Zoho People alternative: Pause
Hat tip to the folks at Zoho, who have built a complex HR software called Zoho People that helps companies track employees’ vacation time.
Zoho People is great for big companies that need the whole HR shebang. But for smaller businesses that are only getting off the ground or have small teams, a full suite of HR tools might be overkill. To take care of leave management and team planning in particular, there’s Pause.
Pause is a lightweight Zoho People alternative that has one job and does it well. What you see is what you get: streamlined features that make leave management and team planning a breeze.
🤝 Slack integration
Apply for time-off from Slack
See overlaps with teammates
Check available balance
Approve time-off
Leave summary notifications per team
Upcoming public holiday notifications
Birthday and work anniversary reminders
Auto-update Slack status
💆 Easy leave application
Apply for half-day to multi-day
Apply for self or others
Book overtime
Lock dates
Apply from any device
See remaining leave days
Apply from Slack
Auto-approve pending requests
See time-off overlaps with teammates
🚌 Organise teams
Import users from Slack or G-Suite
Assign an approver
Give prorated leave days for new users
Custom working days per team
Multiple approvers
🌴 Leave policy
Deductible leave types
Non-deductible leave types
Turn off approval process
Multiple public holiday calendars
Credit leaves monthly, or yearly
Complex approval workflows
Complex approval workflows
Direct feed of data into Zoho People
🗓 Calendar integration
Leaves calendar feed by teams
Public holidays calendar feed
Birthdays and anniversary calendar feed
Auto-decline meetings when on leave
So then, what's Pause's USP?
We sweat the details, so we can talk about our designs, features and integrations until the cows come home. But here’s Pause’s mission in a nutshell:
Pause focuses on building healthy, happy, engaged teams and fighting burnout.
Pause is more than just a leave tracking tool. It’s a capacity planner, employee directory, and team communication-enabler rolled into one.
Pause keeps employee health and small businesses front and centre, always. It’s flexible for agile remote working teams, but structured enough that confusion is out of the question. It makes every process a breeze, because nobody wants to stress while taking a break; neither does anyone like crap hitting the fan when someone’s on leave.
Pause is also integrated with Intercom to give you instant chat support. No more waiting for a reply back while your company catches on fire.
All of this is why you’ll find Pause to be a flexible, transparent and easy-to-use leave management tool.
A product that does one thing and does it well
Pause is a slice of (work) life tool designed to make leave applications and management fuss-free, easy and encouraging. It doesn’t skimp on efficiency, works where you do, and doesn’t make any noise. Best of all, it helps promote a burnout-free, healthy work culture. No complicated onboarding. No tedious set-up process. No extensive list of features.
Spot those who have the most leave days remaining through your team dashboard, as well as those who haven’t taken time off in a few months. Now get them to take a break.
Have a lot riding on one team? Subscribe to a team’s leave calendar so see upcoming leave schedules without having to check individual calendars.
Pause will never require more than a few minutes to set up. You won’t need to spend hours poring over documentation, or scratch your head over complex jargon. It’s so easy to use, you won’t need to extensively demo it to your team. Launch and go!
Lock critical dates for when you need the whole team available. Teammates can plan their time off better, and projects won’t fall to the wayside at the very last minute.
Use Pause through your browser and on your iPhone or Android phone, in addition to Slack and Google Calendar.
If meetings are scheduled during a teammate’s leave period, they’ll be auto-declined. No frantic messages on first days of leave, and no delayed plans for the team.
We work with Intercom to give you instant support through chat, whether that’s fixing a minor bug or taking Pause above and beyond to build a healthy work culture. Regardless of the size of your team or the plan you’re on, you’ll get the best customer support right when you need it.
Tackle any doubts of your absence with a 🌴 emoji
Identify who’s on leave with the handy 🌴 emoji that automagically shows up next to the name. Do away with ambiguous statuses and let the palm tree do the talking.