Earlier today we published a blog offering guidance to employers on staff leave over this year’s extra bank holiday for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. With this event and many employees looking ahead to organise their holidays for the year, this guest blog from Ann Reed offers some practical advice to ensure scheduling mishaps are avoided.

Ann is a writer and human resources professional who spends her days devising new innovative strategies for attendance tracking and leave scheduling. This spring we’re opening up the LCP blog to guest posters; please contact us if you’d like to write for us.

Do you use an employee holiday tracker? Depending on how many employees you have, having a system for recording their holiday requests and actual time off will save you some headaches. As early as the interview, or at least during the initial orientation of a new employee, you should clearly explain to them what your leave policy is. The number one rule for avoiding employee holiday scheduling conflicts is to have a clear leave policy.

How do they request holiday days? Exactly how many are they allowed per year? What happens to days they do not use? How do you determine whether to allow or deny a certain holiday request? What do you do if two employees request the same week off and you cannot be without both of them at the same time? Some companies follow the standard ‘first come, first served’. Others go by seniority or rank. Speak to your peers and management team to come up with the best solution for your business. All of this needs to be clearly communicated.

If you find that most of your employees are requesting time off in the summer—since that is when kids are out of school—you could offer incentives for employees to take time off during non-summer months. You could give them some perk for doing so.

Does it hurt your business to have too many people off on any given holiday? There are certain holidays that every one of your employees expects to have off. You could offer incentives for them to work the holiday or to take less days off around the holiday than other coworkers. You have to look at your holiday schedule and determine which employees are absolutely essential to have working on or at least close to the holiday. Speak to them in advance to avoid scheduling problems.

Here’s a tip for avoiding leave issues that you may not have expected. Find yourself a good temp firm. If you have the peace of mind knowing that you can call in a temporary worker or two, then scheduling issues are less of a burden. Don’t hesitate to interview various temporary agencies until you pick one whose policies and rates you like and who can definitely provide the type of employee that you need. It is wise to have them come in and work side-by-side with the employee they will be replacing so that you have better performance from the temporary worker.

Are you familiar with the concept of ‘taking one for the team’? Sometimes, managers and higher-level executives need to work in order to let their lower-level workers have the day off. It is simply a nice thing to do and it will gain admiration and respect from the workers, which is always a good thing.

A final tip—if you are not already doing so, utilise an employee attendance tracking software. You can use hardcopy paper forms as well…whatever works for your business. Attendance tracking forms and holiday request forms should be implemented because it makes you more efficient and gives you a backup record in writing should any question or conflict arise between/among employees regarding attendance and holiday.

In summary—determine your critical employees well in advance and speak to them about working during the popular holiday months. Don’t wait until late May—the start of summer holiday season—to figure things out. Finally, be fair in how you make your decisions. If you follow these helpful tips you will get through the holiday season unscathed.

Image credit: ambro

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