How to Prepare for Your Small Business Employees’ Holidays
As a small business owner who may already have a streamlined team, navigating employee time off can be a challenge. Balancing the need for your staff to take holiday time to maintain a positive work-life balance while ensuring that business operations run smoothly in their absence takes careful consideration and organisation. Below are some steps to consider before your employees go on holiday.
Plan together and in advance
One of the most effective ways to plan for employee holiday is to try and prepare as much in advance as possible. Of course, in certain cases, holiday requests may come at the last minute. However, if your employees have a trip scheduled, for example, or they know they need to take some time off, you can ask them to submit their requests in advance—the timing will be up to you and how long it takes to establish who will take over while they’re away.
Using a shared calendar lets you see the coming weeks and months at a glance, which can help you prepare more effectively and adjust schedules where needed. Tracking your employees’ holiday days through a digital tool can be a great way to do this. There are several online holiday trackers, so test them out with your staff to find one that fits your budget and needs.
If you notice that multiple team members want to take holiday time during the same period, such as summer – a common time for employees to use their holiday – you may consider hiring a seasonal employee to backfill the team. If doing so, interviewing and training the right person takes time, and getting to it as early as possible can ensure it’s not a rushed process.
Keep track of employer holiday requirements
Employees have the right to ‘statutory annual leave’ (paid holiday).
This is the case whether they work:
- full time
- part time
- under a zero-hours contract
The number of days’ holiday someone gets depends on:
- how many days or hours they work
- any extra agreements they have with their employer
Employees ‘accrue’ (build up) holiday from the day they start working, including when they’re on:
- a probationary period
- sick leave
- maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave
Statutory paid holiday
By law, employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ statutory paid holiday a year. Bank holidays might be included in this paid holiday.
The amount of time off someone gets depends on their circumstances. For example, to work out someone’s holiday entitlement in days, multiply the number of days they work each week by 5.6. If they work 5 days a week, their statutory paid holiday is 28 days a year (5 x 5.6).
Statutory paid holiday is limited to 28 days. For example, if someone works 6 days a week they’re still only entitled to 28 days’ paid holiday.
Part time
Employees who work part time are still entitled to 5.6 weeks’ statutory paid holiday. The entitlement will be in proportion to the hours they work. This is because part-time workers cannot be treated less favourably than full-time workers.
For example, if someone works 3 days a week, they’re entitled to 16.8 days’ paid holiday a year (3 x 5.6) .
If an employer gives full-time employees more paid holiday than the legal minimum, they must give part-time employees more than the legal minimum.
If a statutory holiday falls when your team member is on vacation, they can be entitled to a substitute day off with holiday pay. If the statutory holiday falls on a day that is not ordinarily a workday (like a weekend), employers must provide a substitute day off with holiday pay or have a written agreement that they will provide public holiday pay but no substitute day.
If someone is employed for less than a year
An employee is entitled to a proportion of a full year’s holiday entitlement if their employment contract:
- lasts for less than a year
- ends part way through a holiday year
For example, Jo starts employment on 1 January. They work 5 days a week and get the statutory 5.6 weeks’ holiday entitlement. Their employment ends after working for 26 weeks. They would have accrued 14 days of holiday at the point their employment ends.
Confirm a line of communication if necessary
It is important to respect your employees’ holiday time, but there may be situations where you need their expertise. Before they leave, have them detail the situations and tasks they typically deal with and their process. Get the contact information of any suppliers, vendors, customers, etc. that they often communicate with in case an issue arises while they’re off. If you think there’s a possibility that you might need to reach out, which should only be done in an emergency, let them know in advance, and encourage them to share as much information as possible with you before they leave to avoid such scenarios.
Take time to train other employees
Carving out time to train the employee(s) who will be covering for those on holiday is extremely important. Whether you have them work together in the days leading up to the vacation or hold a training session on important tasks, this preparation will be valuable when they juggle multiple roles. One of the benefits of this approach is that you can have a well-rounded team that understands and can handle various business operations, allowing them to easily jump into other roles. That way, when holiday comes up, everyone feels prepared.
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