The Best Ways to Deal With Last-Minute Time-Off Requests

Last-minute time-off requests are a massive headache. So, what’s the key to managing those dreaded eleventh-hour absences – without compromising your employee relationships and service levels?

To find out, our Editor, Megan Jones, spoke to Bryce Ackerman, Doug Casterton, Jamie Storer, Jon Dainton, Jonathan O’Connor, Naveed Hussain, and Paul Allen for their expert opinions on how best to maintain the delicate balance.

1. Don’t Be Judgemental About the Reason Why Someone Wants Time Off

You can’t be judgemental about the reasons why someone has put in a last-minute time-off request. It could be for anything – related to children or elderly parents, a trip to the vets, a broken washing machine, or even just some time-out for their personal wellbeing.

Everyone’s definition of an emergency is different, so don’t create a list of reasons why someone can or can’t have last-minute time off.

“All that matters at that moment is that it’s clearly important to the person who’s experiencing it and, as it’s coming out of that individual’s annual leave, it’s not for you to worry about.

After all, you would never normally ask someone why they wanted annual leave.” – Paul Allen, Head of Customer Support

“Always show empathy while still considering the needs of the business. People will appreciate a personal approach, and it helps build on trust and loyalty. You can offer alternatives, like swapping shifts or making up time later, so your people feel that all options have been exhausted.” – Naveed Hussain, Award-Winning Operations Manager

2. Set Expectations for When It’s Busier and Requests Are Likely to Be Denied

It can really help to be open with everybody from the start! Think of it like being on a plane, as Bryce Ackerman, Workforce Management Internal Consultant, explains:

Making sure your communication is top notch can avoid messy misunderstandings. For advice on how to improve it, read our article: The 7 Cs of Effective Communication

3. Be Fair and Consistent With Every Request

To avoid chaos and confusion, it’s important that you have a fair and consistent policy in place for managing last-minute time-off requests, to help guide all employees on what the protocol is.

“When you end up with lots of situations where agents are making calls to their supervisors and they are all being handled differently, it can all get very disjointed – and even result in unprofessional tactics being used by either party to help maintain service levels (or secure the time off).” – Jamie Storer, Sr Manager, Workforce Optimization

Avoid favouritism with last-minute requests as well, as Naveed Hussain says,

“It’s essential to be consistent across the board.

“A transparent tracking system for time-off requests can help ensure that everyone is being treated fairly and each request is balanced with compassion and consistency, so everyone is aligned to our values.”

Don’t forget to give your attendance policy a regular health check too!

4. If It’s Too Early to Tell, Don’t Say “No”… Ask Them to Come Back Later

Be conscious that requests made earlier in the day can be trickier to handle.

“When agents come to you with requests first thing in the morning, it’s hard to know how the day is going to pan out, but it shouldn’t be an instant ‘no’. I always try to be flexible and say ‘Right, if I can’t let you go at a particular time, come back an hour later and I might be able to let you go then.'” – Jonathan O’Connor, Resource Planning Manager

5. Replace Uncomfortable Conversations With Automation Wherever Possible

Technology can ease the strain on the decision-makers and avoid conversations such as “I’m going to have to talk to your supervisor about this” or cases where agents feel pressured to put on a show (and even cry) to secure the time off they need.

“Embrace an automated notification and automated shift-change system; if you have a WFM system, it will normally provide this functionality.

“Picture this, an agent calls out sick or makes an on-the-day holiday request, and within seconds, every available team member gets a ping.

“It’s like Tinder for shift coverage, minus the awkward small talk. The first to swipe right gets the shift, and most WFM systems can accommodate the whole process being automated.” – Doug Casterton, Head of Operational Excellence

6. Make Sure You Aren’t “Flying in the Dark” With Your Forecast

Managing last-minute time-off requests starts with a good forecast, as Bryce Ackerman shares:

“If you have a good forecast in place, you’re going to have a decent idea of what you can and cannot approve.

Not only that, but you can then consistently back up your decisions by being able to say, ‘You can’t have today off, and this is why’, as opposed to flying in the dark and hedging your bets saying no to everything.”

If you are looking for advice on improving your contact centre forecasting, read our article: A Guide to Call Centre Forecasting

7. Use Last-Minute Time-Off Requests to Your Advantage

Think positive and provide flexible options to use these situations to your advantage.

For example, if you’re able to say, “OK, if you’re not going to be in today because your car broke down, I’m looking at the schedule and we have a real shortage on Thursday. Could you come in on Thursday instead?”

If this can all happen outside of a red mark on their attendance record and helps cover another shift, then it’s a win-win!

8. Embrace Your Remote Workers (They Offer the Most Flexibility for Short-Notice Shift Changes)

Leaning into your remote working options can also make the world of difference in managing last-minute time-off requests well, as Doug Casterton explains:,

9. Think “If It Was a Normal Holiday Request This Time Last Week, Could I Have Said Yes?”

A good way to think about a last-minute time-off request is to compare it to a normal holiday request.

