Leave Dates

Helping you manage your team's time-off so you know where everyone is.

Founder

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Product Owner

Avis Budget Group International

Head of Decision Technology EMEA

A 3 month interim position as Director of the delivery portfolio covering the period between the previous Director retiring, and the new Director starting. In this role I was responsible for all deliveries on systems within the Fleet, Finance, Revenue Management, Legal and Strategy areas, with a total team size of 33.

Interim IT Director

I am accountable for the technical delivery of all Enterprise IT systems within the Fleet, Finance, Revenue Management, Legal and Strategy portfolio. 

This is a continuation of my previous role with a wider scope of applications and responsibility.

Technical Product Manager

I was responsible for the development of software in the revenue management portfolio; delivering a programme of projects costing £2.6M using the SCRUM (Agile) methodology. I managed a team consisting of a technical lead, 3 Java developers, 2 business analysts and 1 data scientist. The team is augmented with around 15 onshore and offshore developers / mathematicians depending on the demands of the project. 

In 2014 my team delivered a £2.6M programme of projects to enhance pricing tools, 
competitor pricing analysis and demand forecasting and optimisation. 

Key Achievements - 

Delivering 8 successful major releases in 14 months generating annual benefits of over £2M. 

Releases included significant enhancements to mathematical optimisation modules, automated pricing tools and competitor analytics. 

Improved focus on quality by increasing automated test coverage, ensuring consistent use of continuous integration and defining the developers’ responsibilities for delivering quality code. 

Introduced Sonar into the nightly build process as a tool for measuring technical debt

Coached team members to move from being software developers into technical leads. 

Using Lean Six Sigma methods to improve the efficiency of the team. In particular I focusing on how we work with offshore teams. 

Supplier contracts have been reviewed and removed or renegotiated to reduce cost

Achieving SOx and OWASP compliance

IT Portfolio Lead

To project manage Lean Six Sigma projects across the EMEA region to achieve cost reductions and increase revenue. 

Key Achievements - 

Aligning all Corporate EMEA countries retail pricing processes and tools achieving Sarbanes Oxley (SOx) compliance and increased EBITDA in Italy by €247k over 12 months (other country benefits not measured) 

Implementing a new process for controlling £4M of UK Operations Outsource spend, resulting in annualised cost savings of over £800k 

Developed a new process and system for aligning the working hours of rental station agents to the busy periods of customer demand 

Aligned rental station IT equipment with demand resulting in reduced capital expenditure of £287k on Virtual Desktop and Chip and Pin devices across 12 countries 

Awarded an ‘Outstanding Achievement’ award by the CEO and EMEA President at the 2012 PEx Summit, one of only 3 awards in Europe 

Qualified as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and applied statistical data analysis techniques such as analysis of variance (ANOVA) and hypothesis testing 

Developing significant senior stakeholder management and project management skills through regular project review meetings with C-level sponsors 

Developing change management and leadership skills, including business case justification and measurement.

Performance Excellence Leader

I was the product owner for the Revenue Management Forecast and Optimiser System. The system forecasts car rental demand across 12 European countries for up to 16 weeks into the future and the demand forecast is used to optimise the movement of fleet between locations and the availability of that fleet. As owner of this system I worked closely with the business users to understand their requirements for future enhancements and then translated these requirements into a prioritised backlog 
of work for the IT teams to develop. The development lifecycle was managed using the SCRUM methodology and I acted as Product owner. 

Key Achievements -

6 successful releases of new functionality to the platform 

Implementing a new Business Intelligence platform using Microsoft Reporting Services for all reporting and analytics on the forecast and optimiser 

Developing complex SQL queries to help the business derive more value from the system 

Driving best practice usage of the tools through training, measurement and user support

Business analyst / OR analyst

Lead Analyst

In this role I worked in a UK focused team as a business relationship manager and business analyst for three of the 3M businesses. The main areas of focus in this position were to drive CRM usage and best practice, to rollout new pricing tools to increase margin, and to define BI tools to support the business growth targets.

Senior Business Systems Developer

This position was in a pan European team focused on business to business (B2B) communications. Specifically, I was product owner for an OCR solution which automatically processed faxed purchase orders, and also worked on the integration of new EDI partners.

Business Systems Developer

Hi, I’m Phil, the founder of Leave Dates, a UK-based HR tech company known for its user-friendly and straightforward approach.

We help you manage and track employee leave, giving you complete visibility of staff time off while reducing admin.

Managing employee holidays is a crucial HR issue for many small and medium-sized businesses. By focusing on this specific problem, our solution is incredibly easy to set up and use.

