An especially difficult task for nonprofits is managing employee leave data. Without a dedicated Human Resources team due to budgetary reasons, the process of recording this information can become quite cumbersome. Unquestionably, it can take up considerable time and resources to identify and keep track of everybody's absences.
Here are a few tips for nonprofits to better handle employee leave through nonprofit leave management software.
Use automated compliance tools.
No one is exempt from state and federal regulations concerning mandatory leave, including nonprofits. While these organizations may not have the same resources as bigger businesses, it is still essential that they abide by legal directives such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act). To ensure adherence, administrators should become acquainted with the requirements and then input them into a software program. This will allow for automated compliance along with your nonprofit's particular rules regarding leave.
Manage accruals automatically.
Some nonprofits recruit excellent talent through means other than salary since they often have fewer resources than larger for-profit organizations. One perk to retain talent might be to increase leave accrual rates. However, managing those accruals for each individual employee can be a challenge. Instead, an automated leave management system can manage a different accrual rate for each kind of employee or for even each employee, taking the workload off your shoulders while still maintaining an excellent perk for your employees.
Increase transparency regarding leave requests.
The issue of leave can be delicate since employees want (and need) to use their accumulated time off and yet, they want to be seen as productive. The way to assist employees and encouraging them to use all available time off is to have a system for submitting requests in a way that’s transparent. Employees should have a resource for checking on how much time they have available and submitting requests. Then, they should be able to see where the leave request is in the approval process. This leaves everyone feeling more satisfied in the process and more secure in the knowledge that their request is being moved through the system.
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Establish fair policies and stick to them.
The first step is to clarify all policies and make them readily available (preferably in more than one location). Then, use the software to enforce policies fairly and uniformly. Avoidance of surprises for all involved parties—employees and approvers—shows that your policies are to be taken seriously and that you are treating everyone fairly. This means that there are no side deals and that your employees and approvers are only using the established software system to request and approve of leave.
Evaluate policies annually.
This might feel like overkill, but you should be using automated software to gather data and reports about what policies are working, which policies are being broken, and what changes might need to be made in the future. If a particular policy is always being broken, it might be time to revise that policy. Or, if a particular employee is using too much leave, that’s also valuable data to have. The auditing software that comes with timesheets and expense reports is the tool you need for this job.
These leave management best practices for nonprofits will help you and your employees get back to work on your organization’s mission. Preventing misunderstandings and perceived unfairness will also help your organization to draw more talent and more funding, so an automated leave management system is essential for any nonprofit.
Learn more about what DATABASICS for Nonprofits can do for you.
For more information on the DATABASICS Time & Expense solutions, contact us, or call (800) 599-0434.
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