Ways leaders can more effectively manage annual leave requests
Holiday management can be a logistical nightmare, especially when juggling multiple requests during a busy period, but with the right processes in place, it can all but take care of itself. What’s more, an effective holiday management plan can lead to happier employees, less disruption and a less stressed management team.
Take a look at our top tips for making sure the holiday season goes by without a hitch.
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Our top tips to manage annual leave requests
Annual leave can be a minefield to manage, but with just a few tips, you can turn it into a positive aspect of your team’s working life. Below, we’ve listed comprehensive tips to ensure that annual leave doesn’t turn into an everyday headache.
1. Create a bullet-proof annual leave policy
A clear, easy-to-access annual leave policy should be the first step towards an effective annual leave strategy. By outlining what’s permissible and making sure staff and management are aligned, employees are more likely to stick to the best practices.
Consider what will work best for your business. If the school summer holidays are your busiest period, for example, it might be best to limit how many team members can take leave at this time. While it’s a legal requirement to give staff the minimum leave entitlement of 28 days per year (20 days plus 8 Bank Holidays), employers are within their rights to refuse leave at certain times in the year if it would harm the business.
2. Choose the right employee tracker to streamline annual leave requests
Employee trackers are an incredibly useful piece of software for workplaces and for colleagues. They allow for transparency around holidays that will lead to less confusion and probably better planning from colleagues, without the need for management intervention. If an employee can see when members of their team are taking a holiday using an employee tracker, they don’t have to chase their manager to check which holidays are free.
It’s also easy for managers to check when their team members are on annual leave using an employee tracker, which can put an end to the dreaded double-booking that can happen with more “free-flowing” systems.
3. Encourage spread-out leave with mid-year checkpoints
It’s quite common for colleagues to request annual leave during periods like school holidays, but some employees also prefer to take a large chunk of their annual leave at the end of the year, leaving teams understaffed during busy periods.
A meeting halfway through the year can help to reinforce annual leave policies and encourage employees to take leave throughout the year, ensuring wellbeing is prioritised and productivity remains high.
4. Create a pool of flexible support workers
Your in-house staff who are on the ground and dealing with the day-to-day operations are invaluable to your business, but it could be a good idea to cultivate a team of freelancers, too.
Having regular freelancers who understand the business can help ease pressures during busy times for your business, which is why having a pool of them can be so valuable. While they’re not going to completely replace your staff, they can quickly and effectively plug a gap while your team take some well-deserved leave.
5. Let employees work remotely
In this day and age, the virtual office means that for many businesses, staff can work anywhere. If there’s a period where you need staff but everyone wants time off (the period between Christmas and New Year, for example), consider allowing remote work.
Encouraging staff to take half-days on Fridays, while they WFH during the morning, is a great way for colleagues to use their allowance of annual leave, without them taking multiple large chunks of leave during the year.
Similarly, co-authoring services such as Google Drive and OneDrive mean staff can collaborate almost as effectively as if they were in the office. When you make remote work an option, you’ll be surprised at how many staff suddenly don’t need 27th, 28th and 29th of December off after all!
Why visibility in leave planning matters
Annual leave can become a contentious issue among employees. Even if it’s not the case, some members of the team might feel that they’re being discriminated against and even denied annual leave so that others can take it.
To avoid this becoming a larger problem than it needs to be, ensure that there is an easy, clear, and visible system for booking annual leave.
The system should be visible to everyone, not just senior members of the team, in order to build trust in the system. Not only will it avoid confrontations, but it might also help everybody organise their annual leave better. If they’re aware of their colleagues taking annual leave during March, for example, they’re less likely to plan a holiday during that time.
Using our range of helpful tips, you can effectively manage annual leave so that it benefits both your team members and your business.
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