3 Tips to Effective Employee Vacation Tracking

Employees have the right to take their vacation time. When vacations overlap and your business doesn’t have enough coverage, however, employee benefits can turn into a company problem. Employee vacation tracking is an important part of doing business so you can ensure that you always have enough employees to cover the work that needs doing.

Use these three tips for effective employee vacation tracking.

Set Deadlines

Determine the busiest time of the year for your business. Ask that anyone requesting vacation time during this period, make the request at least six months in advance. While you can remain flexible on the backend, on the frontend, request that employees submit vacation time by certain dates.

For example, let employees know upfront that anyone asking for vacation in December has to submit a request at least six months in advance. You can even declare this time of the year a “no vacation” time, unless it is an emergency.  

You can also set general deadlines. Ask employees to submit vacation requests as far in advance as possible, no matter what time of the year. In some cases, you can ask for advance notice of one week, two weeks, or what you deem necessary to adequately plan for their absence.

Create a Clear Vacation Policy

Clearly state what the vacation policy of your company is. Put the policy in writing. This helps to make it clear and concise so that employees understand what the vacation policy is. All of these efforts make it easier for you to implement an employee vacation tracking system. This helps to ensure that employee vacations are not overlapping.

Clarify the Management Stance on Vacation

Clarify that you have the right to approve or deny vacation requests. You don’t have to be a dictator about vacation, but there will come times when you have to tell an employee that they cannot take vacation on specific days. It might be because there are too many employees taking vacation at the same time. It can also be because the company has a big or special project to work on that requires all hands on deck.

Effective employee tracking permits you to plan accordingly. When you know when employees are going to be out of the office, you can redistribute work or ensure that there is adequate backup coverage. Employing these three tips puts you on the right track to proper tracking and planning.

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