Leave request & approval SOP template

Leave only causes friction when the rules live in someone’s head. This template makes the whole path visible — request, approval, coverage, records — so an employee can plan a holiday without a negotiation and a manager can approve one without archaeology.

Requesting leave

Submit the request

Requests go through the HR system (not chat, not email — those get lost). Include: dates, leave type (vacation, sick, parental, unpaid), and any handover notes. Lead time expectations: five working days for a single day off, three weeks for a week or more. Sick leave is the exception — notify as soon as reasonably possible, paperwork follows.

Check your balance first

The requester confirms their remaining balance before submitting. If the system shows balances, this is a glance; if it doesn’t, ask HR before booking flights.

Approval

Who approves what

The direct manager approves requests up to five consecutive working days. Longer requests, unpaid leave, and anything touching a statutory entitlement (parental, medical, jury) route to HR after the manager’s sign-off. One approver per step — parallel approvers create silent deadlocks.

The approval window

Managers respond within two working days. An unanswered request after two days escalates automatically to the manager’s manager — silence must never be the answer to a leave request.

Grounds for pushback

A manager may propose alternative dates for team-coverage reasons, but may not deny statutory leave. If dates genuinely clash with a critical delivery, the conversation happens within the two-day window, with alternatives — not a bare “no”.

Coverage and handover

Arrange coverage

For absences of three days or more, the requester names a coverage owner for each running responsibility and confirms they’ve accepted. “The team will absorb it” is not a coverage plan.

Write the handover note

One page: active work and its state, upcoming deadlines inside the absence window, where things live, and what can safely wait. Post it where the team will look, not in a DM.

Records and calendars

Record and broadcast

On approval, HR (or the system) records the leave against the balance and the absence lands on the team calendar automatically. If any step here is manual, it has a named owner — miscounted balances are how trust in the whole process dies.

Return check

On the first day back, the coverage owner hands back anything that moved. Five minutes, in person or on a call — not a scroll through two hundred messages.