As the new year is now upon us and the festivities are a distant memory, it's likely that your staff are already planning their next breaks.
Now is the busiest time of year for booking holidays, as we long for a winter escape or a summer holiday for later in the year. As an employer, it is therefore good to get yourself prepared for the potential surge of holiday requests over the coming weeks.
Prepare for a rare calendar quirk
If your staff can’t wait until summer to get away, there is also a rare opportunity to have 18 consecutive days off work whilst only using nine days of holiday! This is due to three bank holidays falling close together this year over the Easter break and first May bank holiday (19th April, 22nd April and 6th May).
It is likely that some will look to take advantage of maximising their holiday entitlement. This will be applicable in sectors where bank holidays are not counted as a normal working day.
Managing the ‘Holiday Hack’ as an employer
It is worth being aware of this as an employer: make sure that your acceptance of holiday requests is fair. Some staff may look to bag themselves this extended period of time off work before their colleagues.
Before making the decision to approve holiday, think about the impact that this extended period of time off may have. How will the rest of your team left in the office feel? Is there a potential dip in service to your customers?
One way to assist with this is to use an HR management system tool like HR Toolkit. It will enable you to clearly see who has requested time off over the same period before you approve any requests.
It can also avoid the confusion of the growing pile of paper requests. If Easter is a busy time for your business, think about communicating this to your teams now. This will help to avoid any last-minute disappointment if plans have been made without your approval.
Happy Holidays!
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