You probably have some employees who plan well in advance and are already asking for Christmas 2017 off. On the other hand, some will barely give you any notice at all. Managing your staff holiday and leave requests can be a headache. The key to effective holiday and leave management is to treat all requests fairly and to be consistent. Here are some strategies you can put in place to help.
Annual leave policy
Make sure you have an up to date annual leave policy, which clearly sets out the rules for requesting leave. This way you can deal with requests fairly and consistently. To give you an idea the policy should include some of the following:
- have a minimum period of notice when requesting time off
- the period of time allowed to be taken, e.g. limiting holidays to two weeks as a maximum (unless there are exceptional circumstances)
- specifying if holiday can be carried over from one year to the next, and if so how many days can be carried over
- during particularly busy periods specify if staff are not allowed to take holiday, or specify if there are periods of compulsory holiday.
Sharing employee holiday schedules
You can use an automated holiday planner so that everyone can access and see each employee’s booked holidays. This is an effective and transparent way to avoid holiday scheduling difficulties. It enables your employees to take responsibility for avoiding holiday clashes with their colleagues.
Staff not taking holiday
It’s surprising how often line managers have to remind staff to use their holiday. If they don’t use it, it can end up meaning that staff all rush to take holiday towards year end or wanting to carry it over. Consider setting a deadline for when your employees must submit their holiday requests. For example, if your holiday year runs January to December, request that people have booked all annual leave by the end of September.
Popular holiday periods
Some of your staff are probably quick off the mark to organise their holiday leave well in advance, so perhaps first come, first served basis for approving leave isn’t always the fairest way to manage it. Over periods when you know holiday requests are going to be highly sought after, you might want to consider rotating who gets to be off each year. For days between Christmas and New Year, if your business is not busy over that period, you could perhaps consider shutting the business down, and making it mandatory for your employees to take holiday on those days. Or if you need to remain open and can still meet operational requirements then you could consider offering your staff the option to work from home.
Holiday cover
When an employee is absent consider whether cover could be provided by another colleague or if you will need to hire someone on a temporary basis. It can be a great opportunity for another employee who is perhaps looking to develop their skills. If you want holiday cover to work effectively, you will need to make sure that the employee going on leave has written a detailed handover, including tasks in progress, key contacts, deadlines and so on.
If you want to take the headache out of managing annual leave then putting in place strategies like these can really help. Remember, employers that follow good practice in their annual leave policy, can support employee welfare and generate a positive impact on the bottom line.