Managing your employees annual leave during Coronavirus.

A popular topic on our Ask Sarah sessions was managing annual leave, I decided to write some pointers for this Summer.

Whether you and your teams have decided on a UK staycation or are eagerly awaiting the next additions to the green list, organising the annual rush for summer holidays will be harder than normal this year.

Many people were unable to take holiday last year because of the pandemic and have therefore carried over a huge number of days – lost in the complications of furlough was a piece of legislation change that allowed those whose holiday was affected by covid to carry over into the following 2 leave years.

So what do you do if everyone wants time off this summer?

• To ensure everyone has a fair chance at booking their preferred holiday make sure you follow your “holiday booking procedure”. Communicate clearly and set deadlines for holiday requests, so everyone has a fair chance.
• Another way to ensure fairness is to create a rotating schedule, where everyone gets their turn to book popular school holiday and Christmas periods.

What if nobody wants to take their holiday?

• Encourage employees to take their holiday as time off to reset and take a breather from work.
• Build your workplace culture so that people feel encouraged to take holiday, have systems to cover their work (as far as possible) whilst they are off

Did you think to make some of the furlough time holiday?

• An incentive for employees to take their holiday on furlough is they will be paid their normal rate of pay.
• If not and you have people reluctant to take all the time, they have accrued you can offer to pay for unused holiday entitlement.

There are not many things more likely to cause disagreements in the workplace than being denied your holiday at the time when you want it.

If you are having nightmares about how to fairly manage time off for your employees, this summer give us a buzz!

Sarah Cook

Managing Director of WeDo HR Support.