A lot of complexities go into managing employee absences. The HR department needs to stay on top of paperwork with all the reports, claims, and support for returning to work, all while ensuring the company is compliant with state and federal legislation. To make it worse, their work needs to be flawlessly coordinated with other departments and systems. This results in prioritizing the company processes over the welfare of employees, in which case everyone suffers.
However, that needn’t be the case. The simplest solution is installing absence management software.
What Is Absence Management Software?
Absence management software helps employers track the attendance and absence of their employees. Usually, this system is integrated with the leave management system, which tracks paid time off (PTO), scheduling, and payroll. Employees can also directly log in attendance or request time off using this software. They can also update their employers about urgent absence leaves.
By doing so, employers won’t have to waste time on every late or absent employee and inquire about their circumstances. Moreover, this system automatically documents employee attendance records all year long, which will be a great help in complying with US federal laws. Managing employee absences can be easy with the right software. Here’s some examples:
Key Features of Absence Tracking Software
There are multiple benefits to adopting an absence management system in the workplace. Although the features may change according to the software you use, you can generally enjoy the following:
1. Streamline the Absence Tracking System
As previously mentioned, the biggest benefit to using this software is streamlining the absence tracking of employees. As the management team of TeamSense explains, the software is quite easy to navigate; all that is required is for the employee to log in and send their employer a text message. This will directly alert the employer about the absence, which will enable them to allocate work accordingly. The message will also be delivered to HR so they can automatically document employee absences.
2. Reporting Attendance
On normal working days, an employee can document their attendance by logging into the software. The system will track attendance online to the minute, reporting whether they were on time, late, or absent.
3. Automatic or Manual Time Tracking
Since employees will also log off using the system, accurate working hours will be documented. These reports will give both employees and employers insight into their productivity and strong work ethics. You can also use a free timesheet app for time tracking.
However, this feature works best if turned on before starting on specific tasks, after which a timer will track time. If an employee remains inactive for some time, the system will send a pop-up to confirm whether they are still working or have gone on a break. There’s also an automatic timer feature that runs as soon as the employee starts their computer, which can come in handy in case of forgetting to turn on the timer manually.
4. Viewing Screencasts
In case the employer wants to confirm their employees’ productivity, they can use the screencast feature. This feature enables them to view screencasts of the employees’ monitors at random times. By doing so, employees become more conscious of their work, so they’ll be less likely to give in to distractions during work hours. However, the employer should still respect employee privacy by deleting or blurring screencasts containing sensitive information, like personal contact information or passwords.
5. Creating Work Schedules
Manually creating spreadsheets to allocate workload can be terribly time-consuming. Even more so, adjusting the schedule according to urgent absences can make any manager hate their jobs. Luckily, many absence tracking software programs enable employers to create and edit their employees’ work schedules seamlessly in a way that ensures no employee is overworked.
6. Compiling Real-Time Analytics
The best way to optimize performance is by analyzing the work trends. However, generating these reports is easier said than done when attendance is tracked manually, or not tracked at all. That’s when attendance management software saves the day.
This software keeps track of everything in the workplace, so all you’ll need to do is download the report you want to generate. You’ll find any report you need, starting from activity summary reports to projects and tasks, timelines, hours tracked, or web & app usage reports.
7. Integration with Other Platforms
Although you can use the software independently, its edge really shines when it’s integrated into other platforms you normally use. Most of these programs have add-ons or extensions that can be downloaded in Chrome, Slack, or other team coordination programs. This makes streamlining the tracking process easier for everyone.
8. Other Features
The features you get will largely depend on the software of choice. In addition to the previous features, you may find the following ones:
- Customizing employee policies
- Employees can have access to view other available employees
- A central place to access all tasks and workflows
- Automating payroll
- Log-in using biometrics or QR codes
- Filter projects using tags, per user, or per department
- Tracking GPS location
- Tracking remote work hours
Benefits of Using Absence Management Software
The benefits of using absence management software are infinite, both for employers and employees.
Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of this software is ensuring compliance with state and federal legislation, but that’s not all. By using this software, employers can streamline the absence management system. This automated process saves a lot of working hours for HR and managers.
Moreover, the system allows employees to submit their circumstances, enabling the employer to understand their employees better, take note of absence trends, and tailor the absence programs according to employees’ needs. The result is increased employee welfare, which will definitely reflect on their work ethics, productivity, and loyalty.
Absence management software is a great tool to maintain a direct line of communication between employers, HR, and employees; a more sustainable and reliable workflow can be established to effectively stay on top of daily situations and tasks without having to burn energy and time trying to reach different people or departments. It gives the employees a chance to express their needs and explain their circumstances. For the employer, it allows them to tailor to their employees’ needs while safeguarding their business. All in all, absence management software is an excellent friend to have in the workplace.