and attendance management:  Systematically create and update clocking schedules and user’s duty roster - TimeTec TA will make it easier for line managers to systematically make changes to work shifts, reassign or loan staff from other teams or slot in part-time workers into the team’s roster in the event one of their staff doesn’t turn up for work. What’s more, they can do this anytime online and the changes will be updated instantly in staff duty roster. This helps to keep an official trail of workforce changes and also ease HR’s task of maintaining accurate records for payroll, allowance and costing purposes.
Knowing your work schedule can make you plan for better leave

Roster overview of all employees is always available online on TimeTec TA

Maintain online Duty Roster and send Notification to users if there are changes in Roster - In the previous point, we already mentioned that managers can make instant changes to staff’s Duty Roster. In addition, not only does the staff get to view these latest changes to their working calendar once they log in to mobile app or web, there is also a Notification feature that ensures staff doesn’t miss out on updates. Take advantage of this to automatically send an email and mobile notifications and keep everyone on the same page.



Overtime application and approval are available on both mobile and web application - More often than not, if one team member is taking unscheduled days off, urgent work needs to be picked up by the other staff. This can easily translate into overtime hours and additional shifts. Within TimeTec TA, if you set up overtime rules, managers that request for their staff to take on the extra work can also formally approve their overtime applications so that they receive a fair compensation for this. This helps to maintain that commitment and teamwork we’ve been talking about while the authorization will satisfy payroll requirements.   


View Attendance data and provide flexibility with GPS clocking feature - By using TimeTec Leave bundled with the TA solution, besides just managing absences for all their staff, direct managers will also get to view their complete attendance records and check for additional issues such as tardiness. Managers who need to supervise mobile staff out on fieldwork also gets to use the mobile GPS clocking feature we provide in the system. In order to verify that the staff is physically there at various work sites, they can set requirements for these employees to clock attendance while utilizing their phone’s GPS location services.


You don’t have to just take our word for it. Open an account today for TimeTec Leave & TimeTec TA, and you can try for yourself the convenience of automated Leave and Attendance Management. Besides a 30-day free trial for both solutions, we’ll also provide you with 10 user licenses free for life, so don’t hesitate to visit our site to check this out now.

REFERENCES
1. ACAS Organisation, (2014). Advisory booklet - Managing attendance and employee turnover. p.11.
2. Paton, N. (2016). Line Manager is key to a return to work after sickness absence. Occupational Health & Wellbeing, 68 (4), p.4. 
3. Perry, EL. and Kuhlik CT. (2008). The devolution of HR to the line: implications for perceptions of people management effectiveness. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19 (2), pp. 262 – 273.
4. Cunningham, I., James, P. and Dibben, P. (2004). Bridging the gap between rhetoric and reality: line managers and the protection of job security for ill workers in the modern workplace. British Journal of Management, 2004; 15 (3), pp. 273 - 290.


Absenteeism

Improve Poor Leave Management with Cloud-Based Leave Solution



The subject of employee leave management is something that the management takes for granted because the assumption now is that the HR knows best. Even though HR might know the process of employee leave management, the compliance it requires, the math of the accrual calculation, and etc but when it comes down to processing a large number of employee leave during busy months without having a proper leave management system; things could possibly go wrong and easily cost the company dearly.

Additionally, the use of manual or semi automatic system to handle employee leave management could also be causing various problems such as:

• Mismatch in leave balances due to human errors. One factor causing this is when the accrual is NOT properly and timely calculated because relevant data such as years of service and the dates of leave taken are not centralized. Another, is when the leave taken has not been updated timely by the HR personnel.
• Failure of HR to update any changes in leave policy on time that may cause a mix up in the overall leave management.
• Approval of leaves is carried out without superiors having sufficient information about the company’s requirements and this could spell disaster if the company is working on a deadline that requires key people to execute the plan.
• Increased payroll errors due to unaccounted leave transactions which could lead to a legal problem, if it is not being rectified properly.
• Employee disengagement due to frustration and lack of trust in the way the management and the HR handle employee affairs.

Automation of leave management through cloud-based application is the solution and it can bring about numerous advantages to today’s business because it will not only solve the above-mentioned predicaments, it also lifts a lot of the burden off the HR’s shoulders so they can focus on other important matters such as empowering the workforce through talent building, retention program, retraining program and many more.