What’s more, you won’t have to pay for an expensive HR platform that includes features you don’t need or understand.

In 2024, we were recognised with the Capterra Shortlist and named GetApp Category Leader, based on over 250 customer reviews and an average rating of 4.8 out of 5.

If you’re looking to elevate your HR function, let’s connect! 🌐

We could have built another bloated HR platform.

Instead, we chose to focus 🎯

When building Leave Dates, everyone said, "Add payroll! Include performance reviews! Where's recruitment?"

But here's what we noticed:

SMBs were struggling with overly complex HR systems packed with features they'd never use.

Simple leave requests became administrative nightmares.

So we made a different choice.

Leave Dates solves one problem brilliantly: leave management.

→ Complete visibility of staff time off ✅
→ Reduced admin burden ✅ 
→ Easy setup that actually works ✅

No unnecessary features.
No confusing modules.
No complexity you don't need.

This focus became our competitive edge against larger platforms trying to do everything.

Whilst competitors chase every HR trend, we perfect leave tracking.

The lesson? Sometimes saying no to more features means saying yes to better results.

What's the one thing your business could focus on and do exceptionally well? 🤔

Phil Norton

How do you keep track of your team's time off? Leave Dates makes it easy! | We're Putting the Whooop into ‘Out of Office’ 🙌 | Founder at Leave Dates

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Customer reviews are the biggest lie in SaaS.

(Not because they're fake.)

Because we only ask for them when customers are happy.

Building Leave Dates has taught me that the most valuable feedback never makes it to review sites.

It comes from the customers who quietly cancelled.
The prospects who went with competitors.
The users who signed up but never properly onboarded.

Their silence tells the real story.

We've got 250+ reviews averaging 4.8/5 stars.
Capterra Shortlist recognition.
GetApp Category Leader status.

Those numbers look brilliant on paper.

But they don't tell you about the 30% of users who found our onboarding confusing.
Or the prospects who needed integrations we don't offer.
Or the customers who churned because our mobile app wasn't quite right.

The best product decisions come from the feedback you have to hunt for.

Not the reviews that boost your ego.

When did you last reach out to someone who didn't buy from you?

Their reasons might be your biggest opportunity.

Your team's productivity might be suffering from something you can't see.

Last week, a small business owner told me he had to scramble to cover shifts because three team members had booked overlapping leave. 

The problem? 

All the requests were approved weeks apart, with no visibility of what was already scheduled.

This isn't rare. It's the norm for most growing businesses.

Here's why leave visibility matters more than you think:

→ Prevents scheduling nightmares before they happen
→ Enables better project planning and resource allocation  
→ Reduces last-minute staffing stress
→ Shows employees their time off is respected and organised

But here's what most SMBs get wrong: they think leave management is just about approval workflows.

It's not. It's about visibility.

When managers can see the full picture of who's off when, they make better decisions. 

When team members can see who else is off, they plan around each other and feel confident taking their well-deserved breaks.

The best part? 

You don't need complex systems to get started.

Simple steps that work:

→ Create a shared calendar everyone can view
→ Set up automatic notifications for overlapping requests
→ Give managers dashboard access to upcoming leave

At Leave Dates, SMBs reduce scheduling conflicts by improving visibility. 

Not through fancy algorithms or AI - through simple, clear information when you need it.

Stop treating leave visibility as an admin afterthought. 

Start seeing it as what it really is: a strategic advantage that keeps your business running smoothly.

What's your biggest challenge with managing team leave?

The annual leave gold rush of 2026 is coming.

Are you prepared?

Smart employees are already eyeing those strategic bank holiday dates.

And honestly, they should be.

With proper leave stacking, you can turn 27 days into 62 days off work.

That's not a hack - that's just brilliant planning.

Here's what's happening:

January: Quick 4-day break opportunity
March/April: Potential 16-day Easter extravaganza
May: Two separate week-plus holidays
December: Epic 16-day Christmas celebration

But here's the manager's dilemma...

Everyone will want the same dates.

The early birds will get the worms.

The late requesters will get disappointed.

And you'll be stuck in the middle trying to keep everyone happy whilst ensuring business continuity.

The answer?

Proper planning and the right tools.

Set clear expectations early.

Use systems that show you exactly who's off when.

Create fairness policies that everyone understands.

Because good leave management isn't about saying no.

It's about saying yes in the right way, at the right time, to the right people.

2026 could be your smoothest leave year yet.

If you plan for it now. 

Check the link in the comments for details.

#LeaveManagement #HRStrategy #BusinessPlanning

Taplio

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