Avoid Vacation Conflicts So Everyone Enjoys Their Time Off
Different industries have different busy seasons, but summertime is the universal vacation time. Plans for employees to get away can make work schedules challenging as the rest of the team covers for the vacationing colleague. If a serious gap occurs, temporary resources may need to be brought in.
Employees tend to have target getaway dates well before the summer rush. They just need to share those with the company. To avoid conflicts as much as possible, your PTO policy should include guidelines for requests be made in plenty of time for the necessary planning.
Your PTO policy also should clearly communicate how much paid time new employees can take off, how soon after they’re hired they can take it, and how much additional time is accrued according to what schedule. If summer is the company’s busy season, the policy should explain how work assignments and staffing will impact PTO approvals.
Making these policies clear upfront, and reminding employees that the time is available will help with vacation planning. A shared work calendar is another important tool to facilitate planning for both employees and the company. The more transparency, the better.
Scheduling, Simplified
The best tool for an organization’s time management is a full-featured Human Capital Management (HCM) platform. By integrating every aspect of a company’s relationship with its employees, operations can hum with minimal administrative friction. This lets the company put time management and tracking at the heart of the business as needed.
This, in turn, helps speed payroll on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and facilitates shift scheduling daily. And when summer rolls around, a shared calendar enables the synchronization of PTO, harmonizing employees’ plans with the demands of the workload. PTO requests and approvals can be made with one click.
Scheduling software that includes a PTO calendar helps managers make informed decisions about PTO approvals. They can see where there may be gaps in either coverage or required skill sets. If they see issues ahead, managers can negotiate with employees to minimize or eliminate any falloff in work volume or quality.
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Request a CallThe Best Service is Self-Service
Most employees want to do the right thing and often feel guilty about taking time away from work. The second most cited reason for not taking PTO is “self-imposed pressures,” including concern about how they’ll be perceived by their manager. But utilizing PTO is important for several reasons.
Employee burn-out is real and serves no one. Companies have recognized this for a long time; it’s the reason PTO is a thing. PTO policies can influence recruitment and are a signal to candidates about the company’s culture. PTO accruals can also be a financial liability. Better for employees to take their time off than to put the company on the hook for thousands of dollars that may come due at a bad time.
An HCM designed with employee self-service enables employees to check PTO balances and even project those balances for their vacation planning. This empowerment is gratifying, and signals trust in your employees. Since company policies can be loaded into an HCM to serve as rules for how the software performs calculations, any back-and-forth between employees and management is minimized.
This also helps employees feel the PTO is theirs to control. The automated routing for approval feels more like a routine ecommerce transaction than a workflow process. The less friction there is in the process, the more likely employees will make use of it. Summertime goes more smoothly and everybody wins.
Backstops and Back-Fills
When the beach, lakes and mountains are calling, it is not uncommon for companies to find themselves short-handed during the summer months. That’s when utilizing an HCM can pay dividends.
With PTO tracking, scheduling, job descriptions, and recruitment tools part of the same system, managers can more easily identify and fill any gaps. If necessary, they can reach out to HR to find temporary help to fill in during summer vacation season. This helps prevent employee burnout as well as loss of productivity – a win-win for everyone!
Namely Workforce Management: Because Time is Money
An HCM platform that provides the tools you need to keep the office humming pays dividends every day, not just when vacation season rolls around. Advanced Scheduling and Advanced Time Tracking – including PTO – are just some of the features that plug employees into the workflow through Namely Workforce Management (WFM).
Namely’s HCM platform is designed specifically for small and mid-sized businesses. With the guidance of its parent company, Vensure Employer Solutions – one of the largest privately-held HR technology and services companies in the world – Namely brings a unique understanding of real-world usage to the product.
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