Top 10 Leave Management System Features Every Business Needs
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Managing leave without a leave management system is a nightmare. But why is that?
Manually calculating leave requests, approvals and balances opens the door to errors, compliance issues and a whole lot of wasted time. This is why companies invest in a system to automate the process.
When it comes to choosing a leave management system, there are all kinds of features and functionalities to consider. This variety can be a great thing, but it can also get overwhelming to determine which leave management systems features are essential, nice-to-haves, or not worth it for your organization.
If you were to ask ten different companies what the most important leave management system features are, odds are you’d get 10 different answers.
So how do you decide which ones to prioritize?
To make things easier, we’ve put together a list of 10 key features, along with their benefits, to help you decide.
Let’s get right into it!
Key leave management system features
Customization capabilities
You deserve to use a leave management system that’s as unique as your business. No two companies are the same. So why should their leave tracking methods be?
Customization is an important leave management system feature to consider. Your team will be able to get the most out of the software only if they feel like it is theirs, and a fully customizable tool can help with this.
Make sure that the tool supports allows you to customize leave policies, leave types, user leave quotas, department, and locations to your heart’s content. A tool like Vacation Tracker gives you full flexibility to design a leave management system that works for you. This way, you create the perfect leave tracker for your organization.
Simplified leave management workflow
This is an obvious one. Your leave tracking software should make requesting and approving leave feel effortless. Having a simple, straightforward leave request and approval process is one of the most crucial leave management system features.
Before committing to a tool, test it out. Check how effortlessly employees can schedule their time off and how efficiently managers can handle requests. A clunky system will only add to your workload, not reduce it.
With Vacation Tracker, users enjoy one-click leave requests and automated approvals, streamlining the process from start to finish. Plus, administrators can manage everything from the centralized Dashboard, ensuring full visibility and smooth communication at all times.
Automated accruals
All HR managers know the pain of manually sorting through employee data to calculate possibly the hardest thing of all time: PTO accruals.
Depending on where you’re located, your company may have daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly accruals, which makes it even harder to calculate. Now just imagine if the pain of sorting through hours of employee data and mindless number crunching is replaced by just a few clicks on your computer. Just imagine.
Integration with tech stack
A leave management system is already a game changer but imagine how seamless it could be if it could be if it integrated directly with your current software.
One of the most useful leave management system features is integration to eliminate unnecessary steps and keep everything in one place. You’ll want to be able to sync your software with popular tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, or even your work email.
Vacation Tracker was originally built for Slack with a clear goal in mind: To make leave tracking a seamless part of your day-to-day operations. We eliminate unnecessary steps by integrating directly into your favorite applications so you can achieve everything from one workspace with one login.
Shared employee leave calendar
You might find this to be one of your favorite leave management system features if you like the old-fashioned way of doing things. A dedicated employee leave calendar is a visually pleasing way of organizing scheduled leave information for everyone to see.
Most times this is also color-coded so you can get all the information you need, in just a quick glance. Did someone say work smart, not hard? Because that’s exactly what you’ll be doing! Furthermore, you can also integrate this with your favorite external calendar of choice. iCal, Outlook, Google Calendar — you name it, they have it.
Personal profiles
Do you ever find yourself planning your dream vacation when you’re at work? It’s all fun and games until you realize you literally have no idea about how many vacation days you have used this year. Or days rolled over from last year. Hell, even days that you’ve accrued so far.
That’s exactly why having individual user profiles is an incredibly important leave management system feature. Individual user profiles give your employees a chance to easily keep track of their leave quota, leave history, any pending leave requests sent, and much more. The list goes on.
Centralized cloud-based platform
You’ve heard of self-service checkouts that enable customers to scan items, pay for them, and walk out on their own. Well, in a sense, that’s exactly what you want from your leave management software too.
A central Dashboard that can be accessed from anywhere makes it easy for your employees to manage their leave, no matter where they are. Since all this data is stored in the cloud, they won’t have to be confined to their desks and can instead book and track their PTO on the go!
What’s even better is that most leave management systems are mobile-friendly, meaning your employees can use a tool like Vacation Tracker to book their leaves from the device of their choice.
Scheduled leave reporting
Wouldn’t it be great if a leave management system could make the monthly report you dread making and send it to your boss at the touch of a button? Good news: An advanced leave management system can do exactly that!
Instead of wasting hours collecting data, and compiling reports from different supervisors to generate a single report, you could automate the entire process instead.
Yes, you read right. It really is this easy. That is exactly what makes this a non-negotiable leave management system feature to have.
Vacation Tracker's built-in reporting feature allows users to generate and export reports as CSV or Excel files at the touch of a button. Just choose the recipients and the time you’d like the reports to be sent. We’ll take care of the rest!
Intuitive interface
Chances are if you’re in HR (or even if you’re not) that your life is busy enough. Between juggling countless work calls, meetings, deadlines, and more, who has time to onboard and train employees on using a leave management system?
That’s why it’s essential to look for a leave management system with a user-friendly interface. If your software of choice is intuitive enough for your least tech-savvy employee to use, onboarding your team will be effortless. And remember, the easier something is to use, the more likely everyone will want to use it.
Why your business needs a leave management system
Let’s be honest: you have better things to do than manage your company’s leave. You need a system that will take care of it for you, so you can focus on more strategic initiatives.
Ultimately, a leave management system is a powerful tool that can supercharge and transform your company’s leave tracking processes forever. Finding one with the right combination of features will be key to finding the best solution for your business.
That’s where we come in.
Ready to benefit from these features? (And more!)
Say hello to your new leave management assistant!
Vacation Tracker is a leave management solution that helps you request, approve and manage leaves in just a few simple clicks. With our tool, you can:
- keep your team informed with daily/weekly notifications
- create different locations
- set up leave policies
- configure multiple leave types according to the needs of your organization
- and much more!
Want to see all the leave management system features listed on this page live in action? For free? Then sign up for our free trial today. You won’t regret it!
Easy PTO tracking, right at your fingertips.
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Claudia
Claudia is an experienced marketer with a passion for writing and creating engaging content that connects with readers.