Building a Business Case, Part 4
While attendance management may seem like the most basic and simple of HR tasks, it presents more problems than are initially obvious. Ask yourself, “Can I rely on all my managers to consistently log my employees’ sick or vacation days?” If the answer is “no,” you are unnecessarily accruing liabilities that affect your company’s bottom line.
The main areas that can benefit from automation are time clock management, and vacation, sick, and other time off policies. Many employees don’t keep track of how many vacation days and sick days they are entitled to or have taken. If you ask any HR manager for the most frequently asked question they receive, they’ll most likely repeat, “How much time do I have available for my vacation today and how much will I have in one month’s time?” It’s one of the most common inquiries an HR department has to deal with and one which frequently equates to time and effort wasted on a mundane tasks executed by highly-paid HR professionals.
What if an employee could log onto a secure HR system and simply look up the information they need? Easier still, what if that system could easily show the employee the amount of leave taken and allow the employee to make online leave requests? From a departmental manager’s standpoint, imagine theses processes:
An employee makes a request for vacation.
The employee’s manager receives an email from the employee requesting time off. If the manager happens to be out of the office or unable to acknowledge the request, the email will automatically be forwarded to another decision maker. Once the request is received, the manager can use a calendar view to check whether the request will clash with other department members’ absence. The manager can also verify at this time that the employee is titled to the time off.
Then the manager can simply accept/reject the time off request accordingly. If the vacation or medical leave request is approved, every system from HR, to payroll, to benefits, will automatically be updated. Calculation of vacation time is frequently a contentious issue. If it is sloppily managed, employees can frequently take more paid vacation time than they are entitled to, because no one can prove they haven’t taken it. Online leave request ensures that leave is taken and that leave requests are accounted for.
And take for example a terminated employee. You would typically pay a salary for leftover vacation. If proof of what has been taken is clearly available, it can make the whole termination process run much more smoothly.
If absenteeism is becoming a problem, automating the reporting, management and logging of sick days is a good way to track and control whether there is an issue. A good attendance management system should be largely self-managing. Once you have defined your unique business rules, the HR department should have to expend little or no effort in ensuring that it is running smoothly. Having a single, electronic access point, directly integrated to the payroll system offers a very easy solution to these issues.
This four part series covered four of some of the most important justifying factors to make your case for purchasing an HRIS. Cost savings and productivity gains occur through the automation of routine day-to-day tasks Compliance, integration to Payroll and benefits carriers, and easy to use interface and powerful reporting capabilities.
Want to know how much you can save by automating HR tasks, compliance, integration with HR, and implementation of benefits management tools? Try our savings calculator – a simple and easy to use web application. Just answer a few simple questions, enter your name and email address, and we’ll tell you how much your company can save annually by automating this task.
You can also read some of these case studies to hear how our customers have improved work flow, saved time and money, reduced labor costs within HR and Payroll departments, and increased employee satisfaction.
We’re happy to answer any questions you may have about purchasing an HRIS, or about any products within our integrated human capital management suite. It’s easy. Just fill out this this form or call Ascentis at 800.229.2713.
