50+ Sample Employee Vacation Trackers

What Is an Employee Vacation Tracker?

An employee vacation tracker is a tracking system that allows an organization to manage the vacation leaves of its employees. Different companies also have different ways on how they will format their employee vacation tracker depending on the items that they would like to include in the document and the alignment of the tracking elements to the vacation policies and protocols of the organization. Having an employee vacation tracker is an important part of your workforce attendance and vacation management efforts which is why it is recommended for you to make one which you can utilize within an entire operational year or any given duration of time.

Types of Employee Vacation Trackers

Leave trackers are great tools that can give you the ability to see how your employees use their leaves and how this can affect the operations of the business. If you are planning to make an employee vacation tracker, you have to make sure that you will be specific in terms of identifying the document’s purpose and usage, scope, and limitations. You also have to know the type of employee vacation tracker that your organization specifically needs. Some types of employee vacation trackers include the following:

1. Paid and/or Unpaid Employee Vacation Tracker

A paid and/or unpaid employee vacation tracker focuses on tracking vacations based on the payroll requirements of the organization. According to bls76% of workers in the private industry are entitled to have paid vacation leaves. Especially for purposes of computing the salary of an employee who took a vacation for a specific time period, you have to make sure that these paid vacation leaves are properly tracked. More so, even the unpaid vacation leaves of your employees must be managed as their attendance performance can surely affect the dynamics of their team at a certain extent. If you can develop this type of employee vacation tracker, you can make sure that unnecessary pay cuts can be eliminated.

2. Time-Bound Employee Vacation Tracker

A time-bound employee vacation tracker is a document that is developed with its duration of usage as the main priority. A general employee vacation tracker usually is used within an entire year of operations. However, there are also other employee vacation trackers which are used for a week, a month, or a quarter. This type of employee vacation tracker is used by the management to identify the trends in employee attendance and absences within shorter time frames. The results of the trend analysis can then be used to know the variables that impact the decision-making of employees on when to use their vacation leaves.

3. Employee Vacation Leave Availability Tracker

An employee vacation leave availability tracker is used by the human resource department so they can have an overview of the remaining vacation leaves of their employees. This document can be presented to the employees who are concerned about the number of paid vacations that they can still use. More so, this document can directly give an idea about the employees who are already using unpaid vacation leaves. Having an employee vacation leave availability tracker at hand can be very advantageous during meetings as it already outlines general vacation leave usages in an effective manner.

Things to Consider When Creating an Effective Employee Vacation Tracker

An employee vacation tracker can be easily made if you will first list all of the information that you plan to put in it. With this, you have to be keen when identifying all the elements of the employee vacation tracker as well as when looking into a number of factors to ensure the successful development of the specific tracking document. Some of the things that you have to consider when creating an effective employee vacation tracker are as follows:

The number of employees whose vacation leaves will be tracked: Do you want to have an employee vacation tracker per department? Or do you want to create a single employee vacation tracker for your entire organization? You have to think of the number of people whose vacation leaves will be tracked if you have already decided to make your own employee vacation tracker. Focusing on this particular matter can enable you to organize the listing of your employees based on the range of data that you will manage. More so, it can help you strategically execute the kind of updating needed by the document in consideration of the employees and departments scoped by the tracking process.The vacation tracking and management systems that you will use: Before making your employee vacation tracker, you first have to brainstorm with your team on how you plan to use and update it. Make sure that you have a vacation tracking system and strategy at hand so you can accurately document and record the vacation leaves used by your employees.The range of information that you will put in the document: Know the scope and limitations of your employee vacation tracker’s content presentation. It will be best if you can also prepare all the information that you will be needing for the employee vacation tracker’s content specification so you can plot the proper placement of these items in the actual document. Have an outline or even a dedicated checklist that can enable you to ensure the completion of your final employee vacation tracker.

7 Steps for Making an Efficient Employee Vacation Tracker

Developing an employee vacation tracker is a tedious process that will require you to exert your efforts and allocate your time. Once you have decided to make an employee vacation tracker, we suggest you to refer to a procedure or step-by-step guide so you can easily have the output that you desire without affecting its overall quality. Below are the steps that can make it more efficient and easier for you to develop an employee vacation tracker.

Step 1: Download the Best Employee Vacation Tracker Template for Purposes of Referencing

Use a downloadable employee vacation tracker template to your advantage. It is imperative for you to select the most suitable template which you can edit or modify so you can make sure that you are properly guided as you develop the layout, structure, and format of the said document.

Step 2: Place the Branding Materials of Your Business on Top of the Tracker Layout

Write the name of the business on top of the template. You can use the letterhead of your organization to make this job easier. It is essential for you to brand the employee vacation tracker to make it identifiable as a corporate document owned by your business.

Step 3: Provide a Document Title, a Set of Instructions of Usage, and Other Relevant Directions and/or Reminders

Specify what the document is for. Create a title that can be as simple as ‘Employee Vacation Tracker’. Aside from this, it is also important for you to write instructions and directions on the proper usage and updating of the specific tracking tool. Some brief reminders can also be written in the employee vacation tracker so you can let entities remember to consider the confidentiality and sensitivity of the items available in the document.

Step 4: Write the Departments Where Your Workforce Are Designated Before Making a Comprehensive Employee List

List down all of the divisions or areas of your business. Make sure to list down the accurate names of each of your employees designated in specific departments. Alongside this, provide necessary employment details like their employee numbers and status of employment. Doing this can help you make sure that you are recording the appropriate vacation leave credits and usages to the right person.

Step 5: Develop a Timeline Based on the Schedule of Your Operations and the Duration Scoped by the Employee Vacation Tracker

Once you have already listed all of the members of your workforce, you can already create a calendar which can present the vacation leaves of each employees. The time frames in the calendar or timeline should be based on your operational schedule where the employees are expected to be present at work. Make sure to know the time duration in which the tracker will be deemed effective and valid so you can limit the date specifications in the actual document.

