It doesn’t matter what sector your business operates in, managing your staff is always going to be a top priority. Effective employee management lays the foundation for optimal operational performance, which is why it should be a critical function for any company.
Making changes to the way you manage staff and employee benefits can seem overwhelming at first, but it doesn’t have to be. Take a look at our guide for changing your holiday form process and find out how easy it is to increase efficiency.
Changing Your Holiday Form Process
1. Digitise Holiday Forms
Switching from paper-based holiday forms to a digital version via document management software is one of the easiest ways to streamline the request process. When employees can submit forms electronically, it automatically creates a digital record of requests and reduces the risk of forms being lost or overlooked. This can reduce the potential for disputes and ensures that forms are processed in a timely manner.
With the right document management software, like myhrtoolkit, you can save, encrypt and store documents securely and make fresh forms easily available to relevant members of staff. Furthermore, you can ensure that all workers have access to the updated documents and that earlier versions are safely archived.
2. Identify Essential Information
When employees request leave, there is a range of essential information that you’ll need to know. Before creating a digital holiday form, consider what type of information will help you to operate in their absence. In addition to knowing exactly what dates they want to take off work, for example, you may want to query whether they will be available as an emergency contact and, if so, what contact details should be used.
Similarly, you may want to ask the employee to specific their return date, so that there is no confusion about when they’ll be back at work, as well as their full name, job title and right employee number (if applicable).
3. Establish a Deadline
If staff regularly request holiday leave at the last minute, it can be difficult for businesses to mitigate the impact of their absence. Due to this, workflows can be disrupted, projects delayed, and outcomes diminished. By implementing a holiday request deadline, you can ensure that employees give a reasonable amount of notice for upcoming leave. This will allow you to adjust staff schedules, modify existing deadlines and ensure minimal disruption while an employee is on holiday.
4. Integrate with Performance Management Software
Digitising your holiday forms is a great way to make the request process more transparent and efficient but integrating this with performance management software can offer even better results. When an employee submits a holiday request form, for example, you can access real-time data to determine their remaining holiday entitlement and scheduling information to see whether any other relevant staff members will be away from work at the same time.
This reduces the risk of too many staff members being on holiday at the same time and makes it easier for supervisors and managers to approve or deny holiday requests. Furthermore, holiday request management can be undertaken more quickly, giving staff members more time to focus on higher value tasks.
5. Add Data Fields for Employer Responses
When you’re creating a holiday request form template, don’t forget to include data fields for a supervisor or manager to complete. This may include the supervisor or manager’s name and job title, as well as whether the request has been approved or denied and the date when the decision was made. If a request is denied, it is also beneficial to have a data field to note why the request cannot be authorised.
Again, having a digitised form drastically reduces the amount of time it takes for management personnel to complete these tasks, but it also means that employees can access submitted forms easily to find out whether their request has been approved.
6. Incorporate Clickable Links
Another advantage associated with digitising the holiday request process is that you can include clickable links directly in the document. If employees want to confirm how much annual leave they have left before making a request, for example, providing a clickable link to their employee profile makes it easy for them to do so.
Conversely, supervisors and managers can simply click the relevant link to access staff rotas and schedules, which simplifies the decision-making process and ensures that approved holiday leave won’t negatively impact your business.
Increasing Efficiency in Employee Management
Dealing with holiday requests is an important element of employee management but it’s just one small component of what your HR department is responsible for. By streamlining the process, you can deliver better outcomes, but you can also minimise the amount of time spent on approving holiday requests and ensure that HR professionals are able to dedicate their time and attention to higher priority tasks.