When you implement LeaveMaster, everyone in your organisation will find it effortless to use as we developed the software using our industry-leading expertise.

We have extensive experience of developing customised software solutions that have enhanced the operations, sped up the business processes and improved the productivity and efficiency of organisations around the world.

We used this expertise and experience to create a powerful leave and absence management solution that substantially reduces the amount of time and effort employees, managers and HR professionals have to spend on holiday administration.

Buy why not see for yourself how easy it is to book and approve time off using LeaveMaster?

Call us on 0800 33 456 30 or Contact Us and we’ll give you a comprehensive demonstration.

In last week’s blog we discussed how you can grant leave requests with confidence using LeaveMaster.

Today, we’d like to discuss how LeaveMaster also allows you to effortlessly keep track of leave.

Using LeaveMaster’s shared leave calendar, you can see at-a-glance who has booked leave in your organisation, what type of leave they have booked, and when they are going to be away.

You can either get an instant overview of who is going to be away, and when, by viewing an Outlook-style calendar that displays all booked leaves and the leave types for any specific month, or day, of the year.

Or you can view a colour-coded chart that shows you, on a month-by-month basis, when specific team members or work colleagues have booked leave during the year.

Using LeaveMaster’s Leave Status feature, you can also see a list of all your leave requests for the current year.

You can see the start and end date of each leave request, as well as the number of days you have asked to take off for each period of leave and the type of leave requested.

Find out more about LeaveMaster’s invaluable features.

 

Implement LeaveMaster and you will be able to grant leave requests with confidence in 2012.

That’s because if an employee asks for time off, rather than guessing whether the employee will be needed or not, you will be able to use LeaveMaster’s at-a-glance calendars to see who else will be away during the requested leave period.

You will be able to see whether letting the employee take time off will leave you with insufficient resources or will result in business-critical tasks not being completed. You will then be able to make an informed decision about whether to approve the leave or suggest the employee choose alternative dates for their holiday.

Find out more about the benefits of using LeaveMaster.
 

The government's fit note scheme has led to employees being off work for longer and has not reduced the likelihood of repeated absence, a study has found.

The fit note scheme was introduced to reduce the level of sickness absence in the UK by letting GPs state which aspects of their jobs employees who would otherwise be off sick could still perform.

However, according to a study conducted by the management firm Firstcare, time off under the scheme has doubled.

Firstcare analysed the records of more than 20,000 employees. They found that employees who asked their GP for a fit note were absent from work for an average of 48 days. In comparison, employees who were off work on long-term sickness absence, but didn’t apply for a fit note, were off work for an average of 20 days.

A proven way to reduce the level of sickness absence in your organisation is to use The Bradford Factor in conjunction with an absent management solution such as LeaveMaster.

Find out more about using The Bradford Factor with LeaveMaster.

In last week’s blog we discussed how you can increase your organisation’s productivity levels using LeaveMaster.

If you implement LeaveMaster you also will be able to speed up holiday booking throughout your organisation in 2012.

Using LeaveMaster, your employees will be able to quickly and easily plan and book their holidays using a fast, automated holiday booking system, while your line managers will be able to approve holidays in seconds by simply clicking a button.

But why not see for yourself how quick and easy it is to book holidays using LeaveMaster? Call us on 0800 33 456 30 or Contact Us and we will give you a comprehensive demonstration.

 

Implement LeaveMaster in your company and your staff could work more efficiently and productively in 2012.

LeaveMaster allows you to identify employees who routinely taking non-genuine sick days. As it accurately monitors and records sickness absence, LeaveMaster also deters staff from taking unwarranted sick days in the first place. As a result, if you implement LeaveMaster you can significantly reduce your absence levels, which will mean your overall productivity levels will rise.

As LeaveMaster shows you at-a-glance who’s going to be in and who’s going to be out of your office throughout the year, you can also use it to efficiently manage your resources and staff holidays. That means you can maintain high levels of productivity by ensuring key personnel don’t book holidays at the same time and that teams or key functions are never under-staffed.

And as it automates your entire holiday booking process, LeaveMaster additionally helps staff and managers work more efficiently and productively, as they do not have to waste time completing holiday forms. Instead, they can book and approve holidays in seconds and are then free to focus on business critical activities.

Find out more about the benefits of using LeaveMaster.
 

According to the findings of a new survey replacing doctor’s sick notes with fit notes has failed to reduce levels of employee absence.

The fit note scheme was designed to reduce absenteeism by letting doctors say which aspects of jobs employees who would otherwise be off sick can still perform.

