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How to Manage Holiday Requests

With the summer holidays about the start, and the sun beginning to shine, it is the perfect time of year to take a holiday, but as an employer how do you manage these requests?

Managing holiday requests is always a juggling act between ensuring that members of staff take their entitled time off to rest and relax and ensuring that the business is still able to safely operate. Therefore, at a time of year where many employees will want similar periods of time off, it is important to consider polices or guidance on how these requests will be managed. Some possible ways could include:

  • have clear details on how many people from each team are able to take time off at the same time – this will ensure that you have the right number of people still working, whilst setting the expectations of staff that they may not get their request approved.
  • approve the leave on a first come first serve basis.
  • if there are any particular periods that a lot of people want off, then you could consider asking for all requests by a certain date and considering all requests at once, so they are all considered equally.
  • offering overtime or allowing shift swaps to covers periods of holiday

It is also important to remember that just because an employee has submitted a request for holiday, it doesn’t mean that you have to approve it. If the time off doesn’t work for the organisation, you can decline the request and ask that the employee looks to take the holiday at another time.

Whilst many employees will be eager to book time off, there will be some who are a little more reluctant, especially in the given climate, where going abroad and visiting places is more complicated. However, it is important as an employer, to ensure that employees are taking their holiday entitlement. Not only is the time off a requirement by law, but it also gives them the chance to take a step back and restore their energy, so they are ready to come back to work. Therefore, it is worth reminding employees how much leave they still have remaining and encouraging them to think about when they may want to take this.

If you have any individual concerns surrounding holiday requests, or any other employee matter, please email info@sapernhr.co.uk or call on 07526 029975.

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