How to Streamline Your Team’s Leave Management with Deputy

Work rotas sometimes resemble a well-choreographed dance routine when running a bustling small business. But as we all know, unexpected twists and turns can disrupt even the best-laid plans, and employees may suddenly request leave or be unavailable for scheduled shifts. 

Fortunately, Deputy provides multiple solutions to address shift absences and leave management, ensuring smooth operations. We understand that your team members have lives outside of work, and Deputy’s mobile app ensures that you can balance employee wellbeing and your business's needs. 

Employees can manage their own leave requests and unavailability

1. Flexibility: With Deputy’sAndroid and iPhone mobile apps, your employees can manage their leave requests and unavailability. They can enter their unavailability, swap shifts with coworkers, and submit leave from their phones. Whether it’s a one-off event or recurring dates, they can quickly enter their preferred times when they choose not to be scheduled. 

2. Real-Time Schedule Updates: Gone are the days of missed schedule changes and miscommunication. Deputy promptly publishes employee schedules to their phone and notifies them in real-time of any changes with push notifications. This streamlined communication minimises confusion and ensures everyone is on the same page.

3. Effortless Shift Swapping: In case an employee can’t work a scheduled shift Deputy allows them to swap or offer the shift to suitable co-workers.

4. A Clear Trail of Leave Requests: Employees can view their entitlements and balances and request leave directly from the Deputy mobile app. This level of transparency simplifies compliance. 

Simplified Management of Leave and Unavailability

1. Panoramic View: Managers can easily manage potential absences with Deputy. The time off view in the schedule allows managers to see which staff are unavailable.

2. Block Out Peak Periods: If you have a busy period coming up, managers can block employees from entering unavailability or submitting time off requests for specific dates.

3. Leave Requests Are a Breeze: When an employee submits a leave request, managers receive a notification, and if the request clashes with a shift, you can open the shift for others to claim. When the schedule is published, Deputy highlights any conflicts during the approval process, allowing managers to open shifts for others to claim.

Intelligent Leave Calculation

Approving leave for employees with irregular hours can be complex, but Deputy simplifies this process by calculating how much leave ‘a day of leave’ represents for each employee. 

This calculation relies on the employee’s regular working hours or an assigned leave policy that uses a previous reference period to calculate average working hours.

Quickly Approve or Deny Leave Requests

Deputy’s intuitive approval workflow makes it easy for managers to approve or deny leave requests easily. They can also see which employees are unavailable and adjust the schedule. The employee is notified once the manager approves or declines the leave request. Read more about approving leave requests.

Transparent Leave Tracking

Both managers and employees can view the team member’s leave balance for each entitlement: 

• Available Balance (shows how many hours of leave the team member is entitled to take, taking into account any hours for upcoming approved leave)

• Upcoming Leave (shows how many hours of this leave were approved for this team member to take on a future date)

• Current Balance (indicates the number of hours the team member is currently entitled to but does not include any upcoming leave)

Managers can also submit leave on behalf of their team members when necessary. 

Once an employee’s leave request is approved, Deputy automatically generates a leave timesheet. Managers approve these timesheets as usual and mark them as paid, locking the timesheet from further edits and deducting leave from the employee's balance. 

Detailed Accrual History

Deputy’s leave management system allows managers to set up leave policies that accrue and credit leave. A detailed leave balance history log enables managers to review all credits and debits from each team member’s entitlements, facilitating leave management compliance. Read more about leave balance history tracking.

Case Study:

Coach Services Limited used to spend hours each week manually tracking their 47 employees’ leave requests and accruals. They also needed help keeping track of which employees were available on specific dates. Since adopting Deputy, they have saved hours each week and have peace of mind knowing their leave policies are being adhered to.  

“Our industry has been waiting for software to calculate our employee’s average leave entitlement. We’ve finally managed to ditch the spreadsheets and lengthy data entry and let Deputy do it all for us”, says Rob Crawford, Financial Director at Coach Services Limited. 

In a Nutshell

Deputy’s Leave Management isn’t just about managing leave - it’s about empowering your team and streamlining operations.

We’ve designed each step, from giving employees more control over their schedules to enabling managers effortlessly approve leave, to help your workplace run smoothly. 

Harness the power of Deputy’s leave management solution today and transform how you manage staff leave and availability. Together, let’s turn those leave management challenges into success stories. Learn more about Leave Management and book a demo to embark on your journey of efficient workforce management.