DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ONLINE LEAVE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

1.1 Introduction

Leave management system is an electronic online stage that circles all sort of leave applications and leave regard, and the methodology to record numerous types of leaves (Nurul, 2008). This system can be utilized to automate the work process of leave applications and their endorsements. It is straightforward and simple to utilize a system that dispenses with paper work, spares time and cash. With the ascent of Globalization, it has gotten to be vital to discover a less demanding and more compelling system to help an association. Despite this, there are still a few foundations that utilize the way our forefathers would have done it. In a certain manner, one thing that is still handled physically is the leave management system.

In advanced times, there are numerous sorts of leave accessible to parts of staff of an association e.g. yearly leave, easy leave, study leave and a lot of people more. A ton of time and assets are allotted in dealing with this sort of system particularly when overseen physically. Nucleus (2011) research is one of the main examination foundation went for measuring the estimation of innovation. In one of its production “Leave management cutting cost”, the profits of having an automated leave management system were illustrated.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

The Office of Human Resources at Aladumo International Schools contributes to the institutional mission of public service by facilitating informed decision making regarding employee benefits by providing accurate, timely, accessible information. Of the many benefits available to the employees, leave is one of the most valuable.

Aladumo International Schools is a co-educational institution established in 1987 with a population of twenty-four 24 pupils. The school has grown since then and has a crèche, a pre-nursery, a nursery, a primary and a high school which have become known for excellence in character and learning.

Our pupils and students are nurtured and trained to excel in academics and other areas. They are helped to develop into independent and responsible citizens. Students of Aladumo are consistently motivated to develop the all important passion for learning.

The school has a long list of achievements/successes in local, national and international competitions. Recently, two of our pupils came tops in a mathematics competition organized by the National Association Mathematics and thus, qualified to represent Nigeria in an international Mathematics and Science Olympiad in Indonesia. Please see our Record of Achievements for more information.

The school was founded and established by Rev. (Dr) Favour Ingor Ogan, a seasoned and renowned educationist. She held several positions in the Rivers State Ministry of Education as an English Teacher, Principal, Chief Inspector of Education and commissioner. For over 20 years, she has invested her wealth of experience in this establishment.

The challenges encountered that led to the execution of the research work is that the manual system takes too much time for the many processes of leave application, for example a staff would have to wait and see the HOD of his/her department as regarding the submission of his/her application. As a result, leave applications would not be tended to or approved in the event that the presiding HOD is absent. This can be a serious problem especially if the purpose for the leave application is time-bound. It is against the background that the development of this software is expected to improve the management of leave applications in the organization. Since currently the organization is using a manual system to manage employee leave applications.

1.3 Statement of Problem

Aladumo International Schools currently uses the manual leave management system. Where employee process leaves by filling up a form and let his/her manager or supervisor approve it. This type of system takes time for information to be gathered and as well as to generate reports. Data regarding the management of leave is kept in files. This will take time and energy in trying to find out information since the staff will have to look for the file containing the necessary information. For example, if leave balances are to be calculated for members of staff, it will take time searching each file one after the other.

Another problem with the current manual system is that there is no backup of data and in the situation that the files with all the information gets damaged or lost, all valuable information will be totally lost and non-retrievable which could be disastrous.

AIS’s leave management is an inefficient use of the institution’s time and resources, so AIS will use a new leave management system for efficient use. The new Online Leave Management system will bring to the betterment for future use to the institution and its employees.

The process of leave management will be easy to employee and also to the human resource department who provide information or queries about leaves of every employees whether it may be concerned on leave balances, approval of leave on a certain date and etc.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to create an online computerized leave management system for Aladumo International Schools (AIS). In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to develop an application software that will:

1. Create secured auto robotic in nature system to help in the management of employee leave within AIS;
2. Help the human resource management department in carrying out efficient and timely work regarding employee leave;
3. Centralize the collection and maintenance of leave records;
4. Ensure the administration of standard leave policies; and
5. Allow creating, monitoring, and routing of the leave applications from the applicants to the acting supervisors in the department and to the administrator of the Human Resources Department.

1.5 Significance of Study

The new automated system will improve the existing system and be beneficial to the members of staff in the sense that they would not have to apply for leave manually, the authorities in charge of approval also will not approve/reject leave manually and all leave records and report are generated online. This new system will help resolve most of the problems that the manual system is facing.

1.5.1 Benefits of the Study

The Leave Management System enables employees with capabilities to submit leave requests online, check their leave-time balances and view the status of the leave requests via the World Wide Web (Web), relieving the Human Resources Department from time-consuming inquiries. The automated leave management ensures that employees accrue the right amount of “leave” that they are entitled to receive, and provides a quick and efficient validation method that saves precious time and eliminates a cumbersome paper process. Also, enabling the supervisor to approve online requests saves management time. The Leave Management System calculates and maintains balances of each employee’s vacation, sick and other benefit time. It gives Human Resource administrators the ability to review, edit, and approve employee time and leave from any location by using a standard Web browser.

Thus, the Leave Management System simplifies the leave process, makes it more maintainable, gives better, clearer and more frequent information to end users, standardizes the processing of different types of leaves, and lowers the amount of data entry and verification activities.

1.6 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the leave management of employee of Aladumo International Schools (AIS). The System is an online system.

The space of the system is based on AIS, the target users are staff of selected departments in AIS and the authorities in charge of leave approval and record keeping such as HODs, Head of HCD and HR Centre.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

System Limitation

The data got for this study is restricted and confined to just staff records, organogram structure of the association. The following will impinge on the efficiency of the system.

1. The system will fail if the server fails, but the data will remain stored in the database.
2. Where there is no web association, the system can’t be utilized since it is online
3. The system is designed using PHP CodeIgniter-3.1.4 Framework which as a result will only work on the web base or on a local server (For texting purposes).

Research Limitation

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this research work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

1.8 Operational Definition of Terms

Some terms that are specifically identified by this project used in the management of leave application include:

Internet:

It is a method for interfacing a Personal Computer to whatever other Personal Computer on the planet through devoted switches and servers. These interconnected machines work by exchanging information by means of a specific sort of parcel exchanging known as the Internet Protocol (IP).

HCD:

Human Capital Development

HR:

Human Resource

Website:

It is a webpage that entails documents accessed via the internet.

Registration:

This means to keep records received from the management for reference purposes.

Management:

It is the co-ordination of all the resources of an Organization through the process of planning, Organization, directing and controlling

Information:

A meaning full material derived from computer data by organizing it and interpreting it in a specified way.