Planning project resources around annual leave
Leave is predictable. Put it next to project allocation, name a covering colleague on every request and plan people at about 80 percent.
Annual leave is predictable. Most of it is booked weeks ahead. Yet projects still stall because the one person who knows the integration is on holiday in the week it goes live. The fix is not to restrict leave. It is to put leave and project allocation in the same view.
Ask for leave early, and make it easy
People book leave early when the process is simple: pick the dates, choose who covers, send. Encourage requests at least two weeks ahead for anything longer than two days. Do not make people justify their holiday.
Name a covering colleague on every request
Every leave request should name who covers the work while the person is away. That one field forces the conversation that usually happens too late: does the covering person know the project, and do they have time? It also tells clients who to contact.
Look at workload before you approve
Before approving, the approver should see two things: what the person is allocated to during those dates, and how loaded the covering colleague already is. If the covering person is already at full capacity, approving the leave means overloading them. Rebalance first, then approve.
Watch for overlapping leave
Two people from the same small team away in the same week is the most common gap. A simple “who else is away in this window” check on every request catches it. It does not mean saying no. It may mean moving a deadline or bringing someone in from another project for a week.
Plan around public holidays
Public holidays affect everyone at once and are often forgotten in project plans, especially for teams across regions. Put them on the calendar used for resource planning, so a week with two holidays is planned as a three-day week.
Plan capacity at 80 percent
A person allocated at 100 percent every week has no room for leave, sickness, meetings or surprises. Planning at around 80 percent leaves room for the unplanned. Over a quarter, the difference is a project that finishes on time instead of one that runs on overtime.
Review the next four weeks every week
A short weekly look at the next four weeks, with allocations and approved leave side by side, catches almost every gap while it is still cheap to fix.
A short checklist
- Leave is requested early through a simple form.
- Every request names a covering colleague.
- Approvers see the workload of both people before deciding.
- Overlapping leave and public holidays are visible in planning.
- People are planned at around 80 percent of capacity.