Handling requests for time off from employees can be tricky, especially during popular holiday periods when members of your team or department may already be away.

Grant the employee leave and you risk leaving your teams and business-critical functions under-staffed. But deny the employee time off and they may become disgruntled and either be demotivated on the days they’d wanted to take off or will simply call in sick anyway.

A possible solution is to implement a web-based leave management systems in your organisation, as they take the guesswork out of the process.

When an employee requests time off, rather than going on ‘gut feel” about whether the employee will be needed, you can use the leave management system to see at a glance who’ll be in and out of the office during the requested leave period and when key personnel will be absent.

You can then either confidently grant leave knowing that business-critical functions won’t be under-staffed. Or if resources are too stretched, you can demonstrate to the employee that you have a valid reason for turning the leave request down.

You can find out more about leave management systems here.