Autor: dayoff

  • Tips to Set Leave Policy in Your Company

    Tips to Set Leave Policy in Your Company

    Employees need a day off every now and then to recharge, rejuvenate, and return to work with a stress-free mind. It’s their right to get leaves for important matters. Some companies have set the standard for amazing leave policy that keep their employees happy while maintaining the workflow smoothly.

    However, others have gained a bad reputation in the industry for their vague, often questionable leave policies. When a company starts valuing its work over its employees at all times, it loses credibility to its workers.

    What these companies fail to understand that just because employees need leaves, doesn’t mean their absence has to create a huge dent in the operations. A well-planned leave policy gives the employees their rightful days off while making sure the company doesn’t accumulate major losses. 

    Leave trackers, otherwise termed vacation trackers are a great way to monitor which employees are available at any given time. But before that, you have to know what an effective leave policy looks like. 

    Why Do I Need a Leave Policy in My Company?

    Today’s world is all about balance. Employees’ lives don’t revolve around their workplace. Leaves help them break away from the monotony of their regular work and focus on other aspects of their life. It’s a part of being human.

    Apart from that, there are certain laws in every country dictating the rights of employees when it comes to leave policies. Straying from that hurts employer’s reputation and it can also cost you fines from the government. 

    A Leavy Policy is a set of rules outlining all possible protocols and procedures for employees to avail leaves. Your workforce is the biggest asset of your company.

    Absence of a proper leave policy can result in:

    • Lower productivity
    • Unapproved leaves of employees
    • Decreasing productivity hours
    • Missing important deadlines, targets, etc.

    All this and more can be solved with a good leave policy. For instance, if an employee goes on leave suddenly without any prior notice, their work suffers since the company wasn’t prepared to handle the unprecedented absence.

    On the other hand, if the stakeholders were aware of it beforehand, the work could be distributed between the other employees to handle loss of productivity. This is where a solid PTO tracking software could do wonders for the company’s recording process.

    When drafted and implemented properly, a Leave Policy delineates an understanding between the employees and the employer(s) as to how they can avail of leaves during their tenure.

    A leave policy:

    • Defines the number of leaves an employee has.
    • The kinds of leaves they are eligible for.
    • How employees can apply for leaves

    From the employee’s end, a leave policy gives them the assurance that their company will grant them leaves to:

    • Recover from physical complications
    • Handle any issue they’re facing
    • Go on vacation and enjoy
    • Celebrate their cultural and religious festivals
    • Simply break off from work to relax

    The leave policy needs to be mentioned explicitly in the document of hiring policy. Your employees must know the dos and don’ts to applying for leaves. Furthermore, it’s important to ensure the employees aren’t taking advantage of the holidays and paid leaves offered by the company; helps maintain a steady level between employee satisfaction and productivity. 

    If you’re struggling with falling numbers due to employees’ tardiness and sudden leaves? Ensure a proper leave management system using Day Off , a free vacation tracker.

    The Purpose of a Leave Policy

    As mentioned before, the purpose of a leave policy is to let employees know about when they can ask for a leave, the process of it, what leave with pay is and what leave without pay is, and so on.

    All regular employees of your company are eligible for the leave policy.

    Guidelines of the Leave Policy

    • Employees cannot claim leaves as a matter of right. They must know that any form of leave can be refused as it can be granted depending on the company’s requirements. 
    • Taking a leave from work without receiving approval for it will subject employees to disciplinary action.
    • The calendar year lasts from January to December. 
    • Employees’ leave records shall be maintained in an optimized HRMS tool. 
    • They shall be eligible for Earned Leave after completing their probationary period. After confirmation, that shall be credited to the employee’s account.
    • A limit of 9 paid leaves can be brought to the next year.
    • An employee is free to avail paid leaves based on the leave balance they have. Also, unpaid leave starts from when the leave balance is over but an employee is still in need of leave. The approval can be granted by a manager, HOD, or HR.
    • An employee cannot use the leave until it has been approved by the reporting manager.
    • Leave without approval shall be counted as leave without pay.
    • Weekends, as well as holidays falling within the sanctioned leave periods, shall be excluded and not be considered as earned or casual leave.
    • Leave for the upcoming year cannot be used in the present year.
    • It is the employee’s responsibility to apply for leave in advance in case of a planned leave. But if it’s an unplanned leave, an employee has to regularize leave under two days of resuming duty.
    • LTA leave is counted as earned leave, not casual leave.

    Cancellation of Leave

    An approved leave can be canceled at any time depending on the company’s demand but those must be within reason. Once canceled, the notice will reach the HR and employee through an automatic message. HR will update the leave balance.

    Leave Extension 

    • Due to any unforeseen circumstance, if the employee has to extend their leave, they must inform HR beforehand. 
    • If an employee overstays without gaining proper approval, that will be considered as absence from duty and call for disciplinary action.
    • Extended leave without permission shall be treated as a loss of pay.

    Calculating Leave on Termination/Resignation

    In case an employee is terminated from the company or resigns, privilege leave shall be calculated until their final working day. They will be paid in full.

    Types of Leave Policies

    A number of leave policies could be effective for your company. Generally, leave policies fall within one of these three types:

    Fixed number of credited leaves

    This kind of paid leave policy fixes the number of paid leaves an employee can get on a fixed date. Thus, following company guidelines, you can grant (credit) all the leaves at the beginning of the calendar year or the financial year.

    Set amount of accrued leaves on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis

    A specific number of leaves are accrued based on a daily, weekly, or monthly calculation.

    Unlimited leaves

    There is no fixed number of leaves. Employees can use an unlimited number of leaves.

    How to Choose the Best Leave Policy for Your Company

    The three types of leave policies entail a different set of rules and regulations. As the main decision-maker of the company, you have to consider a few things to know which leave policy would work best.

    Ask yourself: which leave policy would do the most for your employees? It goes without saying that the unlimited/flexible leave policy encourages employees to apply for as many leaves as they want, whenever they feel like it. However, there is no limit to this policy, meaning employees make abuse this opportunity.

    Thus, industry leaders recommend companies take the opinions of their employees on the leave policy. This will make employees realize that they are valued and kept in the loop while the company will be able to narrow down on the policy serving the best interest of their workforce. 

    Why You Should Create Varying Leave Categories

    There are a bunch of reasons an employee would use their paid leaves such as personal emergencies, sickness, vacations, and maternity or paternity leaves. Once you know which leave policy would suit your company the best you need to know how to categorize them.

    Majority of companies like having distinguished leave categories like earned leaves and sick leaves as clean differentiation helps them to track employee absence better. Plus, you would be abiding by Labor Laws.

    Now, how do you decide how many leaves to account for each leave category? The count of casual and privileged leaves that your employees are entitled to be decided by the State you are operating in. The number is determined by the State’s Shops and Establishments Act.

    Considerations about Leave Management

    At this stage, you’ve already implemented the best leave policy. The next step is to learn how to manage leave accruals and leave applications alongside calculating leave balances. An employee leave tracker app such as Day Off can help you track everything from one place conveniently. It’s best to use digitized methods as manual recording is time-consuming and takes too much effort.

    Managing Leave Applications

    Designing a process for applications

    The key to a smooth employee leave management process is timely organization and clear communication. Leaves play an important part in activities such as payroll, which is why it’s even more important to set a fixed process on applying for and approval of leaves.

    You might ignore this procedure as you think it’s too obvious, but clarity will do wonders for your company. It’s as important as the job description.

    Administer the approval power

    You must then decide who will be responsible for approving employee leave applications. Is it going to be their immediate supervisor or the HR manager? Employees need to know where to send their requests to decrease processing time. 

    Tracking Leave Requests

    Leaves are directly connected to the payroll process. Collating leave requests at a month’s end from leave request slips or emails is a crucial task. Track these efficiently on an employee time off tracker app to manage everything with the least amount of effort and time. 

    How to Track Leave Requests Efficiently 

    Using an intuitive employee time off tracker such as the Day Off app helps companies track employee leave applications quickly and better. Here are the reasons you should consider this time off app.

    • For starters, you can get this service for free! Set up your company profile and fill in the information for a unique, personalized experience.
    • The mobile app is super convenient. It keeps the managers and employees connected to the database at all times.
    • The system automatically sends the employee leave request to the appropriate person.
    • HR has total control over the workflow. That means defining teams, managers, and employees.
    • Increase transparency between line managers and employees.
    • The HR dashboard – Calendar view for both employer and employee. You can monitor workflow and team absence, generate detailed and consolidated reports for any period, and send notifications to the team. 
    • You can add new leave types and define balances for each. There is also a half-day option.
    • Manager’s Web Dashboard – Get a full overview of the team, their leaves, and statistics from one point. 

    Small businesses will love this impressive free time off tracker. You can also upgrade to the Pro version for the affordable price of $1 per employee per month. The free version has some of the basic options you would want in any PTO tracker while the Pro version comes with some exciting features that would take your HR game to the next level.

    Final Thoughts

    A company that neglects the leave policy is directly ignoring the needs of its employees, and we know that’s the first step towards the fall of an organization. Do not take it lightly as leaves are enough to get you sued too!

    Make sure to go through all the rules and regulations the state has set. It’s best to mention them in your company policy too. Lastly, have an attorney look at the policies. If they approve, you should be good to go. However, try to stay flexible for the best results.

  • Paper vs. Software in Leave Management

    Paper vs. Software in Leave Management

    The Day Off software or application allows you to tackle the absence, track PTO, vacations, and leaves as well as enjoy an overview, saving your hours of effort and headache. You can easily scroll through the leave and vacation policies associated with your company using the application. If you are rather the employer, it can be quite useful as well. Let us take the topic of Leave Management for instance to take the Paper vs. Software decision

    Leave management Paper vs. Software is a complicated, yet integral issue for all different kinds of companies. Payroll and leave management Paper vs. Software need to run hand in hand for the company to work efficiently and it can sometimes be a challenge to do everything on paper. Yet, many companies today find it difficult to use software for this purpose.

