Time and attendance software can help companies manage shared parental leave

Time and attendance software can help managers take the best decisions in terms of prospective staffing levels and mitigate the effects of shared parental leave. That’s particularly important since more than half of the UK believes that childcare should be shared equally between parents, according to a recent survey by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Some 53% of respondents said that childcare should be the equal responsibility of both parents while a further 22% believe that a couple should have the right to choose how they divide caring responsibilities, depending on their circumstances.

Just 22% of those surveyed believe that childcare should be the mother’s main responsibility, with 56% of men thinking that childcare should be shared equally, compared to 50% of women.

When parents were questioned, two-thirds said that they would have considered sharing parental leave if it had been available at the time. This was higher amongst fathers, of whom 75% said they would have considered it compared with 63% of women.

For those considering having children in the future, four in five (83%) said they would consider taking shared parental leave when they became parents.

When men were asked what they thought the main benefits of shared parental leave would be, six in 10 said they thought they would form a closer bond with their child. However almost half (44%) said it would feel fairer, and 39% said they could let their partner get back to their job or progress their career.

Over half of men (57%) thought that being more involved in the baby’s life would be a good thing for their whole family, and 31% felt it would strengthen their relationship with their partner.

Time and attendance software can help companies manage shared parental leave

Managing changes brought about by the new shared parental leave rules will not come easy for a significant number of HR departments, but a comprehensive and user-friendly time and attendance software application that enables users to modify existing rules related to leave and pay in an easy and forward-looking manner could help, and this is specifically where Tensor plc could put its extensive experience in this field to very good use.

Our flagship WinTA.NET integrated workforce management solution incorporates a dedicated Absence Planning and Entitlement Management feature.

Our comprehensive, yet user-friendly Time and Attendance software comes pre-loaded with graphical calendar charts that provide a colourful way of viewing an individual’s or a department’s absence records.

Each employee can be allocated different entitlements for absence, with specific rules set for every interval. As absence is booked and taken, the remainder available for each entitlement is updated. Entitlement formulae are used to calculate more complex entitlements calculated on a rising scale based upon length of service.

The Time and Attendance software within WinTA.NET supplies the relevant managers with information on employee’s absences through warning email notifications or via hardcopy reports. After that, the system would rapidly identify missing employees that are expected to be at work and then informs you via automatic email reporting reports distributed by email.

If you’d like to find out more about the Tensor workforce management solutions, just contact our team or Book a Demo, we’ll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.