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Taking time off from work should be a straight forward affair, but as with most things HR-related, it rarely is! Compiling a fair and consistent holiday policy can be a delicate balancing act. The intricacies will be dramatically different from one business to the next, but ultimately should be fair to both employee and employer. Let us walk you through a few things you should consider when documenting your holiday policy.
First thing’s first: how much leave are your employees entitled to? Statutory entitlement in the UK is 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday per year. For a standard, 5 day week, this equates to 28 days, and you can include bank holidays in this. However, there’s nothing to stop you giving more. It’s a great perk that can help you when hiring, and well rested employees are productive employees.
Where things get tricky is calculating entitlement for part-time employees, or employees who start or leave halfway through a year. What about Davy Davison who started mid-May working 3 days a week, then switched to 4 days a week in June and handed in his notice at the end of August? What should he be entitled to?
The Holiday Tracker takes care of all this mental arithmetic for you, and we’ve also created a free holiday entitlement calculator you can use if you’re not ready to take the plunge yet. However you choose to calculate it, one key thing to remember: whatever figure you’re left with, you can round that figure up, but you can’t round down!
What happens at the end of the year if your employees haven’t used all of their entitlement? Do they lose those days, or do you allow them to carry holidays over into the next year? If you do, is there a limit on the number of days (or hours) they can carry-over? Do they have to use those carried-over days by a certain date? Is that all documented?
A common staff benefit employed by businesses is to reward long-service by granting additional entitlement. For example, after 5 years’ service an employee’s entitlement increases by 1 day. A common mistake companies make here is not being explicit as to when the award is granted. For example, if my start date was 13/2/2010, do I receive my extra day on 1/1/2015, 13/2/2015 or 1/1/2016? If it’s the middle option, does that then get calculated pro-rata for 2015?
Inevitably there are times of the year where demand for time off becomes competitive: Christmas and school holidays being the main contenders. There’s a good chance your holiday policy defaults to a “first-come first served” approach, but is this the fairest?
A common alternative is to implement a rota system for those busy periods. Pull names out of a hat to decide an initial order, then those people in turn get to request any holidays they want during the busy periods. At the end of the year, bump the person at the top of the list to the bottom of the list for next year. Eventually everyone has a chance to choose first.
Some people might be prepared to give up their turn, if they don’t have kids for example. If you allow this, then ensure they choose last, not just skip a turn – it’s not fair for them to let their friend choose first and then they go next.
“Can I have the next two weeks off?”
It’s probably a bit short-notice for an employee to be given two weeks off, starting next week, but where do you draw the line? This is definitely something that should be documented in your policy.
The exact rules will vary from business to business and might depend upon the size of your teams. You may also consider different rules for different lengths of holiday and maybe special rules for different times of the year (Christmas?).
A good starting point is to require between 2 and 4 weeks’ notice for 1 or more weeks’ holiday. This gives you plenty of time to arrange cover and any transfer of responsibilities.
Taking a couple of days off usually has less of an impact on your business, so you might require less notice. A simple solution is to double the number of days’ holiday to get the notice required. So, you’d need 4 days’ notice if you were requesting 2 days off.
A lot of frustrations are born, and time wasted, because employees don’t always know what how many days holiday they have left or when they can take it. You can improve the fairness and visibility of process by using an absence management tool like The Holiday Tracker. Employees have clear visibility of what their entitlement is, how much they have left and what, exactly, they’ve already used. They can also check to see if others are already off before making their own requests, saving everyone time if there are already too many people off.
The key to all this is to make sure you think it all through, make the decisions and document it in your holiday policy. Then, most importantly, communicate that policy to your employees.
Sometimes you’ll face the situation where and employee is absent but they’re not sick or on holiday. How should you record these absences, and more importantly what should your policies say?
Photo by Dakota Corbin on Unsplash
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When an employee calls in sick on a declined holiday, it can be a sticky situation for employers and managers. While the employee could simply be unwell, there might be a lingering suspicion that the timing is a bit too convenient.
