Creating time off reasons

The reasons people can select when asking for time off. Enough to plan with, not so many that it becomes an HR form.

The reasons people can select when asking for time off. Enough to plan with, not so many that it becomes an HR form.

Create them

1. In Workforce Management, open Settings and select Time off reasons.
2. Click Create time off reason and give it a name.
3. Set the Category: Planned or Unplanned. That choice is what separates a booked holiday from a sick day in every later report.
4. Choose the teams that can select it.

Two reasons already exist: Paid leave for planned time off and Sick leave for unplanned absence. Most organisations need one or two more, not ten.

Approval is not set here. Requests are approved by hand unless you write auto-approval rules, which work on teams and conditions rather than on the reason.

A set that covers the ordinary cases

• Holiday.
• Sickness.
• Training.
• Appointment.
• Other, with a note.

Keep it short deliberately

Each reason is a category somebody has to choose from while asking for time off. A long list makes people pick approximately, and approximate data plans badly.

It also starts to feel like an interrogation, which is the wrong tone for asking for a day off.

Distinguish what you schedule around differently

Training is planned and can be moved; sickness is not and cannot. Those two need separating because they behave differently in a forecast.

Two kinds of holiday do not, unless your balances differ.

Be careful with sensitive reasons

Medical or personal detail does not belong in a scheduling tool that team leads can read. A neutral reason plus a private conversation is better for everybody.

Match your actual policy

If HR distinguishes categories that matter for entitlement, mirror those. Inventing your own creates two sets of records that will not reconcile.

Review them once

After six months, look at which reasons are used. The ones nobody selects can go, and their absence makes the list easier for everybody.

See also

• The time off management page
• Creating auto-approval rules for time off
• Viewing and handling time off requests