Step 6: Use Legends to Mark and Track the Dates Where Vacation Leaves Have Been Filed and Approved

Be strategic with how you will mark the vacation dates of your employees. The legends that you will use should be unique and understandable. You can execute a dry run to see if your tracking strategies and management systems are working in consideration to the layout and actual usage of the employee vacation tracker.

Step 7: Present the Number of Available and Used Leaves of Each of Your Employees

You can tally the number of available and used vacation leaves at the end of your timeline. This can help you easily record the vacation leave usages of your employees. Make sure to always update this part of the document every time an employee’s request for vacation has been approved.

Advantages of Developing an Outstanding Employee Vacation Tracker

Your employee vacation tracker can be beneficial to all the stakeholders of your organization. Aside from the human resource department, your employees; management; consumers; and other entities involved in your operations can also experience the positive effects of you having an employee vacation tracker. Make sure to familiarize yourself with the benefits that an employee vacation tracker can bring so you can further appreciate its availability and actual usage. Here are the advantages of developing an outstanding employee vacation tracker:

An employee vacation tracker can help you evaluate the trends on employee vacation usage: It is necessary for your business to know the months in which vacations are mostly applied for or done. This can enable you to develop or update a policy that can consider the needs of your operations alongside the rights of your employees for a vacation. Identifying trends is also a great way to use research results and observations to back-up related plans of actions and strategies.An employee vacation tracker can give you the opportunity to assess the attendance performance of each of your employees: Vacation leaves can be abused by employees. With this, you have to make sure that you have an employee vacation tracker at hand to measure the vacation leave usages of your workforce. Always be reminded that the absence of an employee in the workplace, even if he or she is in vacation, can affect the dynamics of his or her team and the operations of the organization. If you can have a factual and objective assessment of one’s attendance performance, you can call that person out if you think that he or she is already abusing the usage of vacation leaves.An employee vacation tracker can help you prepare for concerns and issues about manpower requirements: Your employee vacation tracker can identify whether your scheduling efforts and contingency plans are enough to cover the days in which specific employees will be out for vacation. Having an idea about this matter can help you prepare for effective manpower scheduling and attendance management. The more manageable your employee vacation tracker is, the easier it will be for you identify ways on how to supply the workforce needs of the business even with the absence of a number of people on certain days.

Do’s and Don’ts for Crafting the Best Employee Vacation Tracker

If you are creating an employee vacation tracker on your own, there is more to templates and samples that can help you develop an impressive document. You can also rely on tips and guidelines which have been tried and tested by many organizations. Listed below are the activities that you should execute as well as those that you need to stay away from so you can make sure that you will craft the best employee vacation tracker for your company or establishment.

Do’s

1. Do Align Your Vacation Management Systems With Your Tracking Efforts and Strategies

In comparison to a restaurant donation tracker; employee attendance tracker; and any other types of tracking documents and tools for this matter, an employee vacation tracker should also be guided by a system and a strategy. You have to make sure that your employee vacation tracker is mindfully developed and plotted so you can use it in the best and most effective manner.

2. Do Use the Employee Vacation Tracker to Show Your Support and Approval for Vacation

You have to remember that your employee vacation tracker should be used to manage, record, and track employee vacation and not to hinder your workforce from using their leave entitlements. Last 2017, 53% of American workers did not use all of the vacation leaves which they are entitled with (source: ustravel). With this, you have to make sure that your employee vacation tracker can make your employees feel that you are properly recording their vacation leaves and that you are in full-support of vacation time.

3. Do Ensure the Precision and Accuracy of the Information That You Will Put in the Employee Vacation Tracker

Be specific with the items that you will include in the document. Your employee vacation tracker must be fact-based, concise, and measurable so you can assure your employees that the vacation entitlements or credits being managed by the human resources are accurate and updated. Do not falsify any information in the employee vacation tracker so you can maintain the trust that the employees are showing towards the organization.

Don’ts

1. Don’t Create an Employee Vacation Tracker Without a Purpose and Objective in Mind

Just like a sales tracker planner which focuses on planning and tracking the sales performance of an entity, your employee vacation tracker should also have a specific purpose and that is to prioritize the vacation tracking of employees to assure scheduling optimization and workforce productivity. The purpose and objective of your employee vacation tracker matters a lot as these will direct the document’s proper usage and effective management. Without a purpose, it can be deemed that you have developed an employee vacation tracker just for the sake of having one even without knowing how you can utilize it for the betterment of your operations.

2. Don’t Use an Employee Vacation Tracker Which Negates Your Business Protocols 

Never use your employee vacation tracker to go against your leave policies and other related regulations. Respect the decision of your workforce to take their vacation as long as they have submitted necessary documents and underwent the required procedure for vacation notice provision and approval. Make sure to review the protocols of your organization regarding employee vacation before developing the specific tracking document. Doing this can help you become well-guided as you finalize all the features and elements of the employee vacation tracker.

3.Don’t Include Any Irrelevant Details Which May Clutter the Specifications of the Employee Vacation Tracker

Your employee vacation tracker must not contain information that are not necessary or relevant to the document’s purpose of usage. Make sure that the items in the tracking tool are all manageable so you can update specific segments of the document without any confusion. Make your employee vacation tracker as brief and as simple as possible so you can also have an easier time when presenting particular details to your employees whenever they have inquiries or questions about their vacation entitlements.

Are you planning to create an employee vacation tracker at this exact moment? If you want to begin the development of the said document in the most effective manner, make sure to download any of the references that we have listed above. Using our templates, samples, and other document development guides can give you the opportunity to make an excellent employee vacation tracker with ease and efficiency.