In a survey conducted by the CIPD and Simplyhealth, 87% of employers said they had used fit notes in their organisations. However, less than a third said they felt that fit notes had helped line managers manage absence more effectively, and only one in ten employers said that using fit notes had reduced absence in their organisation.

A more effective way to reduce absenteeism in your organisation is to use an absent management solution like LeaveMaster in conjunction with the Bradford Factor.

Find out more about reducing absenteeism.
 

As part of the recent CIPD absence management survey UK employers were asked to rank the five most common causes of short term absence in their organisation.

The majority of employers stated that the main cause of short-term absence in their organisation was minor illnesses such as colds, flu, stomach upsets and headaches.

However, more than 20% of the surveyed employers claimed that non-genuine sickness absence ranked among the top five most common causes of absence in their company.

And the employers admitted that by addressing the problem of unwarranted sickness absence they could significantly improve productivity in their company.

By using LeaveMaster in conjunction with the Bradford Factor, you can identify employees who take non-genuine sick days and reduce the level of unwarranted absenteeism in your organisation.

Find out more about reducing absenteeism.
 

According to a report published by Bupa, HR staff are suffering from rising stress levels as a result of staff absenteeism.

Bupa surveyed 100 HR professionals for the report. Over 70% of those surveyed said that employee absenteeism in December would have implications for their HR team.

28% admitted that staff absence is causing rising stress levels amongst their HR staff, while 20% said they have to spend considerably more time than usual in December looking for freelancers and temporary staff to cover for absent employees.

However, more than 40% of the surveyed HR professionals said they believed their organisation experienced high absenteeism levels in December because of staff overindulgence or illness resulting from overindulgence, rather than because employees were genuinely sick.

You can reduce the level of unwarranted absenteeism in your organisation by using LeaveMaster in conjunction with the Bradford Factor.

Find out more. 

A government-backed review into sickness absence has found that staff absenteeism costs the British taxpayer £13 billion a year

The review was commissioned by the Government in February, with the aim of finding ways to reduce sickness absence in both the public and private sectors.

According to the findings of the review, 11 million employees take sick leave every year, with 300,000 going on to claim health-related benefits.

The country as a whole, meanwhile, misses out on £15 billion in economic output every year as a result of sickness absence.

By using LeaveMaster in conjunction with the Bradford Factor, you can reduce the level of annual sickness absence in your organisation.

Find out how.
 

As we revealed in a blog last week, the latest CIPD absence management survey has found that the average UK employee takes more than seven sick days a year.

The survey has equally insightful findings regarding the cost of absence.

According to the survey, on average, absenteeism cost British organisations £673 per
employee last year. This rose to £743 per member of staff for organisations in the non-profit sector and £800 per employee for organisations in the public sector.

However, despite the high cost of staff absence, fewer than half of the employers surveyed for the CIPD report said they monitored how much absenteeism costs them.

The most efficient and effective way to monitor and reduce staff absenteeism is to use an absence management solution such as LeaveMaster in conjunction with the Bradford Factor.

Find out more.
 

According to the latest CIPD absence management survey, the average employee in the UK takes 7.7 days of absence a year.

However, employees working in the non-profit sector take 8.8 days off sick each year while staff working in the public sector are absent for an average of 9.1 days every year.

The CIPD 2011 absence management survey also reveals that short-term staff absences account for two-thirds of all working time lost in the UK every year.

You can download the survey for free here.

Or to find out how you can use LeaveMaster and the Bradford Factor to reduce absenteeism in your organisation, click here.
 

According to a survey of small companies although small businesses do not experience the same high levels of absenteeism as larger companies, absenteeism stills impacts their bottom line.

The survey was conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). They found that, on average, small businesses only experience 2.4 days of sickness absence per employee each year, which is significantly lower than the national average of 7.7 days per employee per year.

However, the FSB also found that, in the last year, sickness absence cost small companies an average of £1,500, while 9% of small businesses lost more than £5,000 as a result of absenteeism.
Companies of all sizes, from small to medium sized enterprises to large businesses, use LeaveMaster to reduce their absenteeism levels and streamline their absence management processes.

Find out more.
 

Allowing bars and pubs to stay open longer in England and Wales has led to an increase in workplace absenteeism, a study has found.

The study was conducted by researchers from Lancaster University Management School. They examined absence rates before and after the 2005 Licensing Act, which allowed pubs and bars to legally stay open past 11pm. They found that absence rates were 1% higher after the change in the licensing law, which across the English and Welsh workforces amounts to an estimated 660,000 extra sick days.

