Organisations should encourage leave-taking, defer leave lapsing for employee wellness: Sumeet Doshi, Kronos

Since certain roles which require an on-premise presence are now limited due to social distancing norms, it is crucial for employees to plan out vacations so that the right teams are in place during the days that they need to work on premise together, says Sumeet Doshi, country manager - India, Kronos. In an interview to ET, Doshi says having a long-term view of their availability, their rotation and vacation plans in a single place and being able to project leave balances into the future will be key to an uninterrupted workforce. Edited excerpts:With leave liabilities becoming a critical concern for employers, how are HR leaders addressing resource planning, with increasing leave liabilities, during work from home?Since most workers were confined to their homes these days there was a general dip in the amount of leave that was being availed as the notion of vacation is often associated with travel, which is currently restricted. Leave liability definitely has a cost and productivity impact for organisations and is an indication that rest is not being appropriately utilised at the right time. While in the short term, not taking leave might seem like a productivity boost, in hindsight it does take a toll on mental fatigue and motivation which ultimately impacts the overall productivity. As a result, fostering employee wellness and preventing burnout is so critical these days, and many organisations are also announcing changes in the employment terms wherever necessary. Another new practice that we are seeing is that of extending the leave validity, especially since many leave categories lapse after a year. For employees who feel Covid has cheated them of their annual vacations, organisations are actually compensating by allowing some of these leave balances to be carried forward to the next year so that employees can take a well-deserved break when the situation permits travel again.Can companies simplify their resource planning strategies through data?In today’s scenario, the nature of the workforce itself has changed with three new categories emerging – that of the remote worker, the workplace staff who needs to be physically onsite, and the composite staff who alternates between a work-from-home schedule to being physically present at the work location. Each of these categories has its own challenges and without visibility into key data like their availability, schedules, presence - it would be very complex for organisations to manage the situation effectively. Furthermore, having visibility to productivity tracking tools and correlating productivity to factors like hours worked, rest and vacation time as well as fatigue is very essential to being able to understand the reason for these productivity gains and drops and to be able to sustain new productivity norms. Therefore, given the current situation, having an instant view of your workforce and being able to plan at day level or in even shorter time intervals is becoming a necessity.Sophisticated, cloud-based and AI-ready solutions can help crunch relevant data into easy dashboards that can improve resource planning. Solutions can actually compute the resource requirement based on business critical factors, identify employee availability taking into account a number of things like leave statuses, schedules, personal preferences and even quarantine statuses to let organisations know exactly how many people they have. If there is a shortfall, managers can work with their teams to bridge the gap, similarly during lean periods, leave planning can be done better so that the productivity of the organisation remains unaffected. How can an employer map workforce productivity and compliance, while managing leave liability issues in this current environment?The stress factors and rest requirements for each of the different categories of workers are different, just as their productivity levels have changed due to the Covid-19 disruption. In the case of the remote worker it’s all about preventing burnout. Encouraging leave, deferring leave lapsing, etc. may be some of the strategies to balance sustainable productivity and employee wellness. This is especially true in the case of health workers and doctors who are on mandatory quarantine at home after a relatively high-risk duty period. These types of factors need to be considered while reviewing the leave requirements for each of these categories of workers and possibly new policies need to be framed keeping in mind not just employment laws, but also their changing circumstances.Also given that certain roles which require on-premise presences are now limited due to social distancing norms, it becomes crucial to plan out vacations so that the right teams are in place during the days that they need to work on premise together. Having a long-term view of their availability, their rotation and vacation plans in a single place and being able to project leave balances into the future will be key to an uninterrupted workforce.

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