Presenting Fresh Features for Leave policies & management in 2025

It’s hard to believe, but the first half of 2025 is already behind us. And that means there have been numerous updates to our platform. To give you a quick refresher, we’ve put together a roundup of the most important changes and improvements in Leave policies and management functionality in PeopleForce. 

Please give a warm welcome to our newest section – Fresh Features! Here, we’ll briefly highlight things you might have missed.

Don’t forget to check in – it might be just what you need to make your work (and your team’s life) a whole lot easier.

⚡Click to approve or reject leave requests right from your inbox

Just tap the Approve or Reject button in the email – you’ll be redirected to PeopleForce, and the request will already have the status you selected. One quick step, and you're done.

👇Allow negative leave balances – but keep control 

Sometimes employees need to request time off before they’ve fully earned it, like planning a vacation ahead. PeopleForce lets you allow these “negative” leave requests, so people aren’t blocked if their balance is low.

Set a strict limit on how far into the negative they can go – for example, no more than 3 or 5 days below zero, to keep things under control. This is especially useful for teams in regions where taking extra days off in advance is common (hello, Balkans 👋).

⏳Set a deadline to restrict leave request withdrawals

Prevent employees from canceling their leave too close to the start date. For example, no changes are allowed within 4 days before leave begins. This helps avoid payment and scheduling conflicts (like paying vacation pay that’s later canceled).

You can customize the deadline, but 4 days is the default to keep things smooth and fair.

🧾 Grant extra leave based on total work experience 

Set up to 10 levels in a single leave policy to automatically grant extra leave days based on an employee’s total work experience or legal requirements. For example, give extra days off to employees with 10+ years of total work experience (including university years, as in Poland 🇵🇱).

Perfect for sabbaticals, ES returning (boomerang) employees in LATAM, or just rewarding tenure. Enable the feature in your Accruals & Carryover settings and customize the accruals to fit your needs.

📝 Write clearer leave instructions for employees

We’ve increased the character limit in leave policy instructions from 300 to 1000, so now HR can explain everything in more detail: how to request leave, how it’s approved, and how often it’s allowed.

Employees will see these instructions when submitting requests, so everyone’s on the same page.

📅 Enable leave on demand for quick, no-approval time off 

Let employees request leave on the same day – no need to wait for manager approval. With the Leave on demand feature, requests can be auto-approved (managers can still cancel if needed), making it perfect for countries like Poland 🇵🇱, where same-day leave is legally guaranteed.

You can limit requests to 4 or 8 hours, depending on the work schedule, and customize everything to match your policy. Ideal for urgent needs or mental health days – simple and compliant.

📊 Check out the new columns in the Leave Requests report 

Now you can see who approved the request, who’s the current approver, and when the last action happened – all in one place.

This makes auditing and reporting to stakeholders or investors way easier and clearer.

🎤 Use voice-to-text for leave notes and instructions

Don’t feel like typing? Just say it! Employees and managers can now use voice-to-text when filling out leave requests or adding notes, quick and perfect for users on the go.

All caught up? Great! 🙌

But we’re not done yet – stay tuned for the next round of updates. We’re working on new features to make time planning even easier:

• Employees will be able to request leave for just half a day — the system will automatically calculate the hours based on their work pattern.
• You’ll also be able to view your future leave balance to better plan ahead.

📌 Plus, don’t miss the latest Fresh Features for recruiting & hiring with all the recent updates.

P.S. Don’t forget – you can always keep up with all updates right here, and find more setup tips in our Help Center.

Got questions after reading about our fresh roundup? Reach out to your manager directly – we’re always happy to help. Stay tuned and stay connected!