The Benefits of HR Automation: Paid Time Off Tracking

There are many problematic disadvantages of manual Human Resource tracking and accounting. For example, manual Paid Time Off (PTO) tracking limits a company’s Human Resources Department in several ways. Learn about those issues and how automating your Paid Time Off processes will benefit your company in this post.

PTO is generally awarded to employees on an accrual basis. Accrual per pay-period, without automation, requires manual tracking. Therefore, accurate accumulation of paid leave becomes a difficult process; a process that can divert otherwise productive HR time into unnecessary paperwork.

The Problems with a Manual Process

The issues arising from a process done by hand are plentiful. Since the process is manual, requests for time off must be processed in hard copy or email. The manual nature of this process makes request retention and notification cumbersome and ensures that record retention and publication of time off can not be in a centralized location convenient for the entire enterprise. Any time taken during a pay-period requires a related reduction in the accrued time off for that period. The calculation is straight-forward, but the task to determine the correct figure is time consuming and given to human error.

The lack of automation and dependence on manual processes virtually eliminates a firm’s ability to standardize their methodology.  As a process remains non-homogeneous, more diversity of forms and retention leads to lost documentation and a non-compliant Human Resources practice.

How can HR Automation Help?

There are at least as many benefits to automation as there are disadvantages to manual processing. Some of the benefits are:  

• Automated Paid Time Off (PTO) tracking allows for an enterprise wide tool to request and monitor PTO requests. In this way, requests are submitted, approved or denied, and retained electronically rather than manually.
  In addition, the automation allows for all approved PTO requests to populate to a company PTO calendar. The company wide calendar provides access to all associates to know when their colleagues are out of the office.
  
• As accrual is most often tracked on a different basis depending on length of service with the company, the calculations of PTO per pay-period are easily managed with a simple network formula. Thus, the automation frees company resources for more productive and cost effective tasks.
  The on-line calculation being built into the payroll system allows for the calculation to be made strictly by hours worked. This eliminates any manual tracking of time off from the amount of time accrued during the pay-period. Automation in this space eliminates the possibility of human error, while greatly increasing the efficiency of PTO tracking overall.
• Automation lends itself to standardization.  Using one automated process completely negates a practice of one-off emails, paper requests, and multiple retention location.  Of itself, the automation ensures that the process will be standardized and communicated consistently across the entire organization.

In Closing

While there are always pain points in moving from a current process state to an automated one, the benefits realized far outweigh the challenge. Change is a constant in today’s dynamic marketplace, and managing change for internal processes should become a standard practice. A practice that leverages efficiencies and technology to overcome the shortfall in manual processing.

In short, any organization will realize gains in effective internal practices by taking the time to implement and use automation for their Paid Time Off tracking function. Further, automation fits well into every organization’s structure for the future and allows growth and scalability that is not in any way available in the manual process.