Managing team vacations and time-off requests can be complex, but using a vacation tracker within Slack, like Sup Bot, simplifies the process. Sup Bot integrates seamlessly with Slack, allowing team members to request holidays directly within the app and allowing managers to review them on Slack itself. With features like real-time team member holiday notifications, detailed analytics, customizable leave types and approval flows, Slack status updates, and more, Sup Bot streamlines leave management. This blog will show you how to set up and use Sup Bot in Slack to handle PTOs, leaves, and team holidays efficiently.
How to use an employee vacation tracker in Slack with Sup Bot in 5 easy steps
Whether you're new to the idea of using Slack for vacation tracking, have already experimented with other tools, or have handled leave requests manually, it's time to streamline with Sup Bot. Here’s how to use Sup Bot to manage team vacations in Slack in just five simple steps.
1. Install the Sup bot on Slack.
Your first step is to go to https://app.supbot.com/slack/install and install Sup bot on Slack. Sup Bot then will request a few permissions and once granted, you will gain access to all of our premium features for the next 14 days. These features include advanced controls for holiday managers, the ability to create individual leaves and team holidays, customized approval workflows, Google calendar integration, detailed holiday or leave analytics, slack notifications on requests and approvals, setting Slack status on holidays, a weekly holiday summary, and more.
Setting up Sup Bot's holiday settings is very important to make it work well for your team and keep track of vacations after you've installed it. These are the most important settings you need to make:
Holiday notification channel: Choose a Slack channel where notifications about approved holidays, upcoming holidays, and weekly holiday summaries will be sent. You can select either a public or private channel for these notifications. This centralizes all holiday-related communication, keeping everyone in the loop.
Approval flow: Customize the approval flow for different holiday types to determine whether holiday requests are automatically approved or need manager review. This guarantees that managers are responsible for managing critical tasks, emphasizes essential members' overlapping leave requests, promotes fairness in leave distribution, and enhances accountability by enabling managers to effectively manage workloads and track absences.
Holiday managers: Assigning holiday managers is essential for a structured and efficient leave management process. These managers will have the authority to approve or reject holiday requests, modify holiday types, and view team holiday statuses, ensuring consistent application of leave policies and reducing approval delays.
Customizable leave types: Sup Bot comes with 8 holiday types by default, but they are easy to customize to fit the needs of your organization. Change the types of leave to match the rules of your company, whether it's for vacation, sick leave, personal offs, or something else. This gives your leave management system the freedom to adapt to your specific needs, making things clearer for your team.
Annual leave quota: You can set an annual leave quota to keep the leave management system balanced and fair. By telling employees how many leaves they can take each year, you make sure that all employees have the same chance to take time off. This is fair and stops one person from taking too many leaves. A clear annual leave quota can help employees plan their vacations better and avoid confusion or disagreements over leave allocations.
Default Slack Status: Adding a default Slack status for holidays and leaves is a simple yet powerful way to improve team communication and efficiency. When an employee’s Slack status automatically updates to indicate they are on leave, it provides immediate visibility to the entire team. This helps avoid unnecessary messages and ensures that team members are aware of their absence. It also minimizes disruptions and misunderstandings about the person's availability, allowing other team members to adjust their work accordingly.
3. Requesting time off on Slack
Once you've customized Sup Bot to suit your team's needs, you can announce to them that they can start requesting holidays.
Requesting holidays in Sup Bot is incredibly straightforward. Employees can navigate to the home page of Sup Bot on Slack and find the Create Holiday/Leave button.
Add a holiday request on Slack using Sup bot
On this window, they can:
Select the type of leave they need.
Optionally, add a reason for the leave.
Choose the start and end dates.
If the leave is for a single day, specify the duration, with options for a full day, a half-day morning, or a half-day evening.
Update the Slack status with an emoticon and a custom message that will be displayed during their leave duration.
After entering the details, the next steps depend on the approval flow settings you’ve configured:
Auto-Approval: If the leave type is set for auto-approval (e.g., sick days for convenience), the request will be instantly approved.
Manager Approval: If the leave type has an approval flow enabled, set-holiday managers will receive a notification to review and approve the request.
4. Approving or declining requests on Slack
Once a team member requests a holiday, designated managers will receive a Slack notification with the holiday details. If there are multiple holiday managers, all will be notified, but once one manager takes action (approve or reject), the request is locked, preventing others from making changes.
The Slack notification that is sent to the manager includes the following details:
Requested leave details on Slack
The username of the person requesting the holiday.
The type of leave being requested.
For single-day requests, whether it’s a half-day or full day.
The start and end dates, or just the single date if it’s a one-day leave.
Approve button to approve the holiday.
A Reject button to deny the request.
A link to view the requested holiday details on the Sup Bot website.
With this information, managers can either approve or reject the holiday request:
If Approved:
The holiday details are immediately posted in the designated holiday notification channel.
The employee receives a Slack notification from Sup Bot indicating who approved their request.
On the day of the holiday, a reminder with the holiday details is shared in the channel before the workday begins.
