Effectively managing paid time off (PTO) at your company can be a complex endeavor, particularly when you must abide by federal and state mandates, as well as the needs of your organization.
When it comes to how PTO is categorized, some companies prefer sick time and vacation time in separate time-off buckets while others prefer to keep them all in a single category.
Many companies are choosing to align the federal or state mandated time off to work concurrent with their organizations’ paid leave system.
For example, if an employee takes three days off for Family Medical Leave (FMLA), it also counts as three days off their sick time.
Once the organization-provided paid time off is exhausted, then the remaining FMLA time goes unpaid. In addition, many short- and long-term disability programs require all company paid time off be taken before disability kicks in.
It obviously pays to be savvy with how your company manages PTO, and the absence management system your company uses makes a big difference in just how savvy you can be.
Pipkins’ Absence Manager can provide you the flexible tools you need to effectively manage paid time off for your organization.
Customize Your Time Off Software
Pipkins’ Absence Manager has configurations for all federal and state laws concerning time off and provides administrative approval. During our implementation process, we set up your absence management system to keep you compliant with federal, state, and other statutory requirements.
We then customize the implementation to account for your corporate or business rules necessary for the HR department to effectively manage time-off accrual, time-off requests, and management approvals.
Longer leaves of absence are not a problem either as we work with the requirements set forth in your short-and long-term disability policies.
Pipkins’ Absence Manager can apply limits as well to make sure there are no gaps in resources during busy times. We do the hard work for you!
Tips For Managing Paid Time Off
With decades of experience in workforce management solutions, here are a few tips we’ve picked up along the way that will help you effectively managing paid time off for your company:
- If federal and state time-off rules differ, always go with the law that favors the employee most.
- Zero tolerance on zero tolerance – We’ve never met a rule that couldn’t be broken for a good reason. The truth is that none of us can foresee all “exceptions” to any rule, so sometimes the best answer is to break the rules.
- Make sure tasks can be covered rather than roles – For example, it is often not necessary that someone do Susie’s job while she is out, but it is necessary to cover Susie’s tasks. Break up the tasks so multiple people can accomplish them without burdening any one person with two much added work.
- Many companies are purchasing absence management systems as FMLA software only, but absence management systems are so much more – Pipkins is unique in that it combines our scheduling software with an absence management system, allowing for better oversight in how absences will affect your day-to-day productivity while allowing you to react in ways to negate anything detrimental.
Manage Absences In The Workplace With Pipkins
Are you getting the most out of your scheduling software? Is it connected to an absence management system that stays on top of what is going on in your company?
If not, give us a call and we will be happy to customize an absence management system to fit your unique needs and simplify the process for your company.