Advice by Alan Price, CEO of BrightHR…
There’s a lot to consider when managing your staff’s annual leave, but what do you do when multiple people want to book the same time off?
This is common at popular times of the year, such as Christmas and during the Summer. And it’s likely to be a bigger problem than usual this summer, with lockdown coming to an end. Without enough people working each day, productivity will be down, and so occasionally, when multiple employees request the same time off, you’ll have to make some unpopular decisions.
In this article we’ll explain how to manage lots of annual leave requests without upsetting anyone.
Create a clear holiday policy
You need to follow a fair process when reviewing holiday requests. Having a clear annual leave policy ensures your staff know why their requests might be rejected.
Your policy should set out what employees should explain:
- How much holiday allowance employees get.
- When the holiday runs from.
- The process for making a request.
- How much leave can be taken in one go.
- The steps you’ll follow to ensure requests are reviewed fairly.
- What happens with leave leftover at the end of the year.
Managing annual leave during busy times of year is difficult, especially when there are so many rules. An online staff holiday booking system can help ensure that all requests follow your rules.
Avoid unconscious bias
Unconscious biases are beliefs that people unconsciously hold about certain groups. These beliefs can seem like very minor things but have significant impacts on the decisions you make for your employees.
Unconscious bias is common in holiday requests. If you have to choose between multiple requests for the same time off, you will likely think about why people need time off. Considering these reasons could be discriminatory, though.
A common example of this is with parents requesting time off. Especially during the summer holidays, parental leave can be prioritised over requests from non-parents. There might be a specific reason those employees booked that time off, which can’t be rearranged for another time of year.
First come, first serve
To avoid problems with unconscious bias or accusations of favouritism, your holiday policy could be based on a first come, first serve system. This means that the first person, or the first few people to request a certain date off, will be eligible to take that day off. This is the most straightforward and often most fair way to allocate time off. However, there are some things to consider.
Some people will know the dates they want to book far in advance of others. These people could have an unfair advantage at busier times of the year if they book all of their holidays as soon as they’re available.
A way to avoid this is to put additional rules in place, such as limiting the amount of time off an individual can take in one block and ensuring a set amount of leave is taken in different portions of the year. Doing this ensures employees don’t try to take all of their leave in one go.
Depending on the number of employees you have or how your leave is calculated, you might need different rules for your team. But you must ensure that whatever rules you put in place give everyone the same opportunity to take time off this summer.
