Earlier in the month we reported that June saw unplanned absence levels in the Building and Construction industry spike to a level almost four times the global average rate. When analysed, there were notable individual spikes that coincided with England football fixtures in the EUROs competition. 

At the beginning of 2021, the workforce kicked off the year, on average, with 31% more annual leave than any other on record. And as it stands right now UK employees have 68% of their annual leave left to take, and we are more than halfway through the year… Are we heading for a repeat of the great holiday hoarding once again?

The red flags are clear to see, and companies will be buried sooner or later by the absence avalanche if they aren’t careful. Last minute absence can happen for a number of reasons, whether that be a sore head following an international sporting event, or, more worryingly, due to long-term burnout and stress. The latter is a problem for companies that are unable to track absence accurately. If you don’t know when employees have booked a holiday, then you are unable to highlight individuals that have taken none or very few days in the year, who might be presenting presenteeism-style traits, are overworked, or may be suffering from personal issues at home. 

Equally, as we saw last year, many UK employees chose to save up their holiday (perhaps partly in hope restrictions might ease after the summer lockdown) to either roll over into the new year or to enjoy a long Christmas break. The reality of this saw December effectively turn into a two-week working month, with 65% of people choosing to use up their annual leave before the end of the year. The issue for many businesses that rely on seasonal trade is that they will be under-staffed and resourcing challenges become a real concern. 

Our free upcoming webinar on Thursday 29th July aims to further highlight the problem and offer practical advice for businesses worried about managing the absence avalanche. Steve Arnold, Founder of Edays will be joined by Paul Holmes, Managing Director of Wirtgen Group, to discuss how they have managed to avoid the avalanche with better absence management. 

To get involved, book your place here.