    We have compiled this guide to talk about the different ways of managing the day-off of employees within companies,

    Paper vs. Software pointing out the pros and cons associated with the advancement of technology that highlights the ability of software in doing so.

    Why is Leave Management Necessary?

    If you own a business or work in the HR department, you must know the importance of leave management Paper vs. Software . It can be quite challenging to deal with such day-offs and PTOs or vacations across different departments. Starting with the different types of leaves,

    distinguished laws specific to states, and the added tensions of teams regarding the time-offs of some employees, it can be quite a headache.

    Though it might seem quite straightforward to handle leave management within smaller companies,

    it can start to become both expensive and complex with the increasing number of employees.

    Paper leave management remains a viable option for small businesses but when the number of employees goes over 20,000,

    the companies start switching to outsourcing leave management. This might also differ between industries, but is an issue for most.

    Leave Management through Software vs. through Paper

    When we are talking about leave management for employees, we are talking about the huge amount of data. There is probably going to be quite some paper documentation crammed in the office cabinets,

    where you can find tons of employee information that has to stay undamaged and easily accessible. That might be one big reason why HR systems, even today, avoid going paperless.

    It is essential to understand that the more you rely on paper,

    the greater the effort you have to put in to manage it all. One solution can be attempting to scan all the hard copy data into a soft copy format.

    This can take some time to kick off,

    but once done, the integration of the paper-based content can be quite simple with a software HR system, for day-off trackers, PTO trackers, etc.

    Some managers argue that paper is no hassle given the fact that all the printed documents are usually filed in a relevant sequence,

    more often than not according to the name of the employee. You can, however, maintain this sequence when converting the papers to a digital form to track the information well.

    Sometimes you may wonder why software is essential to management or track the leave of employees when you have dedicated HR within your company to keep an eye on the issue. We have got some benefits here that you might consider.

    Time and Energy

    At the end of the day, you need your company to run all its operations in a streamlined manner. This means you need to save time as well as effort that your employees put into. When you use the software as your PTO tracker and leave tracker,

    you can integrate both the payroll systems and the leave-management parts of your company and reduce the double work of data processing.

    Since both payroll and leave-management systems deal with the information of the same employee,

    it makes sense to have them handled through a database or software instead of having an individual go through different paper files to keep the account.

    You can simply enter the information once and easily track attendance, leave, pay, and all kind of records. It can automate a lot of the functions that would take hours through the paper system. Sometimes, employees can also enter their details, hence saving time and effort for your HR.

    More Accessible

    Usually the vacation tracker, PTO tracking software or leave tracker app can be installedon different devices. When the software is available in the form of an application,

    for instance, an Employee leaver tracker app or an Employee time off the tracker, it is easily manageable through different smartphones, tabs, iPad, etc.

    Accuracy and Compliance

    The computer software or application is likely to make fewer mistakes in terms of calculating payrolls based on PTO or leaves than paper leave-management methods. The latter runs the risk of more mistakes occurring due to human error.

    When you are required to stick to paper for handling leaves, it increases the bureaucracy. Someone who wants to apply for leave first has to complete a form, hand it to the manager,

    wait for him or her to sign and approve. The manager then has to pass it on to payroll for further processing. This tends to be quite inefficient and risk, requiring additional labor.

    The paper management can require between 73 and 124 minutes while the software or application will cost you a maximum of 30 minutes. In the latter case, you simply have to make the minimum number of steps.

    Even considering that you make multiple changes, it will take less than 1 minute to update the online form. The system is automated to go into contact with the relevant parties whenever any change arises. The redundant tasks will be avoided.

    If there is an error in the leave management, it can badly harm the business. In the worst situations,

    business owners or HR can even be sued or fined for miscalculations or underpayments for the smallest of mistakes in timekeeping systems.

    Limited Manual Interventions

    There have been issues faced by several businesses,

    whereby some people have made unauthorized changes to the leave management system through manual interventions in the paper-based system.

    This results in fraud- employees taking a vacation, day-off, or leave and then removing the record,

    or taking one day less than how it should be, or manually making changes to the number of leave days available to one individual.

    When you switch to a software or application, this opportunity to commit fraud is easily minimized.

    Transparency

    When you use software or application to input planned vacations or unplanned leaves,

    all the data can be accumulated by one comprehensive dashboard. This will allow you to have a clear overview of all the metrics related to the day-offs of your employees.

    There is no way the approval of the managers can be skipped. Furthermore,

    you can also track if anyone is abusing the policies associated with leave or underutilizing the vacation hours, and even working below standards.

    In short, the application or software, unlike the paper management system,

    can easily spot the leaks in the employee performance or tackle the issues of absenteeism more efficiently. You can also see if your company needs any specific improvement and make changes to the current approach depending on the requirements.

    Customizable for every location

    If you have employees working in different parts of the globe,

    a free time-off tracker or day-off app can highly benefit both your employees and your company. The free vacation tracker can help both of you keep an eye on the status. These apps can also be customized (with the required settings) for different locations across the globe.

    Furthermore, when you have an overview through the app,

    HR can ensure that key employees to do plan their leaves at the same time. You can also try to make the settings suited to your preferences.

    Cost

    You can highly contribute to saving on the cost of paper,

    time as well as disputes arising from leave and vacations of your employees. The cost of hiring extra professionals to run the leave balance or HR overheads can be avoided with the software versions. It can also help to remain fair in enforcing the policies related to PTO and leaves.

    Reporting

    When all the day-offs are planned using the day-off app or through an employee time-off tracker,

    you can have all the employee-related data and company-wide information in one place. Most of these applications come with an integrated reporting module that makes it quite simple to analyze patterns,

    as well as to get the proper insight on the employees.

    Data Loss

    Even if your company goes through an accident,

    like an unavoidable fire or a simple spilling of drinks on the paper lying around, if you depend on software for leave management, you can avoid the data loss. You can store the information in the cloud and access it anytime from anywhere you allow.

    Values

    With software or application working as a leave tracker or time-off app, you can start to build a strong company culture, where you highlight transparency and compliance as the main factors that cultivate trust amidst the employees, regardless of who they are.

    You can start to promote other company values based on these aspects as well. If you do not have these strong values, you will soon end up with people working in your business for nothing more than the remunerations.

    Simpler Audits and backward reviews

    You can easily keep an eye on what edits and audits have been made to the different leaves or vacations associated with the different employees throughout your company if you are using the software system. This is quite impossible or difficult to do easily when you depend on paper for leave management.

    You may need to check the archived information, for instance, when making a deal or agreement with an employee or former employee, the employee rights control agencies, or some external parties, checking your audits. The software can be regarded as a more reliable source of providing this information in the most convenient, as well as, fast manner. You can avoid penalties or even earn a better image in eyes of the investing organizations and individuals.

    Environment

    Paper is better than plastic- we often hear. Indeed. But, it is still a waste that needs recycling. Why not go paperless altogether when possible? It will not only minimize the workload of the HR management but also help your company act more responsible towards our planet.

    You can eliminate unnecessary waste. As of when converting the paper to digital form, you can decide to remove and get rid of the ex-employee data altogether. 

    A recent report depicted that the negative impact on climate brought about by cutting down over 350 trees, carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, production of solid wastes as well as extensive wastage of water due to office paper use. An honest switch to a software system for handling leaves in your company can help to combat such negative impacts.

    The leave management through software can be seen as an all-in-one hub that can take care of maintaining all the requests relevant to employee vacations whilst also ensuring that their operations run smoothly.

    To summarize, you can get rid of paperwork, subside manual interventions, improve communication, get a real-time overview of the status, ensure compliance with the law as well as reflect on the organization’s health all at the same time when you use the software.

    Concluding Remarks

    The online or software method of leave management, or a mobile Day of the tracker, can serve as the perfect example of a feature that can perform great in the back-end without any effect or any distinct visibility in the main activities of the company.

    It can serve as the perfect optimization tool for your business, delivering the advantages as discussed in the guide. Once you start trying it out, you will soon realize how irreplaceable this application, Day off, can be and how your company can benefit from it.

  • Things to Do at Work before Taking a Long Vacation

    Things to Do at Work before Taking a Long Vacation

    Although it might be a refreshing thought for you when you are about to take a long vacation from your work, it might not be the case for your colleagues. Even the management might bear the hassle of an unplanned long vacation of the employee if he or she plays a significant role in the workplace.

    Every employee of an organization plays a vital role in his or her assigned work as an individual. The absence of one single block creates a void in the complete system, and the management has to fill that void by putting other team members in their work or hire part-timers in that position.

    Things to Do at Work before Taking a Long Vacation

    Due to the lack of a workforce, the management has to provide extra payment to the people doing the overtime for you while paying your paid time off. Therefore, it would be best if you do few things at work before taking a long vacation.

    However, you can use a free vacation tracker as your time-off tracker for tracking your progress before leaving for the vacation. You can also sign in and input your vacation days on your company’s personalized Day Off app used as an employee leave tracking app.

    This PTO tracking software will assist the HR manager in monitoring the absence and calculate the approximate work distribution beforehand. In this article, we have assembled few essential tips for you to make your checklist of things to do at work before taking a long vacation.

    1. Prior Notice to Your Boss

    Since your HR manager manages your company’s leave management, they might have to plan and settle for a replacement in your absence.  Informing your boss or manager before going on leave is necessary to maintain a good relation with your workplace senior.

    It will help your manager to assign your works to other coworkers and track the leave. Check in with him or her and provide an outline of your tasks. This will help your higher-up maintain the leave management and save you from unnecessary queries and work calls during your awaited vacation.

    2. Informing Colleagues

    Always remember to inform your colleagues before going on a long vacation because they have to shoulder the works you might have handled on regular days. Your coworkers and team members are your work pals. So informing them about your long vacation before leaving is mandatory.

    As they may have already had their tasks to complete, it would come as an extra burden on them. Therefore, knowing it beforehand would help them to be prepared for taking it and keep their hand free of other priorities for that time being. It will show your sense of responsibility and built trust among colleagues. Doing otherwise may cause mismanagement and workplace dissatisfaction.

