The HR department of a company uses a mechanism known as "Leave Accrual Processing" to keep track of the awards and remaining balances of workers' paid time off. Employees get a certain number of accumulated leaves based on their service time with the company. The company’s leave and time-off policies usually regulate the Leave Accrual Processing of each employee.
An organization consists of different types of leaves, and when they register a leave of an employee, they must mention the type in their record to keep track. An organization’s Human Resource Information System (HRIS) contains all the records of employees’ leaves, which can be tracked automatically.
Moreover, employers are free to choose the type and number of leaves they provide their staff. However, some common types of leaves are usually offered by a company to the employees.
According to federal law, all employers must provide their employees with 12 weeks of unpaid medical or family leave in a year. This can apply to employees with severe health conditions, or they can take it for a family member experiencing a severe illness. However, FMLA is only for companies that have 50 or more than 50 working employees.
Military leaves give employees the option to take a leave of absence if they serve in the U.S. military, whether actively or inactively. This leave of absence also protects one job position in the company. According to federal law, an employer must reinstate the employee on military leave of absence from their previous job designation in the organization after they return.
Companies provide a certain number of leaves for employees. There are many reasons for taking leaves of absence, such as medical, birth, mental health, birthdays, etc. Employees can take a leave of absence for any life event which is not part of the Paid Time-Off (PTO). However, employers can offer these as paid or unpaid, but they must provide job security.
Medical leaves of absence allow employees to take time off from work for medical reasons that hamper their performance in the workplace. Unlike FMLA, these leaves can be paid if the employers approve, but the qualifications to take this leave are in the FMLA.
Organizations offer a limited number of sick leaves which can be unpaid, paid, short-term, or long-term.
Employees with disabilities that render their everyday life activities within the workplace and outplace are eligible to take the Disability Leaves. According to the Americans with Disabilities (ADA), employees who have mental or physical disabilities will be able to take leave if the company (state or local government agencies included) they work in has 15 or more workers.
“Compassion leave,” “Grievance Leave,” or “Bereavement Leave” allow employees to grieve the loss of a loved one or a family member without worrying about their job. Usually, employers provide employees with this leave, although there are no laws or legislation about it.
Paid Time-Off offers employees to take leaves and get paid for the leave. So, technically, PTO is a type of leave, but it usually includes many of the paid leave types in one category, such as Paid Vacations, Paid Sick Leaves, Paid Medical Leaves, etc.
However, organizations do offer traditional PTO without including other paid leave types, but it is only a certain number of days in a year. A company can also provide it on a pro-rata basis; nevertheless, Leave Accrual Processing is essential.
Nowadays, companies have moved from using the old techniques of manually counting leave accruals to using the Human Resource Information System (HRIS) to input everything automatically. This lets the HR department get relief from manually inputting information from documents, counting leave limits and balance, and then searching again to present to employees.
Moreover, as HRIS is automated, it always stays updated, and usually, there is no incorrect information. It has increased the efficiency of every company’s HR department as they now have more time to perform other duties.
It benefits not only the company but also the employees by allowing them to get easy access to their leave accrual records. Employees can now easily keep track of their spent and available leaves based on the HRIS records. Thus, it creates a transparent, communicative, and confusion-free workplace environment by eliminating any employer-employee conflicts.
As companies are becoming more open to allowing employees leaves that are not bound by federal law, Leave Accrual Processing has become a necessity.
It is a company’s duty to keep track of their employees’ leave numbers so that they can notify the employees whenever they request for a leave. A company with updated and accurate Leave Accrual Processing with the employees’ leave awards and balance information can be helpful. Because then, the company can look up their available leaves and find a schedule that can accommodate them without causing a loss in the company.
Moreover, Human Resource Information System (HRIS) has made the HR department more productive, efficient, and better at handling leave conflicts. Even start-up businesses are now adapting the HRIS for their own Leave Accrual Processing and to avoid any loss while an employee is away.
Usually, while performing Leave Accrual Processing manually, there is the possibility of losing data, setting up incorrect information, and creating miscommunication. However, when the process is done through HRIS, the monitoring, and maintenance of employee sick leaves, PTOs, leave reason records, and leave requests become more accessible and faster.
Then again, such an essential process of leave accrual should not be so time-consuming or challenging for the HR department that they end up making errors. Leave Accrual Process with the mechanism of HRIS can help keep employees satisfied and resolve ongoing or future HR and employee conflicts.