Summer brings a welcome surge in holiday plans, and with it, a wave of annual leave requests. For employers, the challenge is balancing employee expectations with organisational needs. During these busy periods, it’s crucial to take a planned and consistent approach to leave approvals to ensure both fairness across colleagues and business continuity.
This blog post explores the key ways you can manage your employees’ annual leave requests fairly to help you stay compliant, maintain transparency, and keep your team happy – particularly during peak periods like the summer holidays.
Knowing how to manage annual leave requests fairly isn’t just about avoiding resourcing issues; it’s about maintaining trust with your team. When leave is managed inconsistently or without transparency, employees can begin to feel frustrated, undervalued, or, in some cases, that there’s favouritism going on. On the other hand, a fair, clearly communicated approach demonstrates that your organisation respects employee time and supports a healthy work-life balance – along with reducing conflict and improving employee engagement.
The first step in fair leave management is ensuring your holiday request policy is up to date and consistently applied to all employees. This should outline how far in advance leave must be requested, how requests should be submitted, and what factors are considered in approving or declining requests.
For example, if the policy requires four weeks’ notice before the time of leave, this must be enforced across all teams. Making ad-hoc exceptions for some but not others can quickly undermine trust and create a feeling of unfairness.
Ensure that all managers are familiar with the policy and are aligned on how to apply it consistently.
One of the most common reasons for declining a holiday request is insufficient team cover. Before approving any requests, managers should check how many colleagues are already scheduled to be off during that period.
Consider setting internal guidelines, such as no more than two employees off from the same team at once, and ensure these rules are clearly communicated to all team members and easily accessible to review at any time. This gives employees a realistic sense of their chances of approval during popular periods, helping to manage expectations.
This transparent approach also helps avoid last-minute staff shortages and shows employees that decisions are based on business needs, rather than personal preference.
A crucial part of managing annual leave requests fairly is ensuring decisions are free from bias and discrimination. Deliberately approving or rejecting leave in a way that impacts individuals with certain protected characteristics – such as religion, disability, or caring responsibilities – can put your organisation at risk of legal and reputational damage.
For example, declining time off for a religious holiday while approving other similar requests could be considered indirect discrimination. Managers must ensure that all decisions are based solely on legitimate business requirements and are applied equally across the team.
An example of a situation that could be seen as biased is approving or rejecting time off during the school summer holidays or half terms based on whether the employee has children. In this case, prioritising parents’ requests over those without children can cause friction and lead to employee dissatisfaction in the workplace.
Providing regular training on equality, diversity, and unconscious bias can help managers make informed decisions and reduce the chances of discrimination claims or conflict.
To minimise claims of discrimination or favouritism, especially during busy periods like summer, one of the fairest and most effective ways to manage annual leave is on a first-come, first-served basis. This approach rewards early planning and keeps it simple when multiple people request overlapping dates.
To support this, encourage employees to submit their holiday requests as far in advance as possible. Early submissions are more likely to be approved and make it easier for managers to plan for adequate cover, avoiding last-minute disruptions.
Again, consistency is vital here, so ensure the process is clearly outlined and followed across all teams in your organisation.
If you’re still relying on emails, spreadsheets, or paper forms to manage employee annual leave, it may be time to consider the benefits of using HR software. Integrated, cloud-based systems make it easier than ever to manage leave requests fairly, transparently, and accurately.
The best HR platforms enable employees to view their leave balances, check team availability to see who already has time booked off, and submit and track their requests easily.
On the other hand, managers can benefit from integrated dashboards, real-time visibility into resource levels, and automated notifications, all of which support faster, more consistent decision-making.
Using automated technology also provides clear audit trails of approvals and rejections, which can help protect your business from any future disputes.
Vero HR partners with organisations across all sectors to streamline HR operations and deliver compliant, strategic people solutions. Contact us today to find out how we can help you better manage annual leave, and your people, with confidence.
