Staff leave planner

A staff leave planner is a tool designed to help managers record, track, and manage their employees’ time off. It provides a way for employees — whether they’re salaried or paid by the hour — to easily request time off from work, and their managers to manage it in such a way that it minimises impact on their business.

Managing employee leave can be fiddly and time consuming. At many businesses, employees request time off in different ways — sometimes they ask their manager directly; sometimes they fill out a form; sometimes they simply send an email asking for time off.

The problem with all of the above methods is that they rely on managers manually processing the requests, keeping track of emails and scraps of paper, or simply remembering the dates an employee has asked for. Even then, annual leave has to be manually recorded, the employee’s remaining leave amount adjusted, and a memo of some sort written to ensure that staff aren’t subsequently scheduled to work on dates they’ve booked off.

The best people management software incorporates a leave planner, providing staff with a single, dedicated method for requesting time off, and allowing managers to process requests quickly and easily.

When using people management software like RotaCloud, booked leave shows on the rota immediately, preventing managers from accidentally scheduling staff to work on a day when they won’t be available. Leave allowances, meanwhile, are automatically updated, saving managers hours of admin each year and allowing staff to check how many days’ holiday they have left — without having to pester their managers.