What You Should Know About Last-Minute Time Off Requests
Your excessive workload is likely regarded as "simply part of the job," whether you're a seasoned HR practitioner or an office manager saddled with HR obligations.
Payroll, time cards, recruiting, training, managing PTO, performing employee reviews, updating benefits and regulations, and assuring constant compliance are just a few of the responsibilities you play in team management.
Of course, when it comes to the unexpected, HR is the first line of defense: employee dispute, unforeseen termination, or, in our case, last-minute time-off requests.
The latter has become more widespread with the arrival of summer and the relaxation of Covid limits. It's not unexpected, given that people have been pent up for a year and a half and want to reclaim their old freedom to let their hair down, socialize, and venture beyond the neighborhood store.
As a manager, you presumably recognize the importance of honoring your employees' time-off requests for a variety of reasons, including healthy business culture, talent retention, and employee engagement. Even on a good day, managing PTO can be difficult, but last-minute requests can quickly become overwhelming.
Every organization should use a reliable and efficient Paid Time Off Management system in order to deal with this kind of last-minute request and to keep a proper record of the employee leaves
How to deal with last-minute vacation requests
The fact is, last-minute time-off requests can mean needing to reshuffle priorities, which could force you to pull people off important projects, and even ask them to work late—and/or have to work late yourself.
That’s why it’s important to find ways to filter for time-off requests that don’t prevent you or your team from respecting deadlines and performance expectations. Luckily, there are ways of handling last-minute requests without creating an abundance of stress for yourself.
While you may choose to make exceptions under certain circumstances, the more thought and structure you put into Vacation Tracking for Employees policies and protocols, the more seriously employees will take them:
