As your company grows, staying in charge of every leave request or expense claim can actually hold the business back. When every small task has to go through one person, it creates a bottleneck that slows everyone down.
Delegating these tasks clears your desk and empowers your managers to lead their own teams effectively. This shift lets you focus on big-picture HR projects, while making sure the daily work continues to move at the speed of your business.
This guide helps you identify which tasks to hand over and how to configure Employment Hero to maintain oversight while letting go of the "button-clicking."
- The "Why" behind the hand-off
- When you should start delegating
- Before you delegate
- Your delegation toolkit (How-To Guides)
- Best practices for a smooth move
The "Why" behind the hand-off
Delegating platform tasks is not about "passing the buck." It is about data accuracy and speed. Managers are on the ground and have the best visibility into their team’s daily capacity and performance. They know if a project is too busy for someone to take Friday off or if a specific expense was pre-approved. When they handle these on the platform, your data stays live, and employees do not have to wait days for an update to their leave request or expense claim.
When you should start delegating
How do you know it’s time to move from Admin-only to Manager-delegation? Look for these signs:
- Approval delays: Leave requests or expense claims take more than 48 hours to process.
- Data silos: Managers are asking Admins for basic team info (e.g., "Who is on leave next week?") instead of looking it up.
- Operational fatigue: Admins spend more than 20% of their week on manual data entry or basic status changes.
Before you delegate
To delegate with confidence, you need to set clear boundaries. Employment Hero has built-in features to make this process safe and easy:
Assign the correct manager roles
It is important to assign the right type of manager to each employee. Whether someone is a Primary, Secondary, or Indirect manager changes what they can see and do. Picking the right role ensures managers have the access they need without seeing sensitive information they don't.
Grant custom access permissions
You can choose exactly which features your managers can use. Instead of giving everyone full access, you can pick specific tasks—like managing documents or viewing emergency contacts—to match each manager's responsibilities.
Use the Audit Trail report
You never have to worry about losing oversight. The platform keeps a detailed log of every change made. You can review the Audit Trail report at any time to see who took an action and when they did it, ensuring everything stays compliant.
Your delegation toolkit (How-To Guides)
We recommend a phased approach to delegation. Start with high-frequency, low-risk tasks before moving to sensitive data.
Phase 1: Operational basics (Low-risk)
- Leave management: Allow managers to approve/decline leave for their direct reports.
- Timesheet & expense approval: Shift the verification of hours worked to the people who actually see the work happening.
- Employee profile updates: Let managers update job titles or reporting lines (with Admin final review).
Phase 2: Engagement & performance (Strategic)
- 1:1 feedback & reviews: Moving the performance conversation into the platform ensures a paper trail and consistency.
- Shout-outs & recognition: Empowering managers to use the "Hero Thanks" feature independently.
Best practices for a smooth move
Changing how things work takes a little bit of planning. Use these simple steps to help your managers succeed:
Explain the "why"
Before you start, tell your managers why this is happening. Let them know it will make things faster for their team and give them more independence.
Schedule a "Review Period"
For the first few weeks, set aside time at the end of each week to check recently approved requests. This allows you to spot-check manager decisions and offer guidance if they aren't following company policy. Doing so will help ensure everyone is on the right track from the start.
Share the right guides
Your managers do not need to know everything about the platform. Just show them the links in the Your delegation toolkit (How-To Guides) section.
Quick monthly check-ins
Once a month, take 15 minutes to look at reports of pending leave requests and timesheet submissions. These help you see if any managers need a little extra help or a reminder to finish their tasks.
Tailor these reports to show the pending submissions by clicking the Status filter and ticking the "Pending" checkbox:
- Create a leave taken report
- Create an employee timesheet submission report