5 ways to get your people managers to approve holidays requests – fast!
Do your managers have holiday requests collecting dust in their inboxes, paper requests being used as coasters, and unaccounted for leave in their team? Driving people managers to quickly approve holiday requests can be challenging, but if not managed correctly it can lead to poorly managed rotas, staffing issues and disengaged employees.
Check out our five top tips for streamlining the approval process and getting holiday requests processed in a jiffy.
1. Invest in software
It’s time. Time to step away from paper and pen. It’s 2021 after all. While paper holiday request forms may have been a valid way of tracking leave in the past, there is now clever technology that can do the hard work for you – and it can’t get scrunched up and accidentally put in the recycling bin.
It’s not just paper forms that are guilty of slowing down the approval process. Inadequate systems that don’t have the ability to send automated emails, require too many manual steps and have poor visibility of team calendars, are all catalysts for slow approval.
Clever software won’t only help with processing holiday requests, it will consider employee holiday entitlement and apply this. Good software will process approvals and reflect this automatically in calendars so there is clarity for managers, payroll, HR and of course the employee too.
2. Quick view of team leave
To approve or not to approve, that is the question.
Sometimes your people managers just need a little visualisation to see where their staffing gaps are. Before your people managers go off approving leave from now until the end of time, they will need a few details to make an informed decision. Otherwise you could have a sales team of one and a full target to hit.
Team calendar views will let people managers see those with leave already booked and what impact approving a request might have.
3. Notifications
It sounds basic, but ensuing requests ping notifications to your people managers is a quick way to ensure they are alerted and either approving or rejecting leave quickly. Whether that’s an email notification, a ping on the work mobile or a visual reminder when they enter the system, it essential to drive quicker processes.
4. On-the-go approval
In a world when we are always on the go, access to mobile approval for people managers is a sure-fire way to speed up the approval process. No need to be tethered to a desktop, a VPN or work WiFi. Invest in a software that has app functionality to make sure your managers have everything they need at their fingertips.
5. Process training
As with any system, or internal process your people managers need adequate training to ensure they have the means to do what’s required of them. Make sure your managers are trained in process so they can action request quickly. Step-by-step guides can be a quick way to capture FAQ’s and reduce niggling questions to your department.