    3. Contacting Clients

    Make sure to contact your clients and inform them before you take an extended vacation from work. There might be clients and customers who have a close connection with you to provide an effective service with your work. In addition, they might not feel the same comfort as other team members while dealing with the result.

    Therefore, contacting them before taking a leave is essential for giving them the heads up and acquaint them with the coworker who will follow up on that project. It would make the communication work easy for your colleagues.

    4. Complete the Tasks on Hand:

    If you are already working on any project, make sure to complete it before leaving for your long break. Other people who will be assigned with the work may not follow up with your working style, and the quality of the work may degrade. Using a free vacation tracker to track your progress will help you to check your advancement.

    These are the most crucial list of things you should do at work before taking a long vacation. We have further discussed this article to make a complete checklist, keeping some other necessary points in mind.

    Purpose of Doing These Planning

    There are many purposes to plan and do things at work before going on a long vacation. We have closely discussed the primary purposes of planning these things out.

    1. Not Arousing Mismanagement

    Not arousing mismanagement at the workplace is essential for planning the list of works to do before leaving on an extended vacation. If you do not do the part of your duty to inform relevant authorities and people associated with your work, mismanagement might occur.

    The HR manager will fail to monitor the paid time off to distribute the job efficiently. It will eventually impose an excessive workload on other employees and cost the productivity of the company.

    The productivity of other workers may slow down because of added workloads and imbalanced work distribution for poor leave management caused by this mismanagement. Employees face burnout due to overworking and lose productivity in the process.

    2. Managing Your Work Relation

    Managing the employee-to-employee relation is a great communicative asset in a workplace. For maintaining this relation between coworkers, good communication is mandatory.

    Therefore, it is essential to inform your colleagues of your plan for a long vacation. Give them an approximate idea about your pending and upcoming works.

    It will let them surmise the amount or type of work they would be assigned. Sharing this with your colleagues will build trust between coworkers and help to maintain a good relation with them.

    3. Keep Your Work Spirit Intact After the Vacation

    It is imperative to meet the deadlines of your pending works to enjoy a worry-free long vacation with your family.

    Worrying about meeting the deadline right after your vacation and getting work queries on your vacation might be very unpleasant. In contrast, coming from a hassle-free vacation will keep your work spirit high after the long break.

    4. For Enjoying a Comfortable Vacation

    Whenever an employee is on leave, follow-ups on the employee’s attendance, leaves, and day-offs might be a great hassle if not managed properly. Due to work needs, the employer may contact the employees during the vacation. In addition, he or she might be called out for any uncertainties at work.

    These things might hinder a holiday that the employee might have taken after long due. However, as an employee, you may have contributed to this poor leave management.

    Therefore, do prior planning for not taking your works on your trip. Do the necessary things and submit the work outlines beforehand for enjoying a comfortable vacation on the go.

    How to Execute the Planning at Work before the Long Vacation

    1. Inform Your Manager

    Inform your manager if you are going to take a leave before going on a long vacation. Later on, knowing it might displease your HR, and he or she can lose reliance on you for hiding it. If your company or HR manager follows a time-off app, make sure to input your vacation tab on that software.

    You can use this excellent software as a service naming Day-off app to keep track of your workdays and track the date before your leave. It will make the process easier for you to notify your boss.

    Input your vacation information on the employee time tracker app, and it would be easier for your manager to distribute the work between your colleagues beforehand so the workflow will remain intact.

    2. Check-in with Your Team

    Many business firms and companies do not follow any day-off app to track their leaves. If it is the case for your organization, make sure to inform your colleagues before going on an extended vacation.

    Checking in with your colleagues and letting them know about your upcoming long vacation would ease their stress while shouldering your works. Otherwise, your coworkers might fall into hot water if they are imposed with the extra workload while having their deadline to meet and works to complete.

    This will also assist you in confirming any query and seal any pending deal with their assistance. Therefore, give prior notice to your colleagues about your long presumed vacation.

    3. Notify Your Clients

    Notify your important clients about your long vacation from work. If some of them work with you regularly, make sure to inform them of your availability for the time being. If you are going on leave for an extended time, you can also acquaint them with other coworkers. Give them the contact information of another colleague for any emergency response. This will help you manage your clients in the workplace for the long run.

    4. Prioritize Your Checklist

    Make a checklist of your works to do and prioritize them to complete all of them before going on your extended trip. If you have deadlines to meet, focus more on them to finish them within time.

    Use a free vacation tracker or our Day-off app to track the deadlines during your workdays and after your extended vacation. Outline your upcoming projects to advance your work gradually.

    So you can return home at peace from a long vacation. Make a to-do list of your forthcoming works during the vacation to assist your boss and coworkers. Anticipate any follow-up questions upon informing them about the vacation.

    5. Set an Automated Reply

    Set an automated reply on your contact system to notify the stakeholders who are depending on your service. Create a concise text or audio for informing others about your vacation and mention a date or time of your availability after the vacation.

    6. Clean Your Workstation

    Keeping your workstation tidy creates a good impression on your work. Therefore, always remember to clean your desk before taking a leave. Before leaving for a long vacation from your work, clean out your workstation on your last day. Wipe the dust off your table, clean your trash bin, and cover your accessories with a cloth to avoid dust buildup.

    7. Maintain a Tracker

    Maintain a vacation tracker to keep track of your vacation days. You can use the Day-Off tracker app. It will allow you to set a particular section for tracking your workdays. In addition, this time off app will let you check your progress on the PTO tracking software to meet your deadlines.

    With growing industries and the size of enterprises, the requirement of a faster data collection process, including employee budget, leave management, paid time offs, etc., has increased. Keeping track of a hefty load of employees and registering their leave information in a manual or paper-based process is a hectic course for your manager.

    A modern-day innovation of this ‘Software as a Service’ known as SAAS platforms provides great assistance in these cases. Our Day-Off software works as a great leave tracker to ensure your leave records’ accuracy and helps you maintain transparency as an employee.

    There are many benefits of software-based leave trackers over the ancient paper forms. It provides a minimal effort cloud-based system with an easy user interface. Our Day-Off app is easy to use and easily accessible to users. You can use this PTO tracking software from anywhere and any device option.

    You can also use them on your Android, iOS, and personal computer. The website or app allows a precise and one-stop location for tracking the leaves. Moreover, the dashboard on this PTO tracker informs your boss and colleagues about the long vacation.  

    Final Thoughts

    Informing your colleagues and boss, completing any scheduled tasks, and notifying your clients are the main things you should consider and do at work before taking a long vacation. Doing these works will show your workmanship and respect towards your higher-ups and colleagues at your workplace.

    You can make a checklist of your work and vacation days on our Day-off app. This will be great assistance as a free vacation tracker on managing your tasks smoothly. This process works as an all-in-one employee leave tracker to ensure effective leave management within a short time and helps you do things at work before the long vacation.

  • How Poor Leave Management Process Can Affect Your Company?

    How Poor Leave Management Process Can Affect Your Company?

    Leave Management and PTO are two important terms when it comes to employees. Taking time off work allows them to unwind and return to work with newfound energy. However, relaxation isn’t the only reason an employee asks for a leave – it could be an emergency too. Whatever the reason be for your employee to take a day off, absence and leave form an important part of the company’s payroll.

    A leave tracker, also known as a vacation tracker or PTO tracker can be one of the best ways to oversee employee attendance. Today, we will also be looking at one such software that companies can use to optimize their HR functions in the sector in debate. But, before that, let’s discuss the challenges of the leave management system.

    Challenges of Leave Management Processes

    The HR department can find it hard to gather real-time data via manual paper processes. And even though managing PTO and leave seems to be an easy thing to do, many companies handle it rather negligently. Ignoring this process is a big mistake as it can harm your company’s productivity to a great extent.

    The bigger the company, the more the employees. And the more the employees, the more traditional paper spreadsheets and forms pose a challenge while reviewing leaves. 

    These days, many businesses have considered and even invested in different software solutions to reduce their HR team’s stress. These tools help automate the lengthy tasks of leave management while significantly decreasing the chances of error.

    Let’s look at the challenges of leave management process.

    Keeping account of leave

    Employees truly appreciate an employer who is flexible regarding taking time off work. While that’s convenient for the employees, line managers often struggle to keep track of who’s taking time off work and for how long. The fact that each employee has a different number of vacation days available further complicates the situation. Line managers must then keep track of the remaining days. Believe us, it’s much harder than it seems.

    Leave request reviewing

    If your company has many employees, your line managers will surely grow tired of reviewing multiple leave requests simultaneously. A lot of employees can submit their leave requests at the same time – for instance, a few weeks before a holiday. Some would send it in via email, some through a paper form, and others could verbally request their supervisor or manager for the PTO.

    It goes without saying how hard this job could be on the managers to properly review every request. Adding to that is the incorrect submission of requests. Managers will be less efficient if they have to go through error-filled requests and lose track of pending ones in the middle, setting up the scene for an even bigger issue such as understaffing.

    Due to such challenges, management would find it difficult to gather the necessary information to plan and implement decisions. Why is this important you ask? Because the right data gives the management a better estimate of the total picture.

    Distorted data can confuse managers, making them make decisions that might not always be in the company’s best interests. Top management is convinced that manual mode of data collection is the most effective way, resulting in them losing interest and becoming discouraged in the responsibility. There are many possible negative implications of this for the company.

    This is exactly why a PTO tracking software is necessary. In this digitized world, doing manual work only slows a company down, i.e., a competitive disadvantage.

    Why Employees Don’t Take Leaves

    The employees aren’t taking leaves and the management thinks that’s great. After all, more work is getting done in the office, right? While it may seem beneficial at first, it causes more harm in the long run. When an employee doesn’t take time off work, it accrues weeks, sometimes even years of leave. This is a major liability to the company because if an employee suddenly resigns, they would have to be paid in a lump sum. Unpaid leave gets registered as a debt in the company’s book and can cause a hindrance if you ever try to sell the company.

    Listed below are two reasons why some employees prefer not taking leaves and risk burnout instead:

    They want to seem dedicated: Many call it “office-martyrdom.” A handful of employees want to showcase their dedication and commitment to the job. An employer can resolve this issue by mentioning they value performance over 100% attendance. Let your employees know that they should take time off work so they can rejuvenate and get back with a fresh attitude.