“I see time-off events in the future booked mainly by staff with families that need to plan and prepare leave in advance, while last-minute requests tend to originate from staff that don’t have the planning involved and are either identifying an opportunity, or have other concerns.

As leaders we plan, and need to be aware that our bias is always slanted towards this. Any requests I get I start with the question: “Why can’t I approve this?”

Then if there are reasons why I can’t, I can default to my leader mode of “What can I do to reasonably mitigate this?” and then either enact the new plans before approving, or speak to the staff member to understand more and discuss the issues.

Then if you have a conflict you can balance the impact to the company against the impact to your staff.” – Jon Dainton, Head of Customer Service Operations

“Beyond looking at overall performance of the contact centre that day, I also consider if I have the normal holiday allocation to use, so if they’d have come this time last week, I could have said yes straight away.” – Jonathan O’Connor

10. Involve and Empower Your Supervisors

Involve your supervisors in your planning. Make them part of the process from the start so they understand why you may or may not be able to approve time off for their team.

“Instead of just clicking ‘deny’, make sure that your supervisors understand why you’re clicking ‘deny’.” – Bryce Ackerman

Also empower your supervisors by giving them visibility of real-time staffing.

“When they have real-time data at their fingertips and the authority to make on-the-spot decisions, they can pivot faster.” – Doug Casterton

11. Openly Be More Flexible During Seasonal Dips

Last-minute time-off requests can also go hand in hand with ad hoc early finishes to support seasonal demand, as Jonathan O’Connor explains:

“We’ve got quite a seasonal workload and we’re coming into our quiet period.

“So we’ll use what we call ‘festive cheers’, so they may have actually used all of their holiday allowance, but we give them the opportunity to go home early or not come in, but instead bank those hours to use in January or February.”

For top tips and techniques to help you master seasonal service levels in the contact centre, read our article: Master Seasonal Service Levels – Just Like This!

12. Build Some Flexibility Into Your Planning

Building in upfront flexibility can really help manage those last-minute time-off requests.

“Emergencies are going to happen, so we build in shrinkage and components to know that X percent of staff are probably not going to come in on any given day. It’s just something that we plan for.” – Jamie Storer

“I’ve tried duvet days, where I would just build a little bit of a cushion into the planned shrinkage, knowing that there would likely be someone who’d ring up and say for whatever reason “I’m just going to take the day off today.”

This would come out of their annual leave, but it still needs to be managed on the day as a last-minute time-off request.” – Paul Allen

For advice on building true flexibility into contact centre schedules, read our article: 32 Tips for Building Flexibility Into Contact Centre Schedules

13. Never Forget Just How Important Time Off Is to Agents

Remember that you’re dealing with people who have feelings!

“Put yourself in the shoes of the agents! Most of us did start on the phones, so it’s important to remember that we were once an agent ourselves and how important that holiday or time off was to us – especially those last-minute requests when something came up.” – Bryce Ackerman

14. Coach People on How to Plan Better for Time Off in Future

Always take the opportunity to coach people on how to plan better for future time off too!

“Offer your agents tools, hints and tips around diary organization and milestones in their lives through great conversations, so they can use these to avoid being in the same situation again. This shows you care about their wellbeing but also reinforces the importance of forward planning.” – Naveed Hussain

15. Don’t Get a Reputation for Hitting “Deny”, “Deny”, “Deny”!

If you deny everything, eventually you’re going to get everyone asking “why?”

You don’t want to get a reputation as being “the bad guy” who just always says “no”. There’s no point, as this doesn’t do anything to build a positive working relationship, does it?

How Do You Handle Last-Minute Time-Off Requests?

What are your best tips for handling last-minute time-off requests from your agents? Join our LinkedIn community and let us know.

With massive thanks to the following people for sharing their experience for this article:

• Bryce Ackerman, Workforce Management Internal Consultant at Roche
• Doug Casterton, Head of Operational Excellence at GetYourGuide
• Jamie Storer, Sr Manager, Workforce Optimization at Columbia Sportswear Company
• Jon Dainton, Head of Customer Service Operations, Fasthosts Internet Ltd
• Jonathan O’Connor, Resource Planning Manager at Tructyre
• Naveed Hussain, Award-Winning Operations Manager at Specsavers
• Paul Allen, Head of Customer Support at Department for Education

If you want to find out more about staffing and managing time off in your contact centre, read these articles next:

• How to Manage Holiday and Vacation in the Contact Centre
• 12 Shift-Planning Techniques
• Using Scheduling Playbooks to Manage Spikes in Service Demand

Author: Robyn Coppell
Reviewed by: Xander Freeman