For most organizations, time-off management is an essential part of managing their workforce. Unscheduled time off, for instance, can throw a wrench into established employee schedules and can cause potential overtime and compliance issues. But whether scheduled or unscheduled, employee absences have a huge impact on the overall productivity of an organization, and can directly affect the bottom line.

Studies conducted by global consulting firm Mercer to measure the effects of employee absences show that all forms of unplanned absences can negatively affect payroll by as much as 9%. Clearly, it is time for organizations to take their time-off and vacation policies very seriously.

Here are some things your company should consider when implementing time-off policies:

• Will we have buckets for different time-off types, or have a combined PTO bank?
• How and what do we communicate about the different time-off types and their uses to our employees and supervisors?
• What instructions around accruals, resets, and carry forwards should the PTO policy clearly mention?
• What is the procedure to request time off? What information should be provided, and what documentation is needed?
• What kind of approval structure should be in place for leave requests?
• How should partial-day time-off requests be handled?
• How will we share information about leave requests and approvals across teams?
• Should we have a policy limiting the number of team members taking time off simultaneously? How will we apply the policy across the workforce?
• Will we limit the number of hours or days an employee is permitted to take off in a month? Will employees be allowed to go in the negative and, if so, by how much?
• How will we track and limit time-off liabilities?
• How will this data be rolled up into the payroll or ERP system?
• How will this data be shared with our top management to make policy changes, if needed?

To stay on top of these challenges, organizations are automating their processes around time-off management in the cloud. These are organizational benefits you can realize:

• Streamlined time-off requests – Empower employees with self-service and give them visibility into balances and usage to reduce frequent inquiries to HR
• Configurable approval workflows – Flexible workflows define the approval hierarchy, and automated alerts ensure accuracy and fast processing
• Improved employee staffing and scheduling – With an advanced calendar view, employers get complete visibility into employee time off so they can ensure adequate staffing
• Easy-to-manage balances and liabilities – Automatic accrual and balance calculations reduce administrative hassle, while advanced reporting makes managing time-off liabilities smoother
• Improved compliance and dispute avoidance – Automatic accruals and end-of-year resets help prevent employees from taking time off they haven't earned
• Seamless integrations with other systems – Ability to transfer time-off related information to payroll, HRMS, or ERP systems without any hiccups
• No-hassle benefit of the cloud – Pay as you go, mobility, free upgrades and maintenance, faster time-to-value, and no capital investment requirements are the benefits of the cloud