By using LeaveMaster in conjunction with the Bradford Factor, you can identify employees who routinely take unwarranted sick days and reduce the level of absenteeism in your organisation.

Find out more.

Implement LeaveMaster and you could see a significant rise in productivity levels across your organisation.

That’s because if you are still using a paper-based or spreadsheet system to record and manage leave and absence your staff and managers may be wasting substantial amounts of time and money: filling in holiday forms, processing leave requests, recording staff absences and calculating leave balances.

However, if you implement LeaveMaster your employees, managers and HR professionals will be able to make, process and record leave requests quickly and efficiently using an automated online system: substantially reducing the amount of time they spend on holiday administration and freeing them up to focus on improving your bottom line.

In fact, we’ve estimated that, using LeaveMaster, it takes half the time for an employee to make a leave request than it does using a traditional paper-based system. In addition, LeaveMaster cuts the time line managers spend on processing leave requests by as much as two-thirds and eliminates the need to re-calculate leave balances every time an employee is away.

To find out more about the benefits of using LeaveMaster, click here.
 

British small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) will lose £3.4 billion over the next six months as a result of employees calling in sick, a research study has found.

The study was conducted by the online market research agency Opinium who questioned the owners of small and medium-sized businesses about the number of sick days they lose in a year.

The owners surveyed for the study estimated that they collectively lose 63 million days a year through sickness absence, with two thirds of these days lost during the winter: when high numbers of staff typically call in sick with colds and flu.

By using LeaveMaster in conjunction in with the Bradford Factor, you can reduce the level of sickness absence in your organisation by identifying members of staff who have been habitually taking unwarranted sick days.

To find out more, click here.
 

Nearly half of Britain’s working professionals failed to take their full holiday entitlement last year, a survey has found.

The survey was conducted by the recruitment consultancy Robert Walters, who polled more than 1,700 professionals.

Only 53% of the UK respondents who were surveyed for the poll said they used up their full annual leave allowance last year. 23% of UK respondents took approximately 75% of their holiday allowance, 6% took only half of their entitlement, 7% took only a quarter and 11% took no holiday at all.

Implement LeaveMaster and everyone in your organisation will be able to see at a glance exactly how many days holiday they have taken during the year and how much of their entitlement they have remaining.

Your employees will be able to make sure they use up their full allowance, while your managers will be able to accurately keep track of staff holidays and ensure employees do not take more holiday than they are entitled to.

Click here to find out more.  

In a blog last week, we discussed the results of  a global workforce survey, which found that more than 50% of employees are negatively affected when their colleagues take a sick day.

Yet although the survey found that unwarranted sick days damage productivity in organisations around the world, the same survey found that less than 50% of companies use an automated system to track and record staff absences.

When asked if their employers use an automated system to keep track of absences, only 45% of the global employees polled for the survey responded yes, while 31% responded no and 19% said they didn't know.

The advantage of using an automated system, such as LeaveMaster, to record staff absences is that line managers and HR professionals can see at a glance how many sick days each employee has had. This makes it easier to identify employees who habitually take unwarranted sick days than if a note of absences is made manually or on a spreadsheet or not at all.

As LeaveMaster keeps accurate, up-to-the-minute records of staff sick days, managers and HR professionals also have access to irrefutable absence data, which can be used in disciplinary hearings. Managers can also use the data collected in the solution to create reports that show absenteeism patterns and trends across their organisation.

To find out more about the benefits of using LeaveMaster, click here.

When an employee takes a sick day, it has a negative impact on other members of staff, an absence survey has found.

Conducted by Harris Interactive and published by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated, the survey examines how the rest of the workforce is affected when employees take sick days.

51% of employees polled for the survey said they were negatively affected when their colleagues called in sick.

A high percentage of the surveyed employees said colleagues’ sick days affected them because they had to take on the workload of absent members of staff, while many others said that when colleagues called in sick, their stress levels increased.

By using LeaveMaster in conjunction with the Bradford Factor, you can identify which employees in your organisation are increasing the workloads of other members of staff and damaging productivity by taking unwarranted sick days.

To find out more, click here.
 

According to new research, employers who provide line managers with absence management training can significantly reduce the level of absence in their organisation.

The research was conducted by XpertHR who found that when line managers are given absence management training, they have the confidence to tackle staff absence proactively. As a result, the organisation’s absence rate can be reduced by as much as two-thirds.

Implement LeaveMaster and your line managers will have all the tools and up-to-the-minute data they need to tackle unwarranted absenteeism in your organisation and reduce your sickness absence rates.

Find out more.