Leave management isn’t just for HR departments or team leads to worry about—it affects everyone in the organization. You might be thinking, “That’s not my problem; I’m just here to do my job.” But still, leave management challenges can sneak up on you and your company in ways you might not even realize.
Picture this: you have a colleague who suddenly takes a long vacation without any warning and leaves the rest of the team scrambling. Maybe they’re dealing with a personal issue or just need a mental health break. While you understand their need for time off, you also see that projects get delayed, deadlines are missed, and the remaining employees feel overwhelmed.
Or consider another common scenario: an employee has accrued a ton of vacation days but never takes them. They’re dedicated to their work, but as the months go by, stress levels rise, and productivity dips.
Eventually, they burn out and decide to leave the company entirely. Not only do you lose a valuable team member, but you also face the financial hit of paying out those unused vacation days.
Finally, let’s talk about compliance. Many businesses overlook the legal aspects of leave management. If you’re not keeping track of various leave entitlements—like maternity leave, sick leave, or family leave—you could find yourself in hot water with labor laws.
And there are dozens of scenarios more! Whether you’re a team member or a manager, it’s crucial to stay informed and engaged with how leave is managed in your workplace.
In this blog post we dive into leave management issues that often go unnoticed and can seriously harm the business.
The Key Culprits: Inconsistencies and Lacks
The process of tracking who’s off and when they’re off doesn’t seem too complicated. So, why do leave management challenges happen, and how can we tackle them?
Let’s kick things off with the little cracks in your seemingly perfect leave management process. There are a few key areas where you might be missing something.
1. Lack of clarity. It’s normal that every organization has its own unique leave accrual rules. For instance, you might offer a certain number of days per month or have a yearly cap. You may even edit specific employees’ balances manually if needed.
Any leave policy is ok, unless it makes people confused. When your employees don’t know, for example, how much leave they’re entitled to or what the process is for requesting time off, it leads to frustration.
Are they accruing days based on hours worked? What happens if they take a day off during a busy month? And what about that “use it or lose it” stuff?
Another sign that your leave policy might be lacking clarity is mixed messages from management. One manager may interpret the rules one way, while another has a completely different take. Or perhaps the situation changes from week to week. What happens next? Frustration, decreased morale, and high turnover—nobody wants to stick around in a place where they feel undervalued or confused about their rights.
On top of all that, unclear leave policies can put your business at risk legally. If employees feel like they’re being treated unfairly or discriminated against regarding their leave, it could lead to complaints or even lawsuits.
2. Lack of data. Leave data includes all details about employee time off, such as vacation days, sick leave, personal days, and any other kind of leave your employees might take. It’s the information that tells you who’s out, when they’re out, and how often they’re taking time off.
Here are a few reasons why neglecting leave data can be a recipe for disaster:
- Without it you might not see patterns emerging. If someone is constantly taking sick days or vacation days, it might be a sign they’re overwhelmed.
- If you plan projects and deadlines without knowing who will be available, you might assign a critical task to someone who’s about to head out on vacation.
- When some employees feel like they can take time off whenever they want while others are stuck working overtime, it can lead to tension within the team and impact collaboration.
And there’s much more to it: PTO requests for blackout days, scheduling conflicts, compliance issues, etc.
3. Calculation errors. Sounds funny, but even in the era of total digitalization, the dreaded math mistake isn’t going anywhere. Your company may have a leave policy that sounds quite straightforward, but somehow, the numbers just don’t add up. Maybe you thought you had 10 days of vacation left, but when you go to request time off, the system tells you you only have 5.
Such calculation errors can stem from a variety of sources. Maybe your software isn’t updating correctly, or perhaps there’s a misunderstanding about how the accrued days are spent.
And when someone finds out they don’t have as many leave days as they thought, it doesn’t just affect them—it impacts the team dynamics too! Imagine planning a group project around someone’s vacation only to find out they can’t actually take that time off. It can throw a wrench in everyone’s plans and lead to unnecessary stress.
4. Lack of commitment and support from leadership. Finally, if you or your leads aren’t committed to making leave management a priority, it sends a message that employee well-being isn’t valued.
Just think: you’ve been working hard, meeting deadlines, and finally decide it’s time to take a well-deserved break. You submit your leave request, excited about your upcoming plans, only to be met with a shrug from your manager. “We really need you here,” they say, or worse, they just ignore your request altogether.
For starters, it can lead to burnout, but it doesn’t stop there. People will start to think, “If I take time off, my workload will pile up, and I’ll be the bad guy.”
Tackle Leave Management Challenges with actiPLANS
In 2024, 62% of managers have reported an increase in leave requests, and 72% have seen more requests for accommodations, which means that without adequate and effective solutions to the time-off challenges, it can quickly become more of a burden than a benefit for just any growing organization.
The key word here is “effective.”
First, you need to provide a clear guide to help employees understand their entitlements, conditions, and application processes. Make sure this info is accessible to everyone—not just HR. Include it in employee handbooks, onboarding docs, or even on your company’s intranet.
And if you’re still using spreadsheets and email chains for managing leave, it’s time for an upgrade. Enter leave management software like actiPLANS.
With actiPLANS, you can create custom leave policies that your employees actually understand. No more guessing games about how many sick days they have left—your balance is always at hand.
Moreover, everyone has access to the same information, making it easy for employees to know exactly what they’re entitled to and how many days they will have left after the leave request.
actiPLANS also automates leave requests and approvals: employees request PTO directly through the platform, and you just click approve while automated notifications keep everyone in the loop, and nothing gets lost in the shuffle.
Another key is to plan ahead and adjust project timelines to accommodate upcoming leaves.
The intuitive dashboard allows you to see who’s off at a glance, making it easy to plan around absences and ensure that your team is always adequately staffed. You’ll be able to spot tendencies in leave usage too—like if Mondays are particularly popular for taking a day off—and adjust your policies accordingly.
Last but definitely not least, actiPLANS gives you access to valuable data that can help inform your leave policies. Want to know how many employees are taking sick leave? Curious about trends in vacation usage? The analytics feature lets you dive deep into the data, helping you make informed decisions that benefit both the business and your employees.
All you have to do now is to celebrate when team members take their well-deserved breaks and show appreciation for their hard work.
When employees know they can take time off without feeling guilty or anxious about work piling up, they’ll return refreshed and ready to tackle new challenges.
