Managing your employees’ holiday can be difficult at the best of times, but with the summer months upon us and staff more likely to want to take time off, it can be even harder to keep on top of things. Have a read of my 5 top tips for managing employee holiday to keep the process as easy as possible!

1. Start with a holiday policy

Having a specific annual leave policy is the best first step to avoid holiday management headaches. Detailing when your staff can and can’t take holiday will let your employees know what to expect when requesting leave, will set restrictions and demonstrates the steps you have in place to maintain fairness.

Unsure how to write a holiday policy for your business? Contact me to find out what you should include.

2. Allocate leave on a first come, first served basis

Operating a first come, first served basis around holiday requests is the fairest way to manage a situation where multiple employees want to take holiday at the same time. If you do take this approach, be sure to clearly state this in your holiday policy. This way, your staff will know to request holiday dates as far in advance as possible.

3. Set a limit on the number of employees that can be off at the same time

This is particularly important within customer-facing departments. Limiting the number of staff members will ensure your team is always adequately resourced. Again, It’s important you make your staff aware that they may need to work their holiday dates around those of their colleagues.

4. Specify timeframes in which holiday can and can’t be taken

This will make up a big part of your annual leave policy. If you have a particularly busy period every year, such as Christmas, you may want to restrict staff from taking leave during this time. Alternatively, if your business shuts down over Christmas, all staff may be required to take holiday. If this is the case, you need to ensure employees are made aware they need to reserve some of their annual leave allowance for this period.

5. Proactively review holiday bookings

It’s a good idea to regularly review holiday bookings throughout the year. This is a good way to spot if you have members of staff holding on to their holiday allowance, which could result in requests clashing towards the end of the year. It’s also helpful to remind employees how many days holiday they have outstanding and to encourage them to utilise their allowance. These prompts should hopefully help to spread their requests more evenly across the year.

By following these tips, you should be able to successfully manage your employee’s holiday. However, if you find that they don’t work for your business, please contact me to discuss some alternative solutions.