    They worry about the overwhelming work waiting for them upon return: Employees feel skeptical about leave benefits if they fear their employer will drown them in a sea of work after they return. You as an employer should converse with your employees on the first day of their return and provide a sense of direction for the future weeks.

    Negative Implications of Poor Leave Management Process

    Poor leave management can have multiple negative effects on the company and these are only some of the few:

    Higher costs

    Your company could be losing money thanks to inefficient leave and PTO management. In isolation, the cost of processing an employee’s updates and leave changes might appear as a small figure, but add that up and the sum will increase vigorously. 

    You also have to consider the cost of correcting employees’ or inspection errors in the manual system.

    Disorganized staffing

    When the leave management system does a sub-par job at giving the company insight into how many employees are available, the organization doesn’t have an accurate picture of how many employees can be spared for a particular task. You could approve leaves more than what your business can afford to handle at any given time. 

    In the end, it’s just the higher management panicking due to understaffing before an important project. On the other hand, some companies actually hire more people than required to ward off any possibilities of skill shortage. This phenomenon is termed overstaffing and is an additional cost.

    Legal implications

    Countries vary in their rules and regulations regarding leaves. If a leave management software is ineffective, you may unknowingly make decisions that are non-compliant with government standards. Companies have to pay fines when something like that is reported. 

    Any alterations to the law can be inputted into the system quickly. An employee leave tracker app automates the manual labor for supervisors and managers, allowing them more time to focus on critical issues at hand.

    Decreased employee morale: Employees will not like it if their leave isn’t approved because your leave management process is inefficient and the policies are vague. Their morale takes a steady blow.

    Low morale makes them lose interest in the work, not to mention the constant dissatisfaction. Subsequently, this increases employee turnover, generating increased costs due to hiring and training needs. An optimized leave management system helps managers systematically review and approve leaves while communicating the leave policies. In some cases, it can also auto-approve leaves.

    Consider a coordinated leave management process as a bridge between you and your employees. It shows that a company truly values it, employees.

    Problem with reconciling leaves

    You shouldn’t depend on spreadsheets and registers for in- and out-time as attendance proof because this data can easily be tampered with. With manual systems, presenting proof gets difficult. Thus, if an employee starts arguing about their leaves, you won’t have enough material to point out their error.

    Even small companies aren’t immune to these effects. You might think that it will be easy to remember how many leaves were taken by an employee but let us tell you, you are wildly underestimating how complex this factor can be. It can cause problems with additional leave approvals and payroll management in the long run.

    Abusing sick leave

    Sick leave is an essential benefit for the employees. However, due to a lack of proper management, many companies suffer from “sick leave abuse.” Not only does this cost a company a large sum of money, but this also decreases employee engagement in the organization. This brings us to the question: Why would employees resort to abusing sick leave?

    If the employees realize that the leave management system of a company is flawed, they will try to take advantage of the poor condition. They actively violate the attendance policy. Two such examples of sick leave abuse are:

    • Employee not informing their supervisor or manager that they will be taking a day off
    • Employee not providing a medical certificate where required

    Resource crunch in the time of need

    At any time, if a company isn’t aware of how many employees they have on leave versus how many are available, a pending project deals with the damages. Keeping track of available human resources is crucial for managers – specifically when a deadline is looming over their heads. 

    Project delivery schedules are a good indicator of a company’s efficiency and punctuality. Meeting them on time strengthens company image.

    Employee burnout and overtime: When you are poorly managing the leaves of 10 employees in your company, another 10 are forced to “pick up the pace.” Available employees may be asked to work double shifts, overtime shifts, and postpone any necessary vacation time they would request.

    Overtime costs are a major concern for HR managers and business owners over the world, but employee wellbeing should definitely be the top concern. Employees who are constantly asked to cover extra shifts, work overtime, or quicken their pace because a company is running short on employees for a shift are more vulnerable to burnout. You run the risk of losing productivity as some of the better employees get less efficient over time.

    Burnout isn’t a part of the job – that’s a common misconception used to normalize many toxic traits displayed by employers that forces the employees to distance themselves from their company. In reality, burnout is a result of a lack of support from the management, unmanageable workloads, nonsensical time pressure, unclear job description, and unfair treatment. This chronic problem has cost organizations productivity losses worth billions of dollars worldwide.

    Burned-out employees tend to have lower productivity, higher absenteeism, and more disengaged. They may also call in sick more often. At the end of it all, they might also decide to quit. 

    How to Avoid the Risks

    You can implement an efficient free time off tracker like Day Off to optimize the LMS. It’s time to bid adieu to spreadsheets!

    Day Off is available in two versions – Basic and Pro. You can use the Basic version free of cost while you have to pay just $1 per user/month to get the Pro services. So, Day Off can be a great free vacation tracker for small businesses running on a budget.

    Through the Day Off app, you can create a company profile for free and customize it. The HR dashboard makes it easier for the management to keep track of everything. All leave requests are directed to the right people. Managers can add different types of leaves and manage balances for each one. You can also make announcements and send invites via email and phone.

    A few of the salient features of this unique time off app include:

    • Unlimited employee database
    • Customizable leave types
    • Management-Berichte
    • Kalenderansicht
    • One-step approval.

    For the Pro version, you get all that plus two-step approvals, the ability to create sub-teams and control calendars for those units, reset monthly balance, and more.

    Final Thoughts

    In conclusion, a solid, smooth leave management system can help the employees manage their time better, empower the management, and significantly improve employer-employee relationships. Proper initiatives from the company’s end can do wonders in preserving employee satisfaction. And an employee time off tracker is one of the best things an employer can do in this sector.

  • HR and Leave Management Tips for Startups and SMEs

    HR and Leave Management Tips for Startups and SMEs

    Leave management becomes troublesome when you are at the first stage of your business.

    Whether you run a startup or an SME, employee management is tough. This initiates urgency for the right HR management tips to maintain the work force.

    This article will help you step-by-step on setting up leave policies. You can use some outstanding tools to manage better. Keep reading to find out what they can be!

    Tips for HR Management in Startups and SMEs

    Managing people is a hectic task. Even in the smallest company, you will need to maintain your workforce effectively. Otherwise, you might end up losing precious time from your work life.

    So, whether you are a business owner or an HR manager, you should follow some management tips. Here, we have a few HR management tips you can check. These guidelines will make your HR job easier than before!

    Receive Updates on Regular Reviews

    Reviewing the performance of your employees is a must for any HR personnel. We encourage checking up on every three to six months. This will allow you evaluate if the business goals are being met.

    So, you must track the performance and engagement of the team. For this, you can use software to ease the process. A software helps to automatically boost appraisals, and update both parties. This will help to increase employee morale and work for the growth of your business.

    A time off app can become much handy in this case. Employees can track their request status of company workflow. The company can set up the correct amount of workflow for the employees as well. 

    Using a paid time off tracker is much efficient. Day Off has a well-designed time off tracker which can benefit both employees and HR.

    You might want to use a free time off tracker if you have very low investment. Still, you won’t regret using one as it balances off workflow much smoothly.

    Secure all the Documents in a Cloud Software

    With the pandemic hitting, almost everyone now works remotely. As such, recording and retrieving all of the working documents became necessary. In this crucial time, you certainly have nothing but to provide extra flexibility to your employees. This means you have lesser option to control the wide range of work.

    In order to synthesize workflow, you must secure all the documents in a cloud software. By accessing the software, the employees will be able to work from home. At the same time, you can supervise how they are working.

    There is a benefit to this idea. Both employees and the authority can access those files whenever they want. This will tremendously boost productivity. Also, it’s easier to measure who is really serious about his/her work.

    Not to mention the benefits reminders and alerts promote. You will get your task done at the right time. Time management is safely secured!

    Use Software for Everything

    We all used spreadsheets at some point in our work life. It’s not really an inconvenience but you should adopt better measures to make things faster.

    As an HR or the business owner, try switching to different management software instead of spreadsheets. This will provide you a huge advantage in the long run. Recording employee information, keeping up with the training schedules, assigning tasks all of them becomes easier.

    You will be able to save time and focus on other revenue focused work. Also, some software enables users to automate the regular tasks. Tasks will get reduced and you will find the perfect work life balance.

    Maintain Leave Requests Appropriately

    We’ll now introduce the most crucial tip – leave management. It’s pretty obvious that your employees will take leaves. They can either request leaves according to their convenience or the company may arrange some paid leave policies.

    For startups and SMEs, it might be hectic at times to manually manage this. It usually becomes a problem when the work force is huge and diversified.

    So, the best way to tackle this problem is to use leave management software. For example, the Day Off app allows organizing employee leaves and requests in one place.

    To maintain employee leaves you can follow the basic steps below:

    • Keep a calendar to update employee leaves.
    • Assign leave allowances for each employee.
    • Use software to track leave requests.
    • Share the leave planning updates with the workforce. It will help to mitigate the upcoming clashes of tasks assigned.

    This is just a glimpse of how to manage leaves in a startup or in an SME.

    Don’t worry, we’ll provide more in depth leave management procedures in the next section.

    Leave Management Tactics in Startups and SMEs

    There is a reason for us to emphasize on leave management too much. It’s because employee sentiments and salaries are related to leaves. Whether your employees take a paid leave or an unpaid leave, both will tremendously affect your business.

    And if you are unorganized regarding this matter, it will cost you both time and money. You don’t want that! Do you?

    This leads to the fact that you must devise a full-proof leave management policy. These policies must be in favor of the company as well as the employees.

    While devising these policies, you must keep in mind about the following.

    • Employee Salary
    • Performance
    • Appraisals

    Step-by-step Employee Leave Policy

    Set Eligibility Criteria for Taking Leaves

    Before you sanction any leave to an employee, you must ensure if the employee is eligible to take a leave. Not all employees will receive the same facilities. You have to clearly state rules for each position an employee belongs.

    Let’s jump on to the factors that influence Leave Management Policies.

