Evolution, the NovaUCD-based human resources software company, today announced the launch of AnnualLeave.com.

AnnualLeave.com is a new, easy-to-use and flexible software application which enables organisations of any size to administer their employees’ annual or sick leave with the minimum of time and effort. It is also the first online annual leave tracking system to cater for part-time and shift work employees.

AnnualLeave.com enables organisations to reduce the hassle and reduce costly mistakes from the administration of annual leave by automatically enforcing business rules set by each organisation. Its built-in flexibility ensures that organisations have complete control over the number of departments and locations included, and can create other leave types such as maternity leave, parental leave and jury duty. Organisations can also create their own sub-domain with a customised login page including branding the system with their own corporate logos.

Alistair Thacker, founder, Evolution at the launch of AnnualLeave.com

AnnualLeave.com is provided as a Software-as-a-Service and is available for free to organisations with 10 or fewer employees based in one department and one location. For organisations with more than 10 employees the cost increases on a sliding scale depending on the number of employees, departments, locations, leave types to be catered for. For a large corporation with 300+ employees AnnualLeave.com costs €199.99/per month.

Evolution was founded by Alistair Thacker in 2006 to assist organisations reduce HR costs by automating many HR tasks. Evolution is headquartered at NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at University College Dublin.

Speaking at the launch of AnnualLeave.com, Alistair Thacker said, “For many company owners and HR managers, managing your employees’ annual leave, sick leave and other time off is a lot of hassle and it really shouldn't be. Companies get to a certain size where a wall planner or spreadsheet just won't work anymore, and the big HRIS systems are far too expensive.  AnnualLeave.com is online, affordable, easy-to-use and once it's set up, you need never worry about employees’ absences again.  If you look at the high cost of time and mistakes that are inherent in manual systems, you'll see that AnnualLeave.com will save you money from day one.”

Further details of the AnnualLeave.com leave administration process are given below.

ENDS

13 January 2010

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, NovaUCD, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, t: +353 (0)1 716 3712.

Editor’s Notes

Evolution is a human resources software company. The company, which was founded in 2006 by Alistair Thacker, assists SMEs and larger organisations to reduce HR costs by automating many HR tasks and giving employees direct access to HR functions. Evolution’s software solutions are delivered over the internet thus eliminating the need for organisations to invest in IT resources. Evolution’s software is simple to use, secure and can be accessed from anywhere.

NovaUCD is University College Dublin’s Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre.  NovaUCD is responsible for the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD research and for the development of co-operation with the industry and business communities. NovaUCD as a purpose-built incubation centre also nurtures new technology and knowledge-intensive enterprises. Twenty-four knowledge-intensive companies, including Evolution, are currently located in NovaUCD.  NovaUCD has been funded through a unique public-private partnership that includes AIB Bank, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers, UCD and Xilinx.

AnnualLeave.com Process

1) The employee checks the online leave calendar and plans his/her ‘time off’ in relation to everyone else. The calendar is visible to everyone in the organisation regardless of where they are located.

2) The employee submits a request for annual leave by simply clicking and dragging the days requested.

3) The system checks the essential business rules first:

a. Does the employee have enough days remaining?

b. Has the employee given enough notice?

c. Is there a minimum or maximum duration for this type of absence?

d. Would this absence result in the department or location having too few people at any given time?

If the request breaks any of the rules, it is automatically rejected and the employee is notified.

4) An email is sent to the individual(s) who approve(s) the employee's annual leave (an employee can have one or more approvers).

5) The approver(s) view(s) the request in the calendar and can approve or reject it, with notes if necessary. If any of the approvers reject a request, it is rejected overall and the employee is emailed automatically.

6) Once approved, the request is marked as "Confirmed" in the calendar.

7) The employee receives an email notification of the request's approval.

8) The employee's leave records are updated automatically.

9) The data is stored on secure servers and is backed up nightly.

10) HR users can view the data and generate reports at any time.