Time Off Request Form

A Time off request form is a formal way to inform your employer that you're taking a vacation or sick leave. If you're an employer, providing these documents to your workers can make everything easier for them, and help ensure you receive proper notice of any absences. A Time Off Request helps keep everything organized.

How do you use a Time off request form?

When writing a leave request, have a look at the below suggestions:

1. Establish how far in advance and how often time off should be requested.

The first rule for handling time-off requests is making it clear how far in advance you will be accepting requests. That can depend on your individual business and may range anywhere from two weeks to two months. The timeframe can also be dependent on how many days are being requested off; you might only need to know two weeks in advance if it's one or two days but require several months' notice if someone is taking a two-week vacation.

2. Make clear any time frames during which employees cannot request time off.

It's obvious that there are certain times of year that employees may be Hunger-Games-style battling to be the victorious one with time off. Those typically include the holiday season, school vacation time, and during the summer months. Just because those are times when more employees want work-free days doesn't mean business is slowing down. It's difficult to keep up demand if there aren't as many people staffed on shifts. Thus, if you have to block off some time frames during which employees aren't allowed to request time off, you should make that clear right when potential employees interview. However, it's important to remain fair; if you're going to make that a strict regulation, it's never okay to bend the rules for one or two employees but not others.

3. Create a system for handling overlapping requests.

Similarly, regardless of it being a busy time of year or not, there may be times when more than one employee requests off the same days. This might be okay if it's only a couple of people who can easily be covered. However, if too many staff members are asking for the same shifts off, you might have to make some hard decisions regarding who gets their request fulfilled. Here are some ways to handle overlapping requests:

• First Come, First Served: The simplest way to handle this scenario is on a first-come, first-served basis. Whoever submits the request first gets the days off. This policy will also encourage employees to submit their time-off requests further in advance, which is a bonus for you.

• Reason-Based: If multiple people want the time off for different reasons, consider comparing the reasons and selecting on that basis. For instance, if one individual is requesting time off to attend their sister's wedding, while the other has a friend in town that week, you might prioritize the former, as that reason seems to be more pressing.

• Number of Prior Requests: Another potential policy is to consider how many time-off requests each employee has already submitted — or is expected to submit. If one individual has already requested off three other shifts during that month, while the other is only requesting off this one shift, you may decide to go with the latter.

After downloading this form and filling in the blanks, you can easily customize the style, typography, details, and appearance of your Time off request form. If this isn't the right temporary leave request that you are looking for, then certainly take a look at the other letters that Bizzlibrary.com has to offer. We have many letters ranging from cover letters to business letters and thank you notes.