Once someone has submitted a time-off request, it may need to be approved by one or more employees/roles (Line manager, HR Admin). Approvals in time off are sequential, which means that the 1st approver needs to approve a request before the 2nd one is notified that there is an approval pending etc. When any of the approvers rejects a time-off request, then this rejection is considered final and the next approvers do not get notified at all.
In case no approval is required for a time-off type or policy, then all the requests of this type are automatically marked as “Approved” in the employee profile.
💡Check here how to set up approval flows for time-off types and policies.
Approval requests in employee profile
Updates sidebar
Time-off requests can be approved/rejected within the Updates sidebar of the employee profile from members that can access the Time off tab for the specific employee. To do so:
- Click the Time-off requests category under Profile updates (if there are other updates as well)
- Review the request; you can click View details to open the time-off request modal
- Either click approve ✔️ or decline ❌ next to the time-off request(s)
View details modal
When reviewing a time-off request (View details under the contextual menu), you can also approve/reject using the buttons at the bottom of the modal.
Approval requests in Workable inbox
Workable users who are required to approve a time-off request receive an inbox notification once their approval is needed according to the approvals sequence.
The recipient of the inbox notification can directly approve or reject the request by selecting one of the actions on the top right. Once they complete their actions, the inbox item is archived.
Approval requests in the 'Time-off' calendar
Requests pending approval will be shown in the 'Time-off' company calendar with an orange clock next to them.
To see all requests pending your actions as a list, click View pending requests under the Actions menu. You can approve/reject time-off requests directly from this view without the need to go to each employee profile or your inbox.
For each inbox item created, an email is also sent to the user to notify them that a time-off request requires their approval. Users can open the inbox item directly from the email:
When a time-off request is finally approved or rejected, the employee that the request is created for receives an inbox and email notification.
Important: Requests’ amounts are deducted from the available balance when all approvers approve a request.
Approvals on behalf of another employee
HR Admins can approve/reject a time-off request on behalf of another employee who is requested to review it. Common use cases:
- Manager/specific approver offboarded before wrapping up all pending approval actions
- Manager/specific approver is on leave, and the request is urgent to be approved
To approve on behalf of someone else:
- Open the time-off details view
- Navigate to the request timeline at the bottom of the window
- Either click approve ✔️ or decline ❌ next to the action item
- Once you act, your name will be visible as the approver with an additional note that includes the original request reviewer
FAQs
- Can I check which other team members are on leave at the same time?
- If you are a manager, you can see who else on your team is on leave in the time-off request modal. This will help you make informed decisions when reviewing a time-off request.