Deployment of a cloud-based leave solution is advantageous to various companies of all sizes because the implementation cost is lower, the system feasibility is amazing and data security is second to none. With cloud-based solution, the company does not need to invest in expensive hardware as the maintenance is automatic, updates/upgrades are often and timely, and the usage is easy with Web and App thus making it available at all times for both admins and users.

Generally, there are two parts of leave management that needs to be automated by a  system. Firstly is the system settings and secondly is the approval process. Every company has its own leave policy which serves the best of company’s interests and at the same time it needs to comply with the country’s labor law. By having a system that takes care of the policy settings from the get go, once and for all, and applicable to all employees, HR doesn’t need to constantly check on the compliance regarding both areas. Once the policies have been set up properly, the application and the approval process is a breeze.

No more worries about leave balance accuracy or having to deal with absences of key employees during crunch time because everything will be handled automatically. Automated leave management such as TimeTec Leave provides a Mobile App that enables employee leave management to be carried out on the go through iOS and Android smartphones with the results being always accurate.

A lot of problems can be solved instantly through the deployment of a proper and automated leave management; not to mention the benefit it contributes to the environment with its paperless system. Automated cloud-based leave management system like TimeTec Leave is also transparent to employees thus bringing about positive employee engagement overall.

Don’t be stubborn by staying with the old way even when it’s causing a lot of unnecessary stress and burden on your HR staffs. Shift to the cloud-based leave management solution for better workforce management!
leave cloud system

Curbing Sick Leave Exploitation



If you happen to study your company sick leave application pattern, the spike will most likely be found on Mondays and Fridays. The reason is simple, because those two days lead to a longer weekend. The sudden disappearance of workers is also observed during school holidays and summer vacation period.

Unscheduled absence in the workplace is not something business should treat casually because it leads to lost in productivity and money. According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index surveyed 94,000 workers across 14 major occupations in the U.S. Of the 77% of workers who fit the survey's definition of having a chronic health condition (asthma, cancer, depression, diabetes, heart attack, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or obesity), the total annual costs related to lost productivity totaled $84 billion.  This figure is a fraction of all the sick leave applied by employees including the genuine and the abused ones.

It’s rather tricky for employers to suspect/accuse employees of abusing sick leave because most of the time employees can produce medical certification obtained from clinics. Be careful as to not be harsh in asking for explanation, as this could cause staff disengagement that will further put the company at a disadvantage. Rather, your company should think about creating a clear and concise company attendance policy that can nip the problem in the bud.

The attendance policy should address on tardiness issues, for example the number of absences observed from an employee, number of times coming in late, and number of early departures. The attendance policy should also tackle those who fail to get permission for leaving early or coming in late; fail to give advance notice of an absence when possible; fail to report an absence properly; and fail to submit medical certification upon request. When the employees know that the company does not take unscheduled absences lightly, the tendency of them abusing the sick leave could be reduced.

You also need to spend some time analyzing your company’s sick leave abuse trend and identify employees who happen to be in the spike more often than the others. What type of sickness are these employees usually have and take sometimes to schedule a meeting with them to understand more about their health status. Annual health check can also be initiated to get an idea of the overall health status of the workforce. Company can also create a program to curb sick leave abuse through positive reinforcement such as providing monetary reward to those who rarely take sick leave. Finding the root cause of sick leave abuse problems helps in addressing the core issues. If you find that sick leave abuse does happen in your company, it is recommended that the company offers them counseling or refer them to employee assistance program to rectify the matter once and for all.
leave cloud system

Discover the Easy Ways to Tackle Employee Leave



Taking leave from work is pretty awesome but for human resources in charge of managing employee leave, the task can be daunting and cumbersome especially in busy and festive month like December. The more employees you have, the tougher the job becomes. Avoid this administrative nightmare by deploying a feasible modern solution that could help you manage your workforce leave and maintain a productive workplace. A good leave management solution must let you:

1. Be clear about your company’s leave policies
Outline clear leave policies for everyone to adhere to. Define your leave policies and make them available for all employees as soon as they are onboard. How do you set your leave policies? Here are some pointers:

  • Leave Types: Define the different types of leaves your company provides and the allocation in days. For example annual leave at 12 days, sick leave 6 days, maternity leave 60 days, and etc. You can also create your own, if you wish to.
  • Accruals: Be clear about the rules of leave allocation. How many leave days do employees get each year by default? How long do they have to serve the company before they deserve additional leave allocation? When will the accrual be calculated? If the employees don’t use all their allocated leaves, how many days can be carried over to the following year?
  • Approval: An early “heads up” is always good. Specify how long in advance do you need your employees to notify their superiors for leave approval process. This would provide enough time allowance to work on other arrangements if needed, during the absence of a certain employees.

