Leave requests, approval and escalation

How people ask for leave

Every employee can use Request Time Off (on the HR page). The request form asks for:

• Leave Type: Vacation / Paid Time Off (PTO), Sick Leave, Work From Home (WFH), Unpaid Leave or Other / Personal.
• The dates of the leave.
• Reason / Handover Notes (Optional), a good place to say who is covering urgent work.

Employees follow their own requests on the same page, where each shows a status.

Reviewing requests

Open Time Off & Leaves. The page reads "Vacation, sick leave, and personal time-off queue and balances." Its table lists Employee, Leave Type, Dates, Duration, Reason, Status and Actions. Counts on the overview show Pending Leaves and Approved Leaves, with Total Days Taken and Days off this year for context.

For each pending request you can:

• Approve
• Reject
• Forward

Approve and Reject are single clicks. A rejected request can carry an HR Response so the employee understands why. The record keeps Reviewed By, Reviewer Notes and the time of the decision.

Escalating with Forward

Sometimes a request should be decided by someone more senior, for instance when it covers a long absence or you are conflicted. Choose Forward. The Forward Leave Request dialog shows the employee, the leave type and dates and the duration, then asks you to:

1. Select Higher Up / Reviewer: pick another person from the directory (not the requester).
2. Add Escalation Notes / Instructions.
3. Confirm.

The request now shows "Forwarded to" the chosen reviewer, and the reviewer can approve or reject it. A toast confirms the forward. Statuses a request can have are Pending, Forwarded, Approved, Rejected and Cancelled.

Access matters

Who can approve is controlled by HR roles. HR Officers and HR Administrators handle timesheets and leaves, while HR Viewers can only look. If someone cannot see the buttons, check their role on the Permissions tab.

Fair and consistent decisions

• Decide within a set number of working days and say so in your policy.
• Use HR Response for any rejection.
• Keep Sick Leave notes minimal; the Reason field is visible to reviewers.
• Watch Pending Leaves on the overview so none sits unseen.

Employees and the work schedule

Leave interacts with attendance. An employee set to On Leave in the directory is shown that way in HR attendance so no one chases them for a check-in. Update their status when leave starts and ends.

Practice

1. Submit a test leave request from a normal account.
2. Forward it to a colleague with a note.
3. As that reviewer, approve it and confirm it shows in Approved Leaves.

Note: This version has leave types and approvals with totals of days taken. It does not offer a holiday calendar, so keep public holidays in your normal Calendar.