How To Efficiently Plan Staff Holidays

how to efficiently plan staff holidays schedule

I’m sure that most employers out there will agree that juggling and managing their employees’ holidays, days off, and company holiday parties can leave them feeling stressed and worn out. In actual fact, they might feel like they need to take a holiday themselves to recover! Planning all of this time off shouldn’t be this stressful, should it? The simple answer is no. 

It can be easy to organize everyone’s holiday days if you utilize some of these simple smart solutions. 

First Come, First Served 

If you need to keep your business running over national holidays, such as Christmas and Easter, as well as public holidays, there will no doubt be a big scramble to get time off over these busy periods. To make sure that you don’t have too many employees off at once, you will need to maintain a first come, first served policy. That means, those who request their holidays first are a lot more likely to get them. You should set a number for the maximum number of staff who can be off at any one time. Once you reach this quota, don’t grant any more holidays to your employees.

Use A Tracking Software Program 

There are now lots of new computer programs, software, and apps that can help you keep a track of all your employees’ planned vacation days. You don't want to make a mistake on these holiday days off or employees will become expectedly upset.

Using a vacation tracking software can help you keep on top of who is going to be off on which day, and you don’t have to risk forgetting about anyone’s planned vacations. Not only that, though, but it also makes it easy to look back over the year to see who has already used up all of their allotted statutory time off. 

Bring In A No-Holidays Period 

If you have a really busy period, such as throughout the school holidays or over Black Friday, you may want to stop anyone taking any time off during this period. This is perfectly fine, as long as you aren’t preventing your employees from getting their minimum number of statutory holiday days off. Ensuring that all your workers are in the office over these busy periods will help your company get through them without too many issues.

Be Flexible With Working Hours 

You will find that if you allow your employees to work flexible hours, then they will generally ask for less time off through the year. This is because they won’t have to take a whole day off to go to the doctors or dentist - they can simply come to work later and leave at a later time. It’s also a good idea to give all of your employees the chance to work from home. You will find that some may be willing to do bits of work from home during their time off, and this will make it easier for you as you don’t need to bring in any extra workers to cover for them, therefore saving you money. 

Happy Healthy Holidays

Hopefully, all of the above tips will help you take all the stress away from managing employee holidays! That way you can focus on business and family instead of event planning.



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I hope you enjoyed this article about how to streamline your employees holiday schedules at work.

Interested in more articles about employee management?

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