2. Determine observed holidays and possible peak working weeks from the get go! 
2018 has just started and it is important for any company to mark the calendar for observed holidays and determine the possible peak time for the company’s operation.  Set a limit for leave applications during these crucial times, set the crunch time and block any leave application during these time if necessary to ensure smooth operation and most importantly to avoid dissatisfaction coming from your employees.

3. Transparency is key to employee engagement
Now that your leave system is set, provide access to your employee to view their own leave information. Employees should be able to review their own set of leave balances and apply leave directly from the mobile app. With the information provided, it’s also easier for the employee to plan their leave for the whole year with company’s interest in mind.

Poor leave management or even worse, manual leave management can lead to frustrations from all parties involved if the matter is not taken care of properly. It’s time to automate leave management processes, set your rules and regulations, and let it runs automatically while giving you accurate outcome and balance at all times throughout the year. By having an amazing mobile app on leave management, it can further ease leave application and approval for both bosses/managers and employees.
employee leave

Embracing A Mobile-Centric Lifestyle



If people were to open a computer every time they want access to their Facebook account or Instagram or Gmail, many people will instead prefer to talk to each other. In 2017,smartphones have become universal, crucial and ubiquitous in the lives of many, simply because phones are now not merely a tool for people to connect to someone, these gadgets are being used for a variety of tasks including but are not limited to information findings, tracking of progress, tracking of locations, playing games, keeping photo albums, and the truth is, the possibilities are endless as we head into the future. In January 2017, there were 2.2 million apps available in the Apple Store while Android offers a whopping 2.8 million apps ready to be downloaded into the smartphones. Ask any question and I’m sure there is an app for you out there. You always forget to drink your daily dose of water? Download a drink water app that reminds you to drink water regularly. You want to keep a diet diary, have at it. You want to make yourself taller, there is even a tall editor to feed your denial and fulfill your illusion. Basically, the app world has what you need and much more. 

I believe that smartphone hasn’t reached its maximum potential just yet.  Smartphone users should be aware that with the increase in the computing power of the smartphone and other technologies introduced alongside like BLE, NFC, Wifi, GPS, QR Code and many more, various other actions and transactions can be accomplished through the smartphone. Taking this development into account, the smartphones have not only been useful in taking care of personal matters but now they have also transcended into all aspects of our everyday living including managing our bank accounts and managing our jobs. 

 Online banking, for example, has been around for quite some time, however, banks have been striving to offer services on Mobile Application but with limited features. Of late, more and more features have been added to the app to increase customer's satisfaction and to serve consumers who do not own a personal computer. Movie tickets, hotel confirmations, flight tickets and much more are made mobile ready, no printing required. At the workplace, Mobile Applications have started to become a norm whereby employees can clock attendance through smartphones, offices can trace employee's’ whereabouts using GPS, view attendance data in real-time, and etc. Employee leave applications and approvals can be done through smartphones; making all transactions accurate, paperless, effective and traceable. The automation of leave management will enable human resource department to focus on other pressing matters at hand rather than to spend time calculating leave accruals according to staff’s service period and policy. The use of the application in the office promotes two-way communication between the management and the staff which will result in more positive engagement. 



For more cloud-based solutions for workforce industry, head over to http://www.timeteccloud.com

The use of smartphone does not only apply to a personal life or at the workplace anymore, it has now also become widespread across the community as well. i-Neighbour, for example, has led the way in combining cloud-based technology with IoT to offer modern communities with a mobile-centric lifestyle that uses a smartphone to manage visitor access as well as to gain access into many smart hardware such as smart boom gate, smart elevator, smart lock and many more. The main advantage of Mobile Application on top of convenience is its traceability, whereby nothing is lost in translations and transactions.

One might not be keen to embrace a mobile-centric lifestyle but I reckon, when the going gets tough, the mobile phenomenon will win because when life gets more dynamic; time and convenience matters. 
cheap cloud system
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)