How to set up leave approvals that don't stall

An employee asks for a week off in December. They send a message to their supervisor, who forwards it to HR, who asks the head of department, who is travelling. Three weeks later the employee still doesn’t know whether to book the bus ticket.

Leave approvals rarely stall because someone says no. They stall because nobody is sure whose turn it is. A good workflow fixes that with three decisions: how many levels of approval you need, who sits at each level, and what happens when that person isn’t around.

Decision 1: one level or two?

One level means one person approves, usually the employee’s direct supervisor. It’s fast, and it’s right for most small and mid-sized teams.

Two levels means someone recommends the request and someone else approves it. A common setup: the supervisor recommends, because they know whether the team can cope, and the head of department or HR approves, because they see the bigger picture.

Use two levels when:

• leave affects cover across several teams (shifts, wards, branches), or
• you need HR to check balances and policy before the final yes.

Don’t add a second level just because it feels more careful. Every extra step adds days, and people start going around the system.

Decision 2: who approves for whom?

Write down, for every employee, who recommends and who approves their leave. In most organisations it follows the reporting line, but not always:

• A nurse may report to a ward manager for day-to-day work, but leave is approved by the nursing officer who manages the roster.
• A branch accountant may report to the branch manager but have leave approved by the head of finance.

Keep a default rule (for example, “the supervisor approves, the head of department is the fallback”), then set exceptions for the people who don’t fit it. That way, a new hire is covered from day one.

Decision 3: what happens when the approver is away?

This is where most workflows break. Plan for it:

• Fallbacks: if no specific approver is set, the request goes to the supervisor or head of department.
• Reminders: a nudge after a day or two of no response.
• Visibility: HR can see every pending request and how long it has been waiting.

Make it easy for the employee too

A request moves faster when it’s complete the first time:

• Show the employee their remaining balance before they submit.
• Show who else is away in the same period, so they can pick dates that work for the team.
• Ask for a handover note or reliever for longer leave.
• Tell them the moment it’s approved or declined, with a reason if declined.

Before you design the workflow, check the legal minimums for your country: leave in Ghana and leave in Nigeria.

Rules worth writing into your policy

1. Notice periods by length: for example, three days’ notice for one day off, two weeks for a week or more.
2. Response time for approvers: for example, two working days.
3. Peak periods: how you handle December, Easter or month-end close fairly, for example first come, first served, or rotation.
4. Sick and emergency leave: these can’t be approved in advance, so say how they’re recorded afterwards.

How Eban handles it

In Eban you choose one or two approval levels for leave. For each employee you can set a specific recommender and approver, and anyone without one falls back to their head of department or supervisor. Employees apply from the mobile app, see their balance as they choose dates, and can check who else is away. Approvers get a notification and can act from their phone in the Approval Center, and the employee sees the decision straight away. Approved leave flows into the attendance record, so nobody on leave is marked absent.