The most recent Office for National Statistics data reveal that UK workers lost an estimated 148.9 million working days to sickness or injury in 2024, which equates to an average of 4.4 days off per employee in that year.
The economic implications of this are huge.
Public policy researchers estimate workplace illness is costing the UK in excess of £100 billion per year in lost productivity because of presenteeism – when employees show up to work and don’t take sick leave when unwell.
In this climate, more and more organisations across Britain are looking to dedicated leave management for support. Luckily, the absence management software from edays provides centralised management and oversight of annual leave, sick pay and statutory compliance.
As the market continues to grow in 2025, employers must carefully evaluate each system’s ability to integrate with existing platforms, scale alongside organisational change, and deliver full compliance functionality.
That’s what we’ll help with today. Here, we focus on critical integration, scalability, regulatory and data‑security features that matter most to UK employers today.
What features are essential?
Mobile accessibility
A modern leave platform must include a mobile app so employees and managers can view leave balances, submit requests, approve absences or book holidays, whether in the office or on the move.
Having this capability supports hybrid and distributed workforces by providing full functionality from smartphones; it removes friction.
If employees can check entitlement or authorise time away from work, using their mobiles, it all but guarantees decisions are made in a timely manner. They also help to avoid delays simply because someone is away from their desk.
Customisation/flexibility
Every business manages leave differently, and the system must permit configuration of entitlement rules, roll‑overs, probationary entitlements, and distinct policies per department or contract type.
The ability to configure rather than hard‑code rules means HR teams can reflect local or company‑specific legislation and internal policy without developer support. Solutions that support multi‑country leave rules reduce administrative complexity for everyone: a win-win!
Visibility and planning tools
Ultimately, line managers and HR staff need dashboards or calendars that show who is off, projected absence, and trends in absence over time. This sort of live visibility into leave schedules provides awareness of any potential issues or clashes, and informs resource planning for future projects.
Businesses that provide interactive reports and team calendars can also help limit ambiguity with regard to staffing and leave contingencies.
Self-service
A self-service portal must give employees the ability to submit leave requests, see remaining entitlement and track status if they wish, without HR intervening.
Self-service features save teams considerable administrative effort and improve the employee experience by placing control directly in their hands. Staff can log holidays, view their personal calendars and see current balances instantly.
With transparency like this, you’ll likely reduce queries and improve trust on a business-wide scale.
Workflow triggers
Automated routing and alerts are key. Upon submission of a request, the system is expected to notify related managers, escalate overdue approvals, identify conflicts and double bookings, and enforce rules such as minimum notice.
What compliance features are essential?
Regulatory compliance
Operational compliance begins with identifying and keeping records of all forms of statutory leave: maternity, paternity, shared parental, sickness absence qualifying for sick pay (SSP), and annual leave navigated in accordance with statutory requirements in the EU and UK.
The right piece of absence management software should automatically calculate entitlements for part-time and full-time staff, carry-over allowances, and rollover rules in line with regulations.
However, it should also support multi‑jurisdictional settings if the organisation operates across countries. Having pre‑built global compliance templates can reassure employees that local legislative requirements are already embedded in the system settings.
Data security/privacy
A compliant leave management system must secure sensitive personal and health‑related absence data in accordance with GDPR and relevant data protection legislation: this is a non-negotiable.
The vendor should use industry‑standard encryption for data at rest and in transit, and maintain role‑based user access controls so that only authorised HR staff or managers can view or amend records.
Robust authentication practices should be in place, such as strong password policies and two-factor authentication, to protect against unauthorised access.
Data retention rules should be configurable, so the system can purge or anonymise personal information once statutory-mandated retention periods expire.
What about integration?
Integration with HR and payroll systems
A leave solution must align with the organisation’s broader HR environment by integrating tightly with core HR and payroll technology. When there is better alignment, employee profiles, contract details, working hours and leave balances should be the same across platforms.
When a manager approves a holiday request, the update should instantly reflect in the payroll system so that pay calculations remain accurate.
If time off due to sick absence, time off in lieu or overtime is logged, then those records should flow through the HRIS to assist with absence reporting and compliance documentation.
Integration also helps HR produce audit‑ready reports, since all data is up-to-date and centrally stored.
Scalability for growing organisations
As organisations expand, particularly if they span regions or operate multiple legal entities, the leave management model must continue to function without requiring major manual support.
A scalable system will support cloud-based deployment, multi-currency and multi-company structures, while still integrating with each local payroll setup.
When an organisation opens offices in new countries, the leave tool should apply local public holiday calendars and absence rules (and sync with payroll systems in those countries).
The integration should not require rebuilding workflows each time the headcount increases or the geographic footprint enlarges.
The strategic value of choosing the right system in 2025
By mid‑2025, UK businesses continue and will continue to contend with a significant burden from workplace absence, despite a modest decline in sickness rates.
Absences due to sickness or injury account for 2% of all working hours, which is still above the pre‑COVID figure of 1.9%. Within this context, investing in a leave management system is much more than just administrative – it’s strategic foresight.
Software that provides greater visibility into leave patterns and ensures accurate pay and statutory enforcement can create a much more productive workforce.