    • Leave during probation period
    • Taking leaving while serving a notice
    • Simultaneous leaves
    • Entitled annual leaves
    • Quantum of approved leaves at a time

    Another most crucial indicator is the type of leaves. Every leave has a different pattern and timeline. A maternity leave and sabbatical can’t get the same weightage. So, you must ensure that you are devising the correct policies for each type of leave.

    Some crucial leaves are:

    Statutory leave

    This type of leave is built by the government to provide facilities to the working class. Government and private firms have different rules and regulations to measure statutory leaves. An employee has the right to get these leaves and get paid in due time.

    Maternity leave

    Maternity leaves are for expected mothers. Even after the baby born, mothers get maternity leaves. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) states that US companies are bound to allow unpaid maternity leave for 12 weeks. In this case, the company must have 50 or more employees.

    Paternity leave

    Along with maternity leaves, firms now also allow paternity leaves. It is to encourage fathers to take care of the newly mother in this crucial time. Thanks to Facebook that helped in raising such good initiative. The leave type varies from company to company. In the US, some companies even allow up to 17 weeks of paid paternity leave.

    Bereavement leave

    Companies should focus in valuing the employees’ emotions too. Bereavement leave allows employees to take a week (minimum) leave for the death of a close family member. By being emphatic, companies can increase employee morale and receive better output from them.

    Roll-over leaves

    Sometimes employees work more than their usual leaves. Where every employee has some fixed leaves, some just do their work without hesitation. As they are providing value to the company, they deserve to get a little sensitivity. In other words, companies can issue roll-over leaves for these employees.

    Sabbaticals

    It’s hard to continue job at a stretch. To retain work life refreshments, companies offer sabbaticals to employees. This type of leave allows an employee to take a long-term vacation.

    Structure all these leaves on a week or monthly basis. It will help you to build up a strong engaging management style.

    Now, let’s move on to the real deals!

    Build a Requisition Form

    First of all, let’s be clear what a requisition form is. A requisition form is a document that describes the type of leave an employee wants to take.

    Here, you must include the purpose of the leave clearly. Ask your employee to provide details on his vacation and rejoining date.

    This form will work as a record for the employee’s performance. Also, it can help you to dictate work availability for other employees.

    To sum up, maintain a requisition form to be updates on when and why your employee is taking a leave.

    Grant Leave Approvals to the Eligible Candidates

    Let’s be honest. It’s not possible to provide leaves whenever an employee wants. As the authority you must check if an employee is meeting all the criteria to take a leave.

    Here’s when you evaluate the requisition form, we discussed about earlier. Smaller organizations can authorize about this matter with the help of only 1-2 HR professionals. On the contrary, larger organizations should set up an approval authority for expediting the process.

    You can also keep records using an employee leave tracker app. It will cut your budget and time in case of leave approvals.

    You might have noticed the tech talk a couple of times by now. It’s because we think, incorporating technology to your business can smoothen all your work. Keeping this in mind, we will show you some tracking systems to speed up your leave management techniques.

    Incorporate Tracking Technologies for Leave Management

    A leave tracker is efficient in maintaining leave policies. There are a lot of tracking software which will allow you to document every information regarding leaves.
    Use a vacation tracker when your employees seek long-term vacations. In this case, we recommend for the free vacation tracker to cut the budget. It is mostly useful for small businesses.

    Try keeping a PTO tracking software to ease Paid Time Offs. Day Off has a wonderful PTO tracker tool that helps both the employees and HR professionals.

    Want to know how? Let us walk you through the path in short.

    • As an HR, you first have to download the app
    • Invite all of your employees
    • Provide proper guidelines on how employees can request Time Off and vacations
    • Evaluate the requests. Make sure direct managers are also involved
    • View all the reports and balance workflow accordingly

    Remember, Paid Time Off is only for those countries that support the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Example: The USA.

    Similarly, an employee time off tracker measures the requested leaves. It analyzes employee salaries and appraisals to properly evaluate time off.

    Set the Right Guidelines for Your Employees

    The effectiveness of your leave management techniques depends on the application. You might have several brilliant technologies to support you. What if your employees are not quite clear how to use them?

    Suppose, even if they know how to use them, they are using for personal benefits. They pull out the loop holes which directly affects your revenue. This will be huge threat to your business.

    That’s why, it’s important to set industry level guidelines. You must research the industry norms and then devise a policy.

    The policy must be flexible for employees to increase employee retention. But it can’t be something that jeopardizes your business.

    So, in order to devise a guideline, you must keep in mind the following rules.

    • Guidelines must be bold and straightforward
    • Cut off any ambiguous word from the guide
    • Prepared well-organized documents and circulate among all employees
    • Define the culture, location, location, ethnicity, and diversity of the company in detail
    • Input all the eligibility criteria to take a leave
    • Ensure transparency among the employer and employees

    Final Words

    In summary, using different types of leave management tools can help you to be ahead of the game. You manage your employees well and also save yourself precious time. We encourage applying the techniques above for better results. Only your strategic gestures can bring success to the business.

  • Leave Policies Worldwide

    Leave Policies Worldwide

    It will be amazing to know how the world is managing their Leave Policies by using the PTO tracking software and Employee time off tracker. By Day off app and free vacation tracker, not only smart leave record and attendance management is possible but also organization can have a quick access to all leave and attendance data. Worldwide leave policies almost circulates around eight to eleven heads: annual leave, parental leave, paid time off, sick leave, public holiday, sabbatical, long service leave, vacation, religious holidays, bereavement leaves, unpaid leaves, compensatory leaves, medical leaves. Under the above cited heads worldwide leave policies and their management can be observed.

    Annual Leave:

    Annual leave includes paid time off that an employee can spend freely. Monotonous routine and heavy work load put everyone under stress. That is why everybody needs some vacation annually as a reenergizer .So that he can provide his best input to his organization after refreshing his energies.

    Paid time off boosted the performance of employees. Peru, Algeria and Brazil allow 30 Paid Vacation days to their workers. Russia offers 28 days Paid annual leave to their working force.

    European countries have also set their own standard of leave policies but these vary country wise. As Spain allows 25 annual paid days off to its employee’s .In Portugal 22 calendar days paid leave is guaranteed to the workers. According to the labor law of Egypt,

    there are 21 paid annual vacations. But it is 30 days for the personnel above 50.According to Employment contract Act of Argentina, this leave is allowed for 14 days. Canada guaranteed 2 weeks annual paid off to his employees. But for the worker with 5 year of consecutive working experience, it is 3 weeks. Federal labor law of Mexico grants 9 annual paid days off. In China, a worker can enjoy only 5 annual paid days off during 10 years of service but he can enjoy 1o paid annual leaves during 10 to 20 years of service and it extends to 15 days for more than 20 years of service. USA is the only country in the world that does not gives any annual time paid off to its employees.

    Vacation tracker and PTO tracker software make it possible for the organizations almost in every country to manage annual vacations fairly and easily.

    Parental Leave:

    Parental leave includes paternity and maternity leaves as well as child care leaves. It has its different names in different countries and different standards country wise. In some countries it is non -transferable right of both the parents. Both the partners have individual entitlement of equal leave. But in some countries it is transferable right or the collective family right. Both the parents can use this right equally or according to their suitability. This type of leave is generally considered a leave for child care. It provides equal opportunity to both the parents to care their children. Some countries deal maternity leave and parental leaves as separate heads. In such countries it is mostly availed right after the maternity leave.

    In Australia, according to Fair Work Act 2009, it is unpaid 12 months leave that can be extended to 24 months. But, according to Paid Parental Leave ACT 2010,

    it is eight weeks paid leave but do not extendable. The European Union has set the minimum standard of 14 weeks paid maternity leave in which two weeks are mandatory. But these standards vary among different European countries. As in France, it is 16 weeks with 3 weeks mandatory, in Germany ,

    it is 14 weeks with no mandatory weeks, in Ireland ,it is 20 weeks  it is 42 weeks with 2 weeks mandatory, in Italy , it is20 weeks with 4 weeks mandatory and in United Kingdom, it is 52 weeks with no weeks mandatory.

    The data presents that UK has better maternity leave provisions as compared to its neighbors. According to ILO findings, the United States provides no paid maternity leave under its federal law. But its states have and followed maternity leave policy individually. Contrarily, many Asian countries follow more easy maternity leave policies.

    Time off app make it easily possible to manage the maternity leave both for the employee and the employer. It ensures the direct submission of leave to the right person without bearing any middleman mess. It has removed the issues of all extra submissions. Free time off tracker is also playing its role well and has made it easy to manage the days off for the organization.

    Sick Leave:

    Days off allowed to an employee during their illness for recovery and health care procedure by an organization, company or an institution are called sick leave.

    Such leaves are necessary for all employees and an integral part of every country‘s leave policy. This kind of days off eases the employees during their bad time.

    They feel relax that they are being paid for this time off. They can easily manage their treatments. In case of sick leave employees are urgently required to inform to their employer when they get ill. For prove all medical certificates are required as a proof. 

    Wages are paid to employees during sickness according to law or applicable collective agreements. When the sick leave right is over the employer is not granted with more wages. The employee is also granted the social security benefits by the Social Security Department. According to European Commission, an employee can apply for sick leave maximum for four times in a year. Free Vacation Tracker and employee leave tracker app allow the managers to manage such leave records smartly and sharply.

     Public Days off:

    Public holidays are those leaves that are allowed by every country to its nationals. But the number of these holidays varies country wise. A report of the Center for Economic and Policy Research presents the following data regarding public days off of the different nations. Peru allows 12, Brazil allows 8 and Algeria allows 11 public holidays to their nationals. There is only one public holiday is guaranteed in France. In Russia,

    there are 8 public paid days off. In the European Union Spain grants 14 public days off,

    Austria grants 13 public holidays,

    Sweden allows 11 public holidays and Denmark allows 9 public holidays to their nationals. In Portugal and South Africa,

    workers enjoy 13 and 12 paid public days off respectively. In Egypt, there are 13 paid public holidays. In Switzerland there are 4 paid public days off for the workers.

