Workers are sure to agree on one thing – time off during the holiday season is needed and appreciated. This could be even more prevelant in Australia, where the festive season is coupled with great weather to entice the employees to take a detour to the beach. Keeping on top of absence requests during the festive season can be difficult for managers. Absence management will mean different things to different companies over the holidays, but managers can make well-informed data-based estimates of the maximum number of people who can take a break without endangering overall productivity, saving businesses time and money.

Here are some smart ways to keep employees content while maintaining company productivity during the upcoming holidays.

Plan ahead

Let your team take control of holidays this year, and empower them to request leave effectively. The majority of your workforce are likely to want some time off in December, meaning managers get overloaded with requests, shift swaps and flexitime. Having an effective time and attendance solution in place means that absence requests have never been more easy for your workers to submit, and for you to approve.

With effective Time and Attendance software, you could:

• Boost your profits by putting the spotlight on productivity
• Plan for andmanage absences with minimal impact on your time
• Save time by automating attendance processes
• Be sure you never fall foul of compliance regulations, thanks to inbuilt flagging systems
• Enable GDPR compliance using the Data Assurance Module
• See accurate, real-time reports

Essential scheduling software

Holiday season is the prime time for retail, and more staff are needed than at any other time of the year in this industry. It can be very difficult for customer-facing personnel to get any time off in retail or similar industries. Meanwhile, companies without high-street presence can live with reduced attendance for a couple of days. HR managers need to be aware of the realistic needs when they are formulating the staffing plan for this period of the year, since being understaffed during a peak shopping period is just as bad as having a staff idle around the office.

Using software to manage absences in real time

Advanced software solutions empower HR managers and allow them to plan more accurately. This is essential in the holiday season, when staff need to know when they can take time off, and how much time they can use. Time and attendance solutions offer easy and quick-fixes in planning shifts based on business need, and allow you to manage the absence requests of your employees efficiently. Cloud-based and optimized for mobile use, time and attendance tracking processes can be significantly shortened and simplified, eliminating misunderstandings and costly delays.

How can we help?

If you’re interested in finding out more about absence management systems and how they can benefit you, contact us today on sales@mitrefinch.com.au or call us on 1300 884 831.