People in the transport sector are looking forward to their well-earned holidays, but aren’t waiting as keenly for the associated red tape. Give employees the tools that will make it as pleasant as possible for them to arrange their own leave. This is precisely where you as an employer can make the difference.
After a hectic year of sheer hard work and a lot of corona stress, the transport world is longing for a well-deserved break. This applies to your drivers who have worked long days, with irregular working hours, but of course also to the rest of your organisation. Never before have we all been so ready to totally relax; at a campsite, a holiday home or simply at home.
As an employer you want to facilitate your staff’s leave as much as possible, but at the same time, the work needs to continue. If lots of people want to go on holiday in the same period, you simply cannot honour all of the requests. This would leave you unable to maintain your staffing level. You will sometimes have to ask employees to reschedule their holiday plans and temporarily take over each other’s work. And no, people aren’t always waiting for this.
Nevertheless, leave planning actually offers you a great opportunity to show off your best side as an employer!
Administrative red tape
Being a good employer starts with being transparent towards drivers and other colleagues and enabling them to organise their absence management themselves. Digitalisation is the key word. Give your people direct insight into their balance of days off and allow them to request their leave online. Try to approve requests as quickly as possible and take all the administrative red tape out of their hands. There is nothing more tedious for an employee than having to figure out what the difference is between statutory and non-statutory holidays. Or having to check whether collective labour agreements, sick days and any part-time contracts have been settled correctly.
Settling wages and expenses
As a manager you also need to have the right tools to digitally unburden your people. You want to have a complete overview of the planning and see how many leave requests have been made per department. Where are the overlaps, and where do capacity problems arise? And just like your employees, you don’t want to wait for unnecessary administrative processes or muddle over forms. You want to be able to approve or reject leave requests at the touch of a button and be confident that balances, schedules, wage and expense calculations are adjusted automatically.
Major shortage of drivers
Truck drivers are hardworking professionals who want to work for a company where human resources are well organised. This is reflected in leave planning, but also in the way you deal with sick leave, national holidays or special requests in the work roster. Drivers are willing to work evenings, nights, or weekends, but their billiards night on Thursdays may be sacred. If this isn’t possible on one occasion because of a peak in the freight supply, they are sure to understand. However, if it happens more often, and they get the feeling that they aren’t being listened to, that may start to irritate them and could impair the employment relationship. And, as you well know, there is a shortage of good drivers...
Feeling good
With Trimble’s Absence Planner, drivers, planners and managers have a tool that lets them handle leave requests in a transparent, efficient and user-friendly way. Drivers have their trusted Trimble app for this, and managers have a dashboard where they can immediately see where any bottlenecks develop. They can provide quick feedback, and approved leave requests are automatically synchronised with work calendars and payroll.
With the Absence Planner from Trimble, you can quickly and easily get a handle on your leave planning, with satisfied drivers. They will go on leave feeling good and will then return to you, suntanned and fully relaxed, feeling even better.