     Casual Leaves:

    Leaves are that are availed for travelling, taking rest, attending emergency events and managing family events. These are times off taken to manage any life issues. Use of PTO tracker or employee time off tracker can be the best source in managing this kind of leaves. Such app and tracker make the managers to manage the best leave system.

    According to European Commission, it is essential for employees by law to allow every employee a minimum 12 hours leave with pay annually for urgent indoor and outdoor issues. The total hours availed as leave by employee as casual leave for critical family reasons is subtracted from their annual leave right. Contrary wise, U.S federal law do not provide any such paid leave to the employees.

    Medical Leave:

    In Europe, Family and Medical Leave Act grant 12 weeks leave to the eligible workers for his own care, spouse care, parents care or child care. Australia grants full 10 days paid time off with all the benefits. Austria grants 6 weeks medical leave with full salary. Employees can extend their leave by 4 weeks with half pay by providing their medical documentation. Belgium allows one month paid time off in case of any medical emergency to white-collars and 7 days paid time off to blue –collar workers that can be extended up to 2 weeks with 60 pc salary. Canada grants 12 weeks leave but salary depends on the employee. Denmark allowed 2 full paid weeks leave. Finland allows first 9 days with full salary, after that it pay some part of his salary to the employee.

     France purposes a fractional salary, 50%, of 12 months during a 3-year period. 

    Germany awards 6 weeks full salary. If the sickness prolongs, its workers can avail 78 weeks leave in 3-years with 70 percent salary. New Zealand gives a five days salary over the 12 months while the policies vary company wise. Workers in Norway can avail 16 days leave.

    If they are still sick, they can extend their leave up to 52 weeks with medical proofs. Time off app allows the organization to manage such leaves more bitterly. Spain also gives16 days off, but deduct the 40% of the original salary. Most organizations offer up to 20 days at 40% deduction. Though,

    after 20th day, 75% deducted and it can be extended up to 12 months. Sweden lets the first 14 days off. For more days 20 % of salary is deducted and it can be extended up to 364 days. It can be further extended up to 550 days with 75% tax.

    Switzerland allows 3 full paid week medical leave. United Kingdom offers employees 28 weeks off .In case of persistent sickness 13 weeks assessment phase is observed and further decision is taken. Such leave managements have now become very easy with the help of employee leave tracker app and free vacation tracker.

     Bereavement day off:

    Losing closed ones is natural and unavoidable phenomenon of man s life. In such situations employee has to take leave in emergency. There are not much defined policies in most of the countries. Apparently .no clear central policies but on organizational and institutional levels such policies are determined and followed worldwide. Such policies are determined and implemented to console the employee in its grief. These can be paid or unpaid according to the company’s policies. Employee time off tracker is proving best in managing accurate times off of the employees.

     Religious times off:

    Religious paid times off are observed in every country according to their religion and custom. Holidays according to the main religion off the country are the public holidays of that country. But the minorities’ religious days off are not observed as public holidays, those are just granted to minorities according to their religious festivals. And it is obligatory to all the countries to grant the religious holidays to all the majorities as well as minorities.

    Overview of European Commission Leaves Rules:

    Following leave rules are the part of the European Commission leave policy.

    • 30 days annual leave is allowed but cannot be exchanged by financial compensation.
    • 15 days leave is allowed for marriage.
    • In case of any death or accident 2 days leave is allowed, but in case of travel it is 4 days.
    • 1 day leave is allowed for house shifting.
    • For antenatal examination .required working hour leave is granted.
    • In case of hospitalization of newborn, one hour leave per working day is allowed.
    • Total one hour absence in one working day is allowed for breastfeeding mothers.
    • For appearing in the court or to jury, required necessary leave is granted.
    • To perform trade union services according to law required leave is granted.
    • In all above cites cases, worker is bound to inform to the employer prior to time.
    • 14 public holidays under European Commission rules as Christmas Day, New year‘s day, national day etc.
    • Unpaid leaves are also granted as per will of the worker but these are not followed by law. But these times off are recorded properly by the worker‘s organization. For which employees leave tracker apps are being followed by many organizations.
    • Sick leave rules vary country wise in European Union but many countries are generous in case of sick leaves.
    • Parental leave is 16 weeks.
    • Leave for care of family members is also the part of European Commission leave rule policy and it is granted maximum for one year for spouse care, child care or parents care.

    Overview of U.S Leaves Policies:

    U.S is the only developed country that avoids in providing paid family and medical leave because it is generally considered that national level business interests do not let the government to make such policies .As U.S considers that such policies will cause profit loss and it may lower the competence ability. Following holidays are also not considered by the U.S

    • Any paid sick leave
    • Not any clear rules for annual holidays
    • No premium pay for holiday work
    • No meal or rest time
    • No immediate pay for urgently discharged worker

    Overview of Asian Leave Policies:

    • No overall leave rules are defined in Asia. All leave rules and policies differs country wise in Asia but generous leave policies are applied in Asia.
    • In Australia 4 weeks annual paid leave, 10 days paid personal leave and 52 weeks unpaid parental leave is granted.
    • In Indonesia 12 days paid working leave is granted after 12 working months.
    • In China 5 paid days off are granted during 10 year of working period.

    By having a view of worldwide leave policies we revealed a new surprising knowledge that how leave policies varied worldwide. But for their quick and smart implications Day off app is always there in every continent, in every country and in every organization.

    Sign up now for free and get the best leave management experience!

  • Leave Management Tips for Managers

    Leave Management Tips for Managers

    In any professional company or organization, members or employees that work in that specific institution have serious concerns regarding their acceptance or rejection of leave. In an employee’s life, leave Management or vacation is an authorized time that an employee spends away from the company depending on any special circumstances or reasons. Some leaves are paid and some are unpaid. It all depends upon the rules and regulations and some policies of that company.

    Representatives and employees of a company who go on vacation come to work with a positive outlook and are charged to take on difficulties. Giving your representatives an incidental leave from the everyday routine will help advance wellbeing, usefulness, and bliss over the long haul. You can’t anticipate the best from individuals without permitting time to rest and re-energize.

    Depending upon your request, you might keep on accepting a check and worker benefits during your downtime.

    PURPOSE OF LEAVE MANAGEMENT

    Leave management is a system that handles the time of duration of an employee, worker, or even an HR manager to run the business and organization smoothly.

    Leave management is one of the primary responsibilities and an important component of the HR department. Employees also get benefits from the policies and rules of the company.

    TYPES OF LEAVES IN ANY PROFESSIONAL DECORUM

    Sorts of leaves and their accuracy depends upon the rules of a company and the rules of one could be different from the rules of another.

    Many companies offer their employees some extra relief in vacations or leaves when the matter is serious, but it overall depends upon the performance of that employee.

    All nations have work laws that qualify representatives for some sort of leaves for various reasons. For managers to agree with the law, it’s important to comprehend the different principles administering paid leave.

    But in a general way, the type of leaves that we often see in a company’s main ordinance is given below.

    1-  Privilege leave

    In this type of earned leave, employees are given a long time of work. This is also called vacation leave.

    According to work laws, giving pay to your employees on their leaves is obligatory.

    However, the policies may differ as the rule of work is different from state to state.

    This type of leave is determined by the specific number of days but it does not include the off days, holidays, or other days of special occasion.

    2-  Casual leave

    Some organizations additionally give a leave type called casual Leave. Such leaves oblige any earnest/unanticipated individual necessities as against privilege leave being arranged leaves.

    We see some examples of this type of leaves as; if you got dire pipes issue at the house and require half or an entire day of casual leave and set everything straight. If you need to go to the child’s school for some confirmation-related work, then this type of leave acts as the hero.

    Giving this kind of leave is obligatory in numerous states, yet not so in some different states. There is a consolidated qualification for casual leave in cities like Lahore.

    3-  Sick leave

    This type of leave is additionally called Medical Leaves (ML), these are given on the grounds of infection or if there should be an occurrence of mishaps.

    Sick leave is another regular leave type ordered by the law. As these leaves are inclined to abuse, bosses as a rule look for a clinical declaration if the quantity of long stretches of leave surpasses a few days all at once.

    In certain cities like Lahore, there is a consolidated privilege for both casual and sick leave.

    4-  Maternity leave

    Maternity Benefit Act of 1961 necessitates that, businesses need to give 26 weeks of paid leave to any lady who has worked for at any rate 80 days in a year going before the normal delivery date.

    While state laws administer the former three kinds of leaves including privilege leave, sick leave, and casual leave, the Maternity Benefit Act is a focal government act.

    5-  Marriage Leave

    A few organizations give a unique leave to representatives or employees that are working in their company getting hitched called “Marriage Leave”. The marriage leave award is for anyplace between 1 to 15 days. Be that as it may, most organizations will in general give three days of marriage leave as a standard.

    The HR office may require either a greeting card or a marriage authentication as narrative confirmation for endorsing the leave.

    Further, the qualification is for just a single time during the worker’s whole business time frame in the association. Along these lines, in remarriage or different relationships, representatives should use their yearly leave adjusts or even go on leave without pay.

    6-  Paternity leave

    Paternity leave is a type of leave conceded to new dads or maybe spouses or accomplices of a pregnant lady, proxy parent, or somebody who embraced a kid to deal with their newborn with no concerns at all.

    Dissimilar to maternity leaves, new dads for the most part get fourteen days of leave to deal with their kid post-conveyance. A few nations command 1 to about fourteen days of paternity leave for new dads.

    Organizations seldom give paternity leave to the introduction of their kid since such leaves are not required by law. Nonetheless, it is significant that HRs perceive the burdens of acclimating to the infant and dealing with the youngster in their initial not many days.

    7- Bereavement leave

    Losing a friend or family member is an unavoidable circumstance and on such occasions, workers take abrupt leave. As HR, you need to have a loss leave strategy that furnishes the representative or an employee working in your company with an opportunity to bear their misfortune, deal with any obligations they may have because of the passing, and permit them to request a loss left with no issue.

    Most HRs give their workers 3 to 7 days as deprivation leave, contingent upon the closeness of the family member.

