Is booking time off work easier said than done?
Time off. Annual leave. PTO. Holidays. However your organisation refers to it, employees are (in most countries) legally entitled to paid time off work (check out how statutory leave entitlements vary around the world in our eBook).
In fact many employers offer more than that minimum statutory entitlement to attract and retain their valued employees.
But how easy is it really to take time off in your organisation?
Are employees struggling to use their annual leave?
From poor holiday booking processes, unclear policies, stressed and distracted managers, as well as workload pressures and juggling employee availability – for many organisations, simply hitting the ‘approve’ button on somebody’s latest request for holiday isn’t as straight forward as it could be.
That’s if the employee’s leave request lands on your to do list at all. Recent research has found that one fifth (21%) of UK workers fail to take their full holiday allowance because of workplace pressures and demands.
For HR and business leaders, this poses several issues, and potentially speaks to a deeper cultural problem within the organisation.
Understanding how leave is used in your organisation
When reviewing employee leave patterns, you will likely be able to identify the most popular times to take holiday.
Generally, it’s common for employees to take extended breaks over the festive holiday season, as well as during the school summer holidays (particularly for working parents), for example.
Interestingly, you might also see spikes in absence or planned leave on Mondays following a large national or international sporting event, such as a World Cup match.
Similarly, if your organisation experiences seasonal periods of heightened activity and output, you might find more employees attempting to take time off during that busy period, once it’s over, or during the quieter months when teams are less stretched.
Knowing these general trends gives managers and HR the opportunity to resource plan effectively, ensure adequate cover when employees are absent, and maintain consistent productivity levels when it’s most needed.
However, if employees are so stretched by workload pressures that they feel unable to take time off, that holiday entitlement will likely need to be carried over into next year (which is a time-consuming manual task without the right leave management system in place), or it will be lost as their leave entitlement resets for another year. Either way, that means that employees spent much of their working year without enough mental and physical rest, potentially harming their performance and attitude towards their workplace.
If persistent, this hesitance from employees to take leave regularly – either because they feel guilty, they fear burdening their colleagues, they’re being pressured by managers not to, or they feel they’re just too busy – creates a negative workplace culture. One where employees don’t feel empowered to take earned time off, which in turn can have a detrimental effect on engagement, productivity and performance.
How can HR and managers encourage time off?
Research suggests it really does pay to take time off. Productivity levels increase, sickness absence decreases, and employees feel supported and motivated to do their job.
It’s important that managers regularly encourage their team members to take time off, attempting to manage leave requests as quickly and fairly as possible.
A clear leave management policy is vital. One that outlines the processes of requesting time off, when and how it will be approved, and on what grounds a leave request might be denied. If teams needed at least 50% of their employees present during work hours at all times, for example, this should be clearly stated. If you require a minimum notice period for leave to be taken, such as at least two weeks, this should be included.
Making sure these policies are communicated with employees (and consistently practiced by managers) will ensure everyone is on the same page, and no one is left feeling overlooked, frustrated, or unfairly treated.
A leave management system, or holiday booking system, is a great way to see all your employees’ planned leave in one place. With a group calendar, you can compare and cross reference planned leave amongst teams – rather than relying on spreadsheets or paper – so you know exactly who is off and when. That will help minimum staffing levels and avoiding any clashes in holiday which could leave teams under resourced at critical times.
This type of system will also provide you with insights – as previously mentioned above – where patterns in leave can be identified. When coupled with tracking sickness absence too, it’s a powerful tool that can highlight which employees might be taking a significant amount of time off, planned or otherwise.
Perhaps this points to a deeper issue with the employee’s performance, stress levels, or a personal matter they are struggling with? Having that insight can prompt managers and HR to have a conversation with the individual to determine the root cause of the absence, and what support that person may be needing from their employer.
Finally, HR and leaders should be encouraging their line managers to regularly check in with their team members to ensure everyone is using leave regularly throughout the year.
It’s quite common for organisations to reach Q4 and find that a large portion of their employees still have a significant chunk of their leave allowance left. Suddenly everyone may want to cram in time off in the remaining three months of the year – posing a huge resourcing problem for a business.
Instead, encouraging employees to spread their leave usage out evenly throughout the year is helpful on two counts: it avoids the last minute rush to use up remaining allowances, and ensures that employees are getting frequent rest away from work. A win win.
