If you’re a global company, it is of paramount importance that the tools and systems you use can handle the robust demands of all your employees globally. Failing to meet these demands with effective systems can have a negative knock-on effect. This can range from a drop in employee motivation due to systems that are not fit for purpose, to inaccurate absence reporting that can make planning resources for the month ahead of the pain.
One of these systems that is a must for businesses with locations spread across the globe is absence management. But there is an issue with this. Most businesses have no idea of what a global absence management system should be able to do.
A truly global system should be able to work and report on absence in any country, increase visibility across the whole business, and improve efficiency for everyone using it.
Adapt holiday and sickness rules according to location
It sounds simple, but this is something that not many absence management software providers do well. Holiday and sickness laws vary from country to country and adjustments need to be made within your system to account for these differences.
For example, it is a legal requirement in Hungary that employees take all their holiday days each year, pretty awesome right? This means an absence management system will need to be able to enforce this. We think more countries should adopt this law to improve employee wellbeing, but that is unlikely to happen anytime soon so if you are looking for other ways to improve employee wellbeing check out our 7 Best Employee Wellness Programs.
Deliver accurate data on employee absence on a global scale
Employee absence is something that all organizations need to report on to ensure that they can plan for the months ahead. A global absence management system should easily allow you to report on your employee data accurately, regardless of their location. To do this, all your employees will need to be engaged through one unified absence management software that’s used throughout your organization.
If reporting on absence is something that you feel isn’t particularly a strong point of your HR tech stack why not check out how Edays can help through our blog – six ways to leverage absence data in your business.
Increase visibility across multi-regional teams
A common problem that we come across is the lack of visibility across teams in global organizations. This is because in some instances internal teams will be multi-regional and span across multiple locations, leading to complex holiday approval chains that many absence management software vendors are simply unable to cater to.
Global absence management software should allow teams to share their calendars with those that require access. Doing this will help facilitate better planning and collaboration, as well as simplifying these holiday approval chains that can often make a holiday booking a pain in the back! Booking a holiday should be a pleasant experience, not a painful one.
Increase administrative efficiency (automated where possible)
When it comes to administrative tasks, a truly global absence management system should make the lives of HR professionals easier and save them time. It can do this by automating feeds into its HR tech stack, whether it’s an HR system, payroll system, or time and attendance system. This will save HR professionals time manually copying their absence data into the other systems they use.
Linking back to our previous point on adapting to holiday and sickness laws according to location, this process should be automated and apply these rules within the system automatically. Whether you are based in the UK and need to be fully compliant against the UK regulations, or have a small office in the Netherlands and need to ensure you are compliant against the Dutch regulations. From an absence compliance standpoint, there is nothing to worry about.
And there’s more…
- Unlimited absence types: Fully configured to defined local rules
- Entitlement schemes: Localised for employee groups, individuals, and accruals
- Flexible work patterns: Predefined or customer patterns (weekly, monthly, etc.)
- Complex organizational structures: Country, department, and more
- Multiple languages
- Global and local reporting: Report builders, files, folders, and dashboards
- Shared visibility: Group calendars and custom permissions
In a nutshell, a full global absence management system should do one thing… make the lives of all your employees, no matter where they are based, easier. Especially if you are a large organization looking to grow and thrive internationally!
Want to see a truly global absence management system in action? Book your demo with e-days today.