    Day Off Leave Tracker

    This vacation tracker app saves your time and exertion and tracks your group’s absence in one spot or place. All the works that HR managers do, this leave tracker done 80% of that and in seconds you will arrange your leave and excursions approaches. This allows you to taste a unique experience of doing things on your own in a more effective manner and avoid any human error too.

    A DISTINCT SETUP FOR A LEAVE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR YOUR COMPANY

    In a variety of hundreds and thousands of other systems and management that have their own rules and regulations and policies when it comes to sending and managing leave requests and to keep a balance between vacations by keeping all the data original, safe, and secure, this Vacation tracker has its place in the market.

    Following each representative’s or employee’s leaves is a hectic task. With the DAY OFF app, representatives can demand leaves directly inside and directors are sent directives for endorsement. When approved, each leave is naturally recorded inside the dashboard with the goal that you can screen the leaves taken and track whether a representative or employee is taking a larger number of leaves than they are qualified for.

    POLICY OF LEAVE MANAGEMENT

    The main thing you need to do is find out about laws and guidelines, from government and nearby about workers’ privileges, and when representatives ought to be given leave. It also depends upon the rules and policies of the company in which you are working.

    After you’ve got to know the laws around there, it’s an ideal opportunity to add cutoff times and consider different crises. Crises are something that can occur, and you ought to have an emergency course of action for some normal ones. Some unexpected situations are the most noticeably awful, so you need to arrange your HR’s activities in those circumstances. The last thing you need is to leave your organization ill-equipped.

    And afterward, cutoff times. Cutoff times are vital and you should set various cutoff times for various situations. The first should be how long ahead of time does the representative needs to demand a get-away. Is it seven days, a month? See what works best, and make certain to tell your representatives about these cutoff times during your onboarding interaction. You can be done this by using the free time off tracker!

    Likewise, consider the period of the expedition. Could your representatives require three weeks on the double? If not, compose that in your leave the executive’s strategy. That is how there will be a bad situation for shocks as it were.

    Be aware of the requirement for an all-inclusive getaway. In the case of something occurs, and your worker should remain longer than arranged, be chivalrous. Furthermore, having that alternate course of action can help in these circumstances.

    TIPS OF LEAVE MANAGEMENT FOR THE EMPLOYEES AND MANAGERS

    Leave management is one of the vital duties of HR chiefs and staff. Even though it is a regular undertaking, it is surely not a simple accomplishment to accomplish. Indeed, numerous HR faculty regularly end up in hot waters with regards to nonattendance/leave the board.

    The tips that are useful in most companies and professional institutes include the following common tricks.

    Using of leave management systems to recognize the trends

    If there should arise an occurrence of continuous unplanned leaves of workers, it gets basic for chiefs to follow the nonattendance patterns. Here, having a robotized leave the board framework would be of incredible help. An online leave global positioning framework will help HR supervisors to distinguish patterns at the snap of a catch.

    Likewise, the PTO tracker online leaves the executives’ framework can be consistently incorporated with a biometric time participation framework or gadget empowering the HR directors to monitor representatives or employees leave in a hurry!

    Be conscious when you are dealing with some extra leave

    In a few cases, state or public laws too as your organization approaches could command the privilege to expanded leaves. In this manner, preparing the line administrators in how would they react to such asks for and display sympathy gets vital.

    Continuously recollect that the approval for a leave in the event of any authentic reasons, for example, clinical or family earnestness lays to a great extent on the director.

    A negative reaction from the director can enrage the representatives in this manner, bringing about disengagement among workers, the executives, and the managers.

    Set a realistic schedule that you will get back to your work!

    By using the employee leave tracker app, you can set your leave schedule very efficiently and nicely!

    Perhaps the greatest concern is that the more you realize what’s in store, the better it would be for the group. This is the reason it is very significant for HR directors to set practical re-visitation of work leave plans for their representatives.

    For example, if a representative applies for seven days in length leave demand for some clinical reason (medical procedure or treatment), at that point setting up a severe re-visitation of the plan for getting work done is essentially a mood killer.

    Have a plan of ‘in action’ for employee vacation

    The more your HR administrators know front and center about who is going out, when and for how long, the better it is.

    This is the reason HR directors should be proactive and smart when managing get-away demands from representatives by using any employee time off the tracker. It would assist them with planning just as a guarantee that usefulness doesn’t go for a throw during top excursion times.

    Know when to respond to leave requests

    HR administrators ought to consistently react to free day demands briefly. This PTO tracking software permits administrators to get and accept leave demands in a hurry. Consequently, workers don’t need to trust that ages will get endorsement for their leaves. Indeed, this leave tracker help representative commitment and fulfillment levels incredibly, and furnishing the HR supervisors with the correct apparatus to do this is a genuine mutually beneficial arrangement for everybody.

    CONCLUSION

    The above-mentioned tips would be the best strategies that could assist you to approve your leave request in a very nice and quick way.

    Moreover, by using these tips, there is a good way to smooth the path of the employee to employee or manager to manager bond and relationship that further supports optimism and even could support long term productivity and approval of short term or long term leaves.

    Sign up now for free and get the best leave management experience!

  • Leave Tracking Tool: Benefits of Using One in your Team

    Leave Tracking Tool: Benefits of Using One in your Team

    Before starting its benefits, let us know what the leave tracking system is all about. The leave tracking tool is a template that ensures the tracking of leave or vacation in an organized way. It automatically calculates the attendance of the employee, gives a calendar view of leaves, and also prints leave reports annually.

    Significance of a leave tracker

    The leave management systems are in the hand of HR management. The employees and the workers that work in the company might not realize that HR is providing us a balancing act that all of their processes are compliant with the HR policies. So, the leave management task is very time-consuming and burdensome because just approving and managing leaves can be an extra load on the HR team.

    With a leave tracking tool workers can get information, such as the different types of leave they can ask for, a background marked by past leaves and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. This can be very timesaving for an HR group too. They will presently don’t have to go diving into file organizers or through Excel bookkeeping pages to get this data.

    That is why companies have their automatic leave tracking systems. They know very well about its potential benefits along with the time-saving advantage.

    Avoid Payroll Errors

    In the modern world of science and technology, where everyone wants to find a way to live a better and advanced life, get yourself easy and let the application work on its own!

    In checking the leaves, we people sometimes do mistakes that could not be ignorable in terms of professionalism. The eliminating effect of human error prevents many consequences. As you have to pay your employees after every one month, so by using leave management tools, we can easily track the leaves in a month of some specific member.

    Urlaubs-Tracker

    By using a vacation tracker, it has become so easy for the employees to help other team members track their off days with just one click.

    It also assists you to create reports regarding employees’ leaves. It then further be helpful for the HR department to work easily.

    Get Rid of Manual Intervention

    In the HR team, one or more than one person is working in the team and processing paperwork for the leave requests. Besides the time issue, there are many chances of causing some errors even in the final list too.

    Having a proper leave management system can do all that in just one click! And we all know the benefit of an online system that is eco-friendly and a perfect alternative to traditional employee leave tracking management.

    Create A Healthy Environment

    Clear and transparent communication between the head and the workers boosts professional decorum and online leave trackers provide benefits to your company.

    For remote team members, tracking the attendance and the schedule has been easier and more fruitful because the lack of face-to-face communication could not settle down things in a more appropriate way.

    Real-time Visible Data

    Employee leave tracker apps provide all the benefits to the employees that they demand and expect from them. As leave is a very sensitive employee benefit so it should be checked and tracked accordingly.

    Sometimes employees request leave and do not have any confirmation that their leave will be accepted or not but with these online leave tracking systems, this type of communication happens seamlessly.

    Access to a Comprehensive Dashboard

    By having access to the vacation tacker dashboard, the approvers or the administrators settled all the information or data in a single place of any upcoming leave information.

    They have access to this dashboard and they can get into it at any time especially when they have to approve or reject some leave.

    An Assurance of Legal Compliances

    Representatives, and the millennial labor force specifically, esteem straightforwardness in business measures. Being paid effectively and on time is an excellent worry for anybody. That should be obvious.

    One of the top advantages of leaving the board frameworks is that they can forestall human mistakes. A legitimate leave the board framework guarantees that nobody avoids seven days of pay when they are taking very much procured took care of time.

    Have Healthy Organizational Values

    Advancing open interchanges about leave is likewise a best practice. On the off chance that straightforwardness and empowering leave are not yet part of your association’s qualities, they certainly ought to be.

    When planning leave is not, at this point a feared 10-day measure, yet should be possible in only 10 seconds, everyone wins. To carry out effective cycles shows to representatives that their time is esteemed. Notwithstanding, it likewise proposes that time off is significant and should be taken.

    The Benefit of a Specific Leave on and off

    Whatever your work, yearly leave is regularly a critical piece of it! Our psyches and our bodies need appropriate breaks from the working environment and consistently!

    Indeed, research proposes that taking yearly leave for occasion purposes can support work environment usefulness, improve your emotional well-being and expand your life.

    The Importance of Employees’ Calendar

    Having a proper system that can manage leaves, count the free days of the employees and keep updated about the coming vacations too is very beneficial in the working decorum nowadays.

    Subsequently, this framework helps in dealing with the additional schedule advantageously and effectively through clear meaningful reports.

    Day Off Leave Tracker App

    This app is a vacation tracker app that tracks the absence of your team in a single place and saves your time and effort, you can set up your leaves and vacation policies in seconds, and allows you to have a unique experience of doing things making done by their own effortlessly.

    Why Day Off Leave Tracker is more beneficial than other leave tracking systems?

    When we talk about thousands of other systems that have their processes and mechanisms to have a safety check and balance between leaves requests, vacations, and managing requests, DAY OFF proudly says that it balances the leaves and vacation requests by keeping all the data original and safe.

    Layout the policies of HR

    To have a better setup and organizing data, this vacation tracker balances the holidays, working days, approvals, and year or the start of the month.

    Vacation tracker

    This is one of the best vacation tracker apps that keep an eye on the vacations of your team members in a very precise way and gives you an official notification when you got a vacation request.

    PTO Tracker software

    When we talk about PTO, it means the “paid time off” tracking process that tracks the working hours of the employees and other vacation requests.

