You may think disaster is a rather strong term, but we’ve all been there. Having purchased a brand-new shiny piece of tech, thinking it would change our everyday lives, to then be bitterly let down when it all falls apart a few days later. This scenario is not only applicable to just personal gadgets and technology, but transitions into our everyday working lives as well.
There is nothing more aggravating for HR professionals than when the technology that was supposed to enhance their processes and empowers employees, fails to rise to expectations. Worst of all, you are contracted to use it for the next few years, a true disaster.
Fear not, it’s not all bad news. We have identified the most common problems relating to current absence management systems and what solutions there are to these issues.
Human error & incorrect data
The problem: A common problem that many absence management systems are often exposed to is human error. We are all human and make mistakes from time to time, we can be so busy that we forget to approve a holiday or make a simple typo when making entitlement calculations.
The solution: Although these may seem like minor issues they can have larger implications in the long term. Employee satisfaction can drop as a result of the forgotten approval and payroll may soon be after you when your entitlement calculations are wrong! This can all easily be avoided by implementing an automated absence management system that can provide immediate & accurate calculations along with reminders and alerts to minimize the risk of any mistakes.
Lack of visibility
The problem: Another problem that many people encounter with absence management systems is the lack of visibility they provide. Unless you have an all-encompassing view of when your team is in and out of the office, planning for the future can be rather difficult. Team members can quite often book holidays around the same time, especially in the summer, meaning you may find your business grinds to a halt with insufficient staff.
The solution: To get better visibility of absence within your organisation, you need a solution that has tailored calendar views that can be integrated with your email provider. This will provide you with increased operational awareness to ensure your business runs smoothly.
Visibility is particularly important for global organisations, especially for multi-regional teams that span across multiple locations. If you are global businesses, you should aim to get a global absence management system that can address the needs of all your employees worldwide.
Poor reporting
The problem: Many businesses that come to us, cite poor absence reporting in their previous system as a major factor as to why they spoke to us. This also can leave businesses blind to the reasons that their employees are absent, which can lead to them missing out on vital opportunities to step in and address absence issues before they become a bigger problem.
The solution: The Edays system has an inbuilt report builder, graphical dashboard, and functionality that allows data to be exported to excel, all there to enhance your absence reporting processes. If absence reporting is something you feel you need to improve, check out our absence reporting functionality.
Limited Functionality
The problem: Most systems out there are very one dimensional and provide HR with the bare minimum. This can affect businesses as they can’t see the big picture. Even if your AMS does provide you with amazing reports, in most cases that is it, no more added value or in-depth functionality and insights that could take your absence management processes to the next level.
The solution: The Edays system provides information on return to work processes, bradford factor calculations, absence figures and trends, and lots more, all helping to advance your absence management processes, providing you with vital information about why your employees are absent and if there is a need to step in.
Why not check out our bradford factor calculator that allows you to score an employee by applying the weighting of their unplanned absence.
Time and Admin
The problem: Finally, many of the businesses that come to us often mention the huge amount of time and admin that goes into their current system, taking their attention away from completing more value-added tasks. This can be due to the fact that they are still required to manually input data into their current system, or manually input data into other systems in their HR stack such as payroll or time and attendance.
The solution: You can get some of your much needed time back by implementing Edays and automating your absence management. We can integrate with your current HR stack, automatically feeding data into them and removing the need for manual data input.
In order to get some of your precious time back, you will want to see how cloud-based absence management systems can increase your productivity.
If you are affected by any of the issues above Edays should be your first port of call. Book your demo now and work with us to take your absence management processes to the next level.
Harry is Head of Customer Success here at edays, helping organisations to get the very best out of their edays system. His experience in SaaS and HR brings valuable insight into how organisations can better manage their people, processes and productivity.