The manager permission level can only be granted by assigning someone as the manager for one or more employees. 

Managers have the same basic view of their colleagues' profiles unless they are the manager of that user. In this case, they have access to more data shown on the employee's profile. However, the information available to them is widely determined by the manager permission settings determined by the account admin. These are as follows:

Tasks that managers are able to perform include:

• Book holidays, custom absences and remote working on behalf of their employees. 
• Record sickness on behalf of their employees.
• Add events on behalf of their employees.
• Submit expense claims on behalf of their employees.
• Approve requests for the above when submitted by an employee they manage. 
• Amend and delete absence bookings.
• Upload documents to their employees' profiles. 
• Give thanks to their staff.
• Run reports on their direct reports. 
• Manage certain data on their reports' profiles.