What’s the fairest way to approve overlapping holiday requests?

Annual leave clashes are almost impossible to avoid, especially around peak times of year.

It’s straightforward to plan around common events like school holidays or long weekends by setting leave limits. But what about niche events, like festivals, that staff want to attend but managers might easily overlook?

Most managers find themselves overwhelmed during these bottlenecks — juggling multiple requests and spending time deciding whose came first or who should be prioritised, often without a clear process.

So, how do you decide the fairest way to approve overlapping requests? Who is approved and who misses out?

Scenario: Overlapping requests in the Marketing team

Two social media coordinators, Emma and Tom, request the same week off in June for Glastonbury. They are the only two team members who manage social media for their business.

Approving both requests would leave the marketing team short-staffed and under a lot of pressure. Still, management wants to ensure that one can be approved using a straightforward process that does not risk any accusations of favouritism.

So, what is the best and fairest way forward?

The legal position in the UK

Employees in the UK are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave each year, and employers can exercise discretion over when it is taken, provided that it doesn’t hinder fair opportunities to take all of their entitlement.

Employers can:

Approve or deny requests based on business needs.
Restrict leave during busy periods if communicated clearly.
Cancel leave if necessary (with appropriate notice).

Employers also have the issue of maintaining morale, so decisions should be reasonable, transparent and consistent. It also helps if you use tools, like a staff holiday planner, to keep records of dates and communication.

Balancing fairness with flexibility

Having clearly defined rules is a crucial step, although some situations may require discretion from managers.

Some bases for fairly approving leave can be:

First come, first served: Simply approving requests in the order that they were received is the most common approach. It also encourages people to be organised. Using holiday planning software with a mobile app can make this even easier for employees.
Rotation system: Each year, employees may be rotated to receive preferences for key events or holiday periods.
Personal circumstances: Employers could prioritise employees based on childcare, family commitments, or once-in-a-lifetime events. However, it is essential to ensure that nobody is discriminated against based on personal circumstances. Therefore, we would not recommend this as a blanket policy.

Consistency is key, so whichever method you choose, it is essential to consult and communicate with your employees to ensure they understand and have input into decisions that directly impact them. This approach also helps maintain high morale.

How to use Leave Dates to handle overlaps fairly

Using Leave Dates, you can create policies that make date clashes easy to manage fairly.

View overlaps and conflicts clearly: Use your wallchart to see who is already off during this period; this may mean you have to create or alter department leave limits for the Glastonbury period.
Set leave limits: Set your own limit on how many staff can be absent at once. This can be applied by department and across the entire company. You can create special limits for busy periods, or if you know an event is coming up.
Choose how to enforce limits: You can block new requests for this period when setting leave limits once the leave limit is reached. Alternatively, you can set a warning that notifies team members that their request may be denied, but still allows managers the chance to review the request.

Emma and Tom's manager uses Leave Dates to manage time off. Although they hadn’t set a leave limit for the time period around this event, they can see that Emma made the first request for this period. Unfortunately for Tom, he misses out this year, but their manager could take this opportunity to give Tom priority for next year’s event.

Final thought

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to fairly approving or denying a leave request, but many businesses opt for a first-come, first-served policy.

A fair policy is always a mix of clear rules, excellent communication, and a transparent process. All of these elements work best with the help of a top-notch holiday planner like Leave Dates.

Using Leave Dates to set leave limits, managers don’t have to worry about the extra admin or the difficult conversations. Consistent decisions can be made while maintaining flexibility.

The information in this article is general and may not apply to specific circumstances. It should not be considered legal advice. We strive to provide accurate information, but cannot guarantee its accuracy. We are not responsible for any losses resulting from reliance on the information on this site.