Managing Annual Leave in the Workplace seems like it should be one of the most straightforward HR procedures an organisation has to deal with. But with the threat of fines if you take children out of school in term time, school holidays can be in popular demand and what about other popular times of year such as Christmas.
So, what steps can you put in place to ensure you are managing annual leave in the workplace fairly?
- Have a policy that covers entitlement and how you will deal with demand
- Understand your teams need
- Have a clear request and approval process
- Lead by example
Managing Annual Leave Policy
There are some key points to have in your policy. The actual entitlement employees get should be detailed in their terms and conditions of employment, but it is a good starting point for your policy too.
Areas of confusion around annual leave oftens comes from what if I am part time, does my entitlement include bank holidays, what if I have started part way through the holiday year, what if I leave?
Having answers to all these questions in your policy will set expectations and make managing annual leave easier.
The statutory entitlement for paid annual leave in the UK is 28 days (can be inclusive of bank holidays) for 5 day per week workers.
You can choose to offer more, and you may reward long service with additional days of paid leave. Your policy should make it clear as to how these days are managed.
You also need to document your policy on carry over, for situations where an employee hasn’t taken all their leave. This can be for varying reasons such as long term sick, maternity and operational reasons but you should set out expectations from the stary but making it clear in your policy what will happen with these eventualities.
Your policy also needs to address what will happen if there is a conflict with demand. Peak times such as school holidays means you need to be prepared for an influx of requests. Setting levels of how many people can be off at one time is a good way to initially manage expectations but you need to look at whether these can be adjusted in peak seasons.
Not being able to take time off for childcare, can be a burden, both mentally and financially. Being able to address this for your staff will be a massive positive boost to working parents.
For staff who are not affected by childcare, catering to their needs is also important. Which leads onto the next point…
Understand your teams need
When working out who can be off at any one time and what other parameters you need to put in around leave, consider what you team actually needs. Take a look at the demographic and speak to them to find out how you can best apply rationale to annual leave requests.
How far can your teams plan their leave for the year, how multi skilled are your team to cover roles when leave it being taken, and what alternatives can you offer? Working from home can be a useful alternative to taking leave, if appropriate for the organisation and role.
Have a clear request and approval process
This should be outlined in your policy, but you need to make sure it happens and is consistent across all your teams. Having an audit trail of request and approval will help in any uncertainty, especially if you operate first come first served,
Your request system should also make it clear how much entitlement is taken and remaining, again this avoids any ambiguity. There are plenty of HR systems that can help you manage this process; at Slice we recommend Breathe.
Manging Annual Leave in the Workplace – Lead by example!
As a business owner, one of the “perks” is to be able to take time off whenever we want, but this can create negativity within teams. Be as transparent as you about your time, being visible on holiday charts, being included in the resources available to cover and even making sure you actually take time off!
Take a Slice
Writing the policy, managing requests…can all seem like an extra task so let Slice take the burden. Get in touch to see how we can help you manage annual leave in your workplace.