This situation happens more often than many would like to admit, so it’s essential to have strategies to manage instances where an employee is sick on a declined holiday, ensuring fair treatment for all involved.
Let’s consider an example: your employee, Alex, previously requested holiday for today, but it was refused due to other staff members already being off. However, Alex hasn’t shown up for work and has called in sick.
There are two primary ways to deal with this situation: did Alex call in sick as per your sickness policy, or did they simply not show up?
If an employee physically calls in sick on a declined holiday, there’s always a chance this is a coincidence. It’s important to tread carefully and approach the situation without jumping to conclusions.
When the employee calls in sick, speak to them directly: do not accept a voicemail or a passed-on message. Speaking directly with an employee allows you to gather some clarification. During this conversation, you may want to ask some follow-up questions about their illness, such as:
This conversation demonstrates that you genuinely care about the employee’s well-being and gives them the opportunity to explain their situation.
Once they return to work, conduct a return-to-work meeting. If the employee’s absence exceeds seven days, requesting a Fit Note is standard procedure.
To make these situations easier to manage, The Holiday Tracker now offers a feature that alerts managers if an employee calls in sick on a day they previously requested a holiday, which was then refused. This feature helps ensure you’re immediately aware of any potential issues and can handle them promptly and fairly.
If an employee fails to show up for work and doesn’t alert you – this is an unauthorised absence.
As you have a duty of care towards your employees, the first step is to contact them to understand the reasoning behind this absence. Considering the situation, that might be obvious to you, but it’s important to rule out any unfortunate events.
When the employee returns, you can hold a return-to-work interview to assess the validity of the absence. If there’s no acceptable explanation, you can proceed with disciplinary action depending on the severity and whether this is a repeated issue.
Make sure your sickness absence policy clearly outlines procedures for handling unauthorised absences.
If you suspect misconduct, you are within your rights to discipline the employee.
HR Consultant Lindsay Muers recently told us:
“Employment law says your decision can be based on a reasonable belief, not like in a court of law where it has to be proven, so if you genuinely believe it to be misconduct then you can discipline if you desire.”
However, even if you feel disciplinary action is justified, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should take it.
HR Consultant Keith Phillips suggests:
“If it’s upset you that much then you can investigate and if you feel you have enough evidence to suggest they have genuinely gone absent without leave you can discipline them. But, I’d say it’s a pretty extreme response. A verbal chat to warn them never to pull the same kind of trick again would be a better route.”
For disciplinary purposes, it’s crucial to document the holiday request and its refusal. A clear, efficient leave management system like The Holiday Tracker centralises holiday requests and approvals, providing an audit trail of all requests, including refusals. The system alerts you if an employee calls in sick on a previously declined holiday, allowing you to handle the situation swiftly.
While you can’t prevent all instances of sick leave on declined holidays, there are proactive steps you can take to minimise the chances:
Regardless of the reason behind an employee’s absence, it’s crucial to approach the situation with fairness. If the absence is genuine, a disciplinary response may not be necessary. It’s important to follow proper procedures and take preventative measures where needed.
If you’re looking to streamline your leave management processes, The Holiday Tracker offers a practical and efficient solution. It simplifies tracking annual leave requests and refusals while providing a clear audit trail of declined holidays – invaluable in cases where you need to refer back to specific incidents. Interested in seeing how it can transform your leave management? Sign up for our free trial and experience the ease and clarity it brings to managing leave and absence in your workplace.
No matter when your annual leave year ends, you can be sure there are plenty of employees with entitlement remaining. There’s always a mad rush for employees to “use it or lose it” and frustrations can set in if there isn’t enough capacity for everyone to take the time off they want.
This pro rata holiday calculator can help you determine the correct entitlement for your employees. When employees work part-time and change their working patterns part-way through a year, it can feel like you need a PhD in Advanced Mathematics to work out how to calculate the number of days holiday they’re entitled to.
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