Handling Staff Availability and Leave Requests

The fairest way to handle staff availability and leave requests is to have one place where staff submit them, clear rules everyone knows in advance (deadlines and how clashes are decided), and quick, consistent answers. Most resentment about rosters doesn't come from the answer being no. It comes from feeling the process was random.

Availability and leave are where rostering gets personal. A roster that ignores someone's uni timetable, or a leave request that sits unanswered for three weeks, does more damage to how your team feels about work than almost anything else you'll do as a manager. The good news is that fairness here is mostly about process, and process is something you control.

What's the difference between availability and leave?

They get mixed up, so it's worth separating them.

Availability is the ongoing pattern of when someone can and can't work. "I can't do Tuesdays because of class." "I'm free any time before 3pm." It changes now and then, but it's a standing fact about their week.

Leave is time off from shifts they'd otherwise be expected to work. Annual holidays, sick leave, bereavement leave, an alternative day for working a public holiday, unpaid time off. It's a specific request for specific dates, and some types come with legal entitlements.

Treating them as the same thing causes problems. If someone marks themselves "unavailable" for a fortnight in December, that's really an annual leave request, and it should be handled as one.

How should you collect staff availability?

One place, owned by the staff member. That's the rule.

When availability lives in your head, a group chat and a few texts, you'll get it wrong eventually, and the staff member will reasonably feel ignored. When they enter it themselves somewhere you both can see, they own its accuracy and you can roster against it with confidence.

A few things make it work better:

• Ask for availability at a useful level of detail. "Available Monday" isn't as helpful as "available Monday from 7am to 2pm".
• Ask staff to keep it up to date, and remind people at the start of a new semester or season, when patterns change.
• Respect it. If someone's marked unavailable, don't roster them and hope. If you genuinely need them, ask.

It's also worth knowing where the law sits. If an employee has agreed hours of work and you need them to be available beyond those guaranteed hours, the Employment Relations Act 2000 requires that to be set out in an availability provision in their employment agreement, with reasonable compensation for being available. If that's something you rely on, check your agreements.

How should you handle leave requests?

Write down how it works, tell the team once, and then do it the same way every time.

Use one channel. Requests come in one way, in writing. Not at the counter during the lunch rush. If someone does mention it in passing, ask them to put it through properly, or log it for them.

Set a response time. Aim to answer within a few days, and stick to it. An unanswered request is worse than a no, because the person can't make plans either way.

Decide clashes the same way each time. First in, first served is the simplest rule and the easiest to defend. If you use something else (rotating who gets school holidays, say), tell everyone in advance.

Give a reason when you say no. It's fairer, and for annual holidays you need a good reason to decline anyway. More on that below.

Put approved leave straight on the roster. The worst outcome is approving leave and then rostering the person anyway because the approval lived in a different place.

What do NZ rules say about annual holiday requests?

This is a rostering guide, not legal advice, and Employment New Zealand's page on taking annual holidays is the place to check the details. The main points for managers:

• After 12 months of continuous employment, employees are entitled to at least four weeks of paid annual holidays.
• Employees should generally be able to decide when to take them. An employer must allow annual holidays when the employee wants unless there's a good reason not to. Someone else having already booked the same period is an example of a good reason.
• If you can't agree on timing, the employer can require the employee to take annual holidays, with at least 14 days' notice.
• If your business has a regular annual closedown (common over Christmas), you can require staff to take annual holidays during it, again with at least 14 days' notice. See annual closedowns.
• You can't make someone take annual holidays in advance.

Employment New Zealand also notes the Employment Leave Act will replace the Holidays Act in August 2028. Until then, the current Holidays Act rules apply.

Notice what this means for "first in, first served". It lines up nicely with the law: an earlier booking by a colleague is a recognised reason to decline. Which is another reason to keep requests in one place with a date on them.

How do you stay fair over busy periods?

Christmas, school holidays and long weekends are where it all gets tested. Everyone wants the same weeks off, and your trade is often at its busiest.

Tell the team early when you'll start taking requests for those periods. Be upfront about how many people can be off at once. If the same people end up working Christmas every year, rotate it. None of this needs a policy document. A short message to the team in October saying "here's how we're doing Christmas" goes a long way.

How does WeRoster handle availability and leave?

Staff set their own availability on their phone or computer by clicking and dragging across a day in 15-minute steps, and they can copy a day or week forward if their pattern repeats. It shows behind each person in the roster editor, with unavailable time in red.

Leave requests cover annual, sick, bereavement, parental, alternative day and unpaid leave. Staff pick the type, dates and times and can add a reason. Pending requests are highlighted on the store's Leave page, where you approve or deny them with an optional note. The staff member gets an email either way, and approved leave is marked as unavailable on the roster automatically. Managers can also log leave on someone's behalf when it comes in by phone.

That last link, from approval straight to the roster, is the one that prevents the most mistakes.

Frequently asked questions

Can I refuse an annual leave request in New Zealand?

You need a good reason. Employment New Zealand says an employer must allow annual holidays when the employee wants unless there's a good reason not to, such as someone else having already booked the same period. If you can't agree, you can require holidays to be taken with at least 14 days' notice.

How should I decide between two staff who want the same days off?

Pick a rule, tell everyone in advance and apply it consistently. First in, first served is the simplest and easiest to defend.

Should availability and leave be handled separately?

Yes. Availability is a staff member's regular pattern of when they can work. Leave is time off from shifts they'd otherwise work, and some types carry legal entitlements, so it should go through a proper request.

How quickly should I respond to a leave request?

As soon as you reasonably can. Setting and sticking to a response time, like a few days, is fairer than leaving requests open, because staff can't plan until they know.