A weekly summary of the upcoming holidays is sent out to keep everyone informed.
If Rejected:
Managers have the option to provide a reason for the rejection, although it’s not mandatory.
The employee receives a notification that their request was declined, along with the reason if provided.
The employee can then edit and resubmit the leave request. The manager will see both the old and new dates, along with the options to approve or reject the revised request.
5. Viewing all holidays/leaves (Managers)
With many viewing options on both Slack and the web app, Sup Bot makes it easy to keep up with your team's holiday plans.
Slack home page - upcoming holidays:
User can see their own holidays - whether approved, requested, or rejected as well as the team’s public holidays for the next 60 days.
Offers a more in-depth perspective with two major views: a list and a calendar for managers.
1. List view
Comprehensive Overview: Displays a list of all team members’ holiday requests, including requested, approved, and declined statuses.
Flexible Filters: View holidays on a monthly or yearly basis, with options to filter by team members.
Manager Actions: Managers can approve or reject pending requests, as well as edit or delete holidays directly from this view.
Export Option: Export holiday data for record-keeping or further analysis.
2. Calendar view
Visual Representation: Provides a calendar view of an individual member’s holidays, showing yearly holidays, including requested, approved, and team holidays.
Enhanced Planning: This visual format significantly improves planning and coordination by providing a comprehensive overview of team availability throughout the year. Managers can quickly identify potential scheduling conflicts, ensure critical coverage during key periods, and plan project timelines more effectively.
Advanced features of the Sup bot for vacation tracking in Slack
1. Sup Bot's holiday stats for optimized team management
Leave management can be used as a strategic advantage with Sup Bot's detailed holiday statistics for managers. You can use these powerful insights in the following ways:
Team-side statistics
Pie chart of leave types: This chart offers a concise visual representation of the various types of leaves that the team has taken. Managers can guarantee that leave policies are in accordance with the actual requirements of employees by analyzing this data to identify trends and rectify any imbalances.
A bar graph of total leaves taken: Sorted from highest to lowest, provides insights into team dynamics and workload distribution. By identifying which team members have taken the most leaves, managers can spot potential burnout, health issues, and imbalances in task allocation. This graph helps ensure fair leave practices and highlights any discrepancies, enabling early intervention to support overburdened employees. It also aids in balancing workloads, ensuring key roles are covered and critical tasks are not disrupted by frequent absences.
Annual team holiday list: With a full list of all team holidays for the year, managers can plan effectively around these dates. This foresight ensures that important projects and deadlines aren't scheduled during times when team members are most likely to be unavailable around these dates, thus maintaining a smooth workflow and keeping projects on track.
Upcoming leave list: Real-time visibility into upcoming leaves allows managers to adjust schedules and redistribute tasks proactively. This proactive approach minimizes disruptions and ensures that key responsibilities are covered, fostering a well-coordinated and efficient team environment.
Individual leave statistics for admins and non-admins
Admins can access and filter the below stats by adding their username, while non-admins can view their personal statistics directly under the stats tab.
Leave types display the distribution of different leave types taken by an individual.
Leaves already taken shows the total number of leaves taken by an individual, helping both administrators and employees track leave usage against the annual quota.
Remaining holidays indicates the number of remaining holidays of an individual.
2. Google Calendar integration
Sup Bot integrates seamlessly with shared Google Calendars, providing detailed and real-time information about team holidays and leaves.
Holiday details on shared Google calendar
Here’s what you can expect to see on your calendar:
When there are changes made to holiday requests in Sup Bot, they show up right away on the shared Google Calendar. People will always know who is on leave and when because of this.
Each calendar event includes the type of leave, the reason (if provided), and the name of the person taking leave.
For extended leaves, the event spans the entire range of dates, giving a clear visual timeline of the absence.
3. Bulk team holidays.
Another great addition to the remarkable features that the Sup Bot holiday tracker has is its ability to add bulk team holidays.
As a manager, you are required to inform your team of all public holidays once the list of calendar holidays is available to you. Instead of having to repeat the same process of creating a holiday n times if there are n number of holidays on the calendar and your team receives n number of notifications, do it all together at once with the Sup Bot holiday tracker. When you do so, your team receives a notification about all public holidays together at once.
This process not only saves you time but also helps your team plan their work schedules accordingly once they are aware of the vacations beforehand.
Frequently asked questions
1. How do I track my vacation in Slack?
You can use employee vacation tracking tools like Sup Bot, which is integrated into Slack, to ensure that holiday tracking and management are convenient and accessible and that they don't get lost among the many tools your team already uses.
2. How do I add ooo status in Slack?
If you add the default Slack status to your holiday settings, Sup Bot can automatically set your Slack OOO status. Alternatively, you can set the status when requesting a leave in Slack. If you do not want to use the Sup bot, then you can set the Slack status manually.
3. How do I ask for time off on Slack?
In Slack, you can visit the Sup bot home, click on 'Create Holiday/Leave', fill in the details, and submit your request. The managers will review the request and take the next action.