    Working with sub-team members

    You can also create a setup of a sub-team that works under the real person to create working policies, working days, and balances in requests.

    Time off app

    This time off application creates a weekly, monthly, and yearly calendar to be viewed by both the members and the company.

    To have a better observance of workflow and have a detailed report of any moment and send announcements in case of some emergency, this time off app would be very effective and beneficial.

    Convenient through Mobile App

    Now you can send your vacation and leaves holidays at any time anywhere with the benefit of this mobile application app!

    Usually, 80% of the customers use this application on their mobile to track requests and vacations with just one click.

    A process of creating your own company!

    By creating your account by entering a name, email and password, and the company location, you can add your members, team member, and employees to them. You can also set up a team manager that has a hold of managing a team in a better way with good implications of policies.

    Customize the settings of your company

    From choosing the working days and weekends and adding the leave requests and balances, you can create the setting in your own comfy and easily grasped way!

    Official holidays

    By using this leave tracker, you can identify the national and official holidays that come in a week or a month, but you can add up other holidays too if you want to.

    Management of leaves requests

    Whenever you’ve added your group and they began to submit demands. You can track down a full calendar see with every one of the leaves of your group. You can likewise discover a rundown of the got demands which are the worker’s information, mentioned leave type, leave length, start and end dates and leave reason. At that point, you can undoubtedly acknowledge or decline the requests.

    Sending sudden announcements

    Now you don’t have to write a unique message and send it to all of your employees. There is no need to write an entire email and then send it to your team members or have an announcement board on the top!

    By typing one single message, you can send this message to all of your employees, team members, or managers so that your whole team is notified in a short time.

    Sending leave requests

    Presenting a leave demand isn’t a boring thing any longer, you don’t have to fill a whole paper leave structure and hang tight at the top for it to get acknowledged by your administrator!

    With the Day Off app, you can present a leave demand very quickly, simply pick your leave type, the beginning and end dates of your leave and the leave reason, at that point present your request and you will be informed when it gets acknowledged.

    Balancing holidays

    With Day Off, you can without much of a stretch and worry view your leaves balance, how long have you utilized, and the number of are left. You can likewise see the official occasions of your nation also.

    What other features make the Day Off Leave Tracker stand out on its own?

    We have listed a few things that would be very beneficial for you when it comes to the technology of tracking vacations and managing online requests of different employees in a company.

    Sending of invitations by Email & Phone numbers

    Now the time has gone when only the handwritten work and manual page works were acceptable. With the innovation in time and science, with many apps that have changed their style of organizing the data and brought more professional effectiveness in their use of the content, the apps like DAY OFF do half of your tasks automatically.

    Types of leaves configuration

    The arrangements and design of all leave types are done by the managers in customized way. They can also have an opportunity of adding new types of leaves and defining their request balances and the option of half-day too.

    Web dashboard managers

    Having full knowledge of team leaves and their statistics, there is a release of admin or manager web dashboard that manages all the implemented policies.

    Official notifications

    You can receive notifications from your company that tells you whether your leave is accepted or not or any other message just pops up on your screen so that you have a better idea of what is going on and a better way of response too.

    The approval process in the team

    This leave tracker has a better and more effective layout of your approval process that is further based on the work that you have done in the past.

    Conclusion

    Despite the fact, that a company relies on the HR department for tracking the leaves and vacations of the employees, any human error or mistake cannot be acceptable in this regard.

    Ideally, the above-mentioned advancements in the leave tracking system made the work so easy and time-saving that you got all your work done in one click within no time. It is an approach to continuous information or to take any action to a paperless arrangement, and track down the ideal answer for your group.

    Apps like PTO tracker or Day Off would be very helpful and have the greatest advantages of managing and sending requests. This employee time off tracker easily and effectively tracks the absence of any team member so that there would be no reason of saying “I was present that day, boss”! 

    Sign up now for free and get the best leave management experience!

  • 8 Tips to Build a Healthy and Positive Workplace Environment

    8 Tips to Build a Healthy and Positive Workplace Environment

    When it comes to employees’ productivity and eliminating stressful atmosphere, a healthy workplace is the ideal solution for positive outcomes. The most important thing that has the greatest influence on the employee’s motivations and happiness is the healthy and positive workplace environment they work in.

    As for a company, a healthy workplace environment is a great factor that leads to an increase in the company’s business sales, and increases employee productivity which in turn reduces absenteeism-related costs, medical claims, workers’ compensation, and turnover.

    So here are some key tips to guarantee a healthy environment for employees.

    1.    Create a Comfortable Working Space

    Although team members may work closely on projects, negative effects could happen sometimes. You need to find a way to create a positive and effective working space that is just the right size: small enough for everyone to work closely, but with enough room for everyone to work comfortably. Everyone needs their own space with the tools they need to reach the desired results, but still be able to work with other team members.

    2.    Use a Convenient Desk

    A lot of health issues happen because of sitting for long periods of time, so a convenient and comfortable desk is a must. Many companies bring standing desks for their employees. These desks allow you to be able to sit or stand, where you can move around and keep your body active throughout the working day, and it’s not healthy to be on your feet all day as well. And if you have a traditional desk, remember to have a healthy balance of sitting and standing and to move around every once in a while.

    3.    Provide Clean Air

    Having bad air in the workplace can make you lose concentration. Getting air purifiers is important to keep at various parts of the office which should have a HEPA filter to catch and filtrate dust particles in the air. This is an important way to create a better working environment.

    4.     Have Some Plants

    Plants are good work colleagues. There are many ways that plants can help to create a healthier and more comfortable workplace environment. They help to improve the air quality. Also, plants make any area more comfortable, plants help to put you in a good mood. Too many plants can become overwhelming. Try to keep it to a couple of plants, one on your desk can have a very calming effect on you.

    5.    Keep the Team Bond

    A connected team is a powerful team, even if there are remote workers on your team. It is not enough to just work on projects. You have to know one another to be able to establish a true productive working relationship. Find ways that your team can be better connected. If there are remote workers, use video conferencing where everyone can take part in meetings and sessions. Begin these meetings with ice-breaker activities. At each meeting, conference call, etc., you will learn more and more about each other and have a better connection which will help to improve the team’s productivity.

    6.    Urge Conflict

    It’s good to have some healthy conflict within the team. This is how ideas are born. Offer up an idea that is completely new, and see where the discussion goes from this point. What might start as sounding weird could end up being the best idea you ever worked on.

    7.    Offer Rewards

    To keep the spirit up and high, recognizing your team and offering rewards for project milestones is a one good way. Any project is interesting at first, however, it can become more difficult and boring with time. Set milestones, and offer rewards at each milestone when it is achieved. For example, you might send an email to tell the members how great they are performing, and that they have reached a milestone. Or maybe you can treat the team with lunch to celebrate the newly achieved milestone.

    8.    Assure Supportive Environment

    Everybody has their personal problems and it is only human that personal emotions can get brought into the workplace. Try not to ignore them but instead, try to find the reason of the problem and be a supportive manager by showing concern. Your employee may come in to work depressed due to some personal issues, so try to show that you not only care about the company’s progress, but you also care about the well-being of your employee.

    At the end, creating a healthy workplace environment doesn’t have to be costly or difficult, but it will have a great impact on team members’ productivity and loyalty to the company.

    Good luck with creating a healthy workplace environment!

  • Even If You Are Really Busy, That’s Why You Need a Vacation

    Even If You Are Really Busy, That’s Why You Need a Vacation

    Every once in a while, one should have a day off and treat oneself or take a vacation and just enjoy their free time with family and friends. So here are the reasons why we need vacation, When our lives become hectic, our stress levels rise, and our mental and physical health suffers. Burnout, decreased productivity, and increased stress result from continuous work without proper breaks. Vacations serve as a reset button, allowing your mind and body to rest and recover. Stepping away from the everyday grind allows you to rest, recharge, and obtain new insights.

    You Reduce Stress

    Feeling stressed makes you unable to think and see things clearly or work efficiently. Taking a break will dramatically reduce the stress you feel and makes you able to balance your work and life and decrease and any signs of burnout.

    You Do Your Health a Favor

    Studies show that employees who take vacations are healthier and more productive than those who just work. According to an article by the New York Times your rate of dying soon increases by 21 % when you do not take any annual vacations.

    Vacation Makes You Happy

    Taking a vacation and doing different activities other than those of your usual routine is a main reason for making you happy and changing your mood. Studies show that people who take vacations are happier than those who don’t, and those who take 2 or 3 short vacations throughout the year are more effective and happy than those taking a one big vacation.  

    You Offer Yourself Some Quality Time

    Nothing is more important than a family. From time to time you need to spend time with your family and friends without thinking of the tasks you have to finish or tomorrow’s meeting. Vacations make you strengthen the bond with your family when you give them some of your time. 

    You Become More Productive

    A vacation makes you come back refreshed and recharged and ready for new challenges. It will make you more productive and creative. May be a vacation will make you come up with the greatest idea ever and become the Employee of the Year!

    How to Make the Most of Your Vacation

    1. Disconnect: Unplug from work-related emails and calls. Let your colleagues know you are on vacation and designate someone to handle urgent matters in your absence.
    2. Engage in Activities: Pursue activities you love or explore new hobbies. Engaging in enjoyable pursuits enhances happiness and relaxation.
    3. Travel or Staycation: Whether you travel to a far-off destination or opt for a staycation at home, the key is to break from your routine and indulge in leisure.
    4. Mindfulness and Relaxation: Practice mindfulness techniques, meditation, or yoga. These practices can significantly reduce stress and promote a sense of calm.
    5. Plan Ahead: Ensure your workload is manageable before your vacation. Proper planning prevents last-minute stress and allows you to enjoy your time off fully.

    Conclusion

    Vacations are more than a luxury; they are required for a healthy, balanced life. Even if you have a hectic schedule, taking a break is an investment in your well-being and productivity. So, the next time you believe you’re too busy for a vacation, know that you’re exactly right. Take a step back, relax, and return to your obligations with renewed vigor and a new outlook on life. Your mind, body, and job will all be grateful.