Summer is finally on its way and with it, many of us will look forward to longer evenings, getting out in the fresh air and hoping that this fabulous weather continues!  For businesses, however, the onset of summer can be a stressful time; often bringing the issue of having to try and co-ordinate staff holidays as many employees look to take time off for a well-earned break, or need time off to care for children during the school holidays. This can be magnified if your business enjoys a seasonal boost in the summer – not only will you be especially busy but you might have less people around to help!

Here are three ways you might like to try and prepare for the onset of summer from the perspective of managing staff holidays.

Set a deadline

One of the simplest ways to try and manage staff holidays is to have a deadline in place by which requests have to be made. Many businesses require a certain amount of notice to be given dependent on the length of the time off being requested. For example, 8 weeks’ notice for 2 weeks off or 7 days’ notice for 1 day off.

For particularly busy periods of staff absence, such as summer and Christmas, you may ask that any days off during this time are requested by the end of a particular month, as appropriate.

Although not generally popular with staff, it can be necessary for some businesses to set a general deadline for all annual leave requests to be submitted – for example requiring that all holidays for the year ahead are booked by the end of the previous year.

Whichever way you choose to manage annual leave requests, it is essential that all staff are aware of the company policy and all have an equal opportunity to secure the days off they ask for.

Seek additional resources

If you know that you are likely to be thin on the ground in staff numbers over a particular period, it might be a good idea to draft in additional resource in advance. This may not be possible for all types of business, but for those in industries where casual workers can be brought in, at least having a list of people to call upon in emergencies is a good general precaution.

Let software take the strain

Managing staff holidays is a task that business owners generally despise! Not only do you have to try and avoid holidays clashing across teams, you also have to work out each individual’s entitlement (which can vary due to length of service), record the number of days taken to date and so on; all of which quickly zaps time that could be more productively spent elsewhere. Automated HR software simplifies the holiday approval process, gives employees a clear overview of calculated holidays and how many days they have left and can create reports for each individual’s holiday entitlement at the click of a couple of buttons. This eliminates the need to keep separate Excel spreadsheets or Outlook calendars for recording staff holidays, also taking away the time and resource needed to keep these up to date.

In addition to helping to plan, monitor and action staff holidays, HR software can also be used to record staff absence and provide a secure yet easily accessible centralised hub to store essential staff records and information, for less than the price of buying your employees a decent cup of coffee!

KMC Human Resources can provide help and advice on setting up cloud-based HR management software in your business.  For further information, please contact us. 01282 875728