Employee absence tracker – What kind of solution should you use?

The different types of absence trackers

Keeping your absence records accurate, clear, and-up-to date can provide you with valuable employee attendance insights, and help you to reorganize faster when unexpected staff shortages occur. 

As mentioned, you also need records for payroll processing and to be compliant with legislation. There are a few options when it comes to absence tracking:

• Paper templates – completely outdated
• Excel timesheets or other spreadsheets
• Absence tracking software – hosted or online

Many companies still use paper or excel templates to track absences. It’s definitely not the best solution, since there are always issues with archiving files and keeping records up to date and accurate. 

And besides all that, there’s also the fact that you can’t do any real analytics.

In rare cases, if you don’t have many employees, your working arrangements are not too complicated, and you don’t wish to manage employee absences online, a template could work just fine. But in most cases, it makes sense to go for the software solution.

Are you still managing employee vacations, sick leave and time-off on paper or in manual Excel timesheets? Maybe it’s time to consider using a simple absence-tracker software. 

The main benefits of an online absence tracker are:

• Less time spent on booking and managing absences
• Better self-organization
• Fewer errors and options for records getting lost
• Easier staff and vacation scheduling
• Fewer absences and handy HR (absence) analytics

Absence tracking software can be hosted or in the cloud (online), and unless you have a specific demand for a hosted solution, we’d advise you to go for the latter. 

Why? Simply put, because it’s easier, cheaper, more flexible, accessible from anywhere, and more secure.

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8 reasons to choose an online absence tracker

Let’s go through some of the major advantages of managing employee leave with an online time and attendance system, like our solution, All Hours. 

Besides being an online absence tracker, the software solutions usually also provide clocking features, so you get a comprehensive all-in-one solution to manage your employee attendance.

1. Employees submit leave requests online

With an online absence tracker like All Hours, your employees can submit their requests directly through the mobile or web time-clock app. 

No more e-mail correspondence with vacation requests are needed and no more text messages need to be exchanged when someone gets sick. This way you will have all the relevant data regarding employee absences collected in one place.

2. Manager approves absence requests online

Managers or administrators can grant or reject leave requests through the web portal or mobile app. 

Employees also get access to their personal accounts, where they can not only clock in and out, but also review the status of their leave requests.

3. Get notified by e-mail

With an online absence tracker like All Hours, you don’t need to check the portal for new requests and changes, as the software keeps you in the loop. 

You will receive an e-mail notification each time there’s a new request, and so will your employees. Not only this, but they will be notified about the status of their request and any changes to it. It’s extremely fast and efficient.

4. Delegate approvals to team administrators

It is often practical for your team leads to handle the leave requests of their team members. They have the most insight in terms of what needs to be done and who is available when. 

You can give them team administrator permission in software solutions like All Hours, so they are the ones who receive their team’s requests directly and grant or reject them.

5. Online absence records

Your absence records will be a lot safer and more organized if you keep them online! Using an online absence tracker means all your date will be in one place, accessible anytime from anywhere, and paperless. 

By using an online absence tracker, you will find everything you need without having to go through a pile of documents manually. 

Never again will you need to search for another request, submitted who knows when and who knows how. Your absence data will always be neatly organized and trustworthy.

Easy to clock-in and out. Timesheets always up-to-date. Manage and approve absences.

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6. Get insights into absence trends

Having all your data in one place makes it easier to systematically review it. This way you’ll also be able to quickly spot any problematic attendance patterns. 

If you decide to act on a specific absence-related issue, you will have all the information gathered in an online application to support your arguments.

7. Download reports

When you need to present an absence report you can simply download a filled-out Excel report from a software solution like All Hours. 

As all leave requests go through the absence tracker system, there’s no need for you to perform any additional manual work to get a report – just choose a time period and download it.

• Download an example absences report >>>

8. Reduce unnecessary absences

Once you start using a reliable and transparent absence tracker, the frequency of unnecessary absences drops. With you having a total overview of the absences, your employees will think twice before making excuses.

In summary, with an online absence tracker, employees can simply submit their absence requests, managers can more efficiently approve or deny requests, and all the team members can have an overview of planned absences. The latter also comes in extremely handy for managers to help them plan their workforce.

Try All Hours for free, it comes with an absence tracker.