Planning the summer holiday is an all-year endeavour for most companies. Employees must plan and request their leave months in advance.
The time must be divided among employees fairly and should be based on the free time that the employee still has available. Planning holidays could be done by means of pen and paper, but it is better to use an online programme.
Keep reading to find out why an online holiday planner is very beneficial for efficient planning.
Vacation Time is Important for Employee and Organisational Health
Employees are not machines, and they require time off from work to rest and recharge. It is not only their legal right to have a certain number of days off, but not taking days off can be counterproductive. Work-life balance is very important when it comes to productivity. People who work too much can feel overworked, stressed, and undervalued, all contributing to lower productivity. Besides, overworked employees are more likely to call in sick.
Many companies have suffered from high costs because of the absence of their employees. This is the reason that vacation time is very important for organisational health. Accurate employee leave requests and approval management helps to make sure that employees take their time off and stay mentally and physically healthy.
The Right Strategies for Vacation Planning for Employees
Picking the right strategies is essential for smooth vacation planning. All employees should be aware of the company policy and try to plan their holidays, keeping their teammates’ preferences in mind.
Discuss vacation policy during the orientation process
Discussing vacation planning already starts during the hiring process. Ask the potential employees what their holiday requirement is to create realistic expectations. If the potential employee requires much more holidays than you can afford, they might not be a good match for your organisation. An employee who does not get the holidays they were expecting, might feel unhappy and overworked.
Besides, it’s important to discuss your company’s peak days, on which the employee cannot take time off. If this is settled before hiring the employee, it can prevent disappointment.
Encourage new hires to plan their vacation well in advance
Planning a holiday in advance is beneficial for both the company and the staff. Knowing that certain employees will not be available during certain weeks, will make managing the workforce easier. Hours can be switched around and temporary employees can be hired and trained in advance to make the transfer of work a smooth process. It is important to encourage workers to ask for holiday approval as much as five months in advance.
Stagger vacation scheduling
Make sure that you use the hours that employees are available, without using too much overtime. If certain employees come back from their holidays in the middle of the week, there should be employees with similar tasks who are willing to work half a week to transfer the work back to the other employee the next day. In this way, there is always someone available with the right skills, and your company can provide the desired service to its clients.
Empower employees to adjust vacation dates among themselves
To be able to operate smoothly, the company should consider that employees with similar skills should discuss among themselves when they take holidays and adjust accordingly. Imagine that you run a restaurant and all cooks want to have the same days off. This will stop the operation of the restaurant, forcing it to close. To make sure that things like this don’t happen, it should be clear that certain teams of people should adjust holidays according to each other’s wishes.
Encourage the employees to plan their holidays early and decide when they get to take holidays. In that way, conflicts and misunderstandings can be avoided and won’t affect the productivity and cooperation of the team, while employees with the right skills are available to do the necessary tasks.
These kinds of arrangements should be stated in your HR policy, which should be available for all employees to access at all times. You could implement the first come, first served policy, or adjust your policy according to your organisation. Besides, you can state how many employees can take days off during certain periods.
Online Holiday Planner for the Modern HR Manager
HR managers used to plan all the holidays on paper, unfortunately leaving lots of room for errors. A piece of paper doesn’t tell you when you have understaffed the company or accidentally gave both receptionists the same holiday, leading to disappointment and conflict. Luckily, most HR managers use online holiday planning tools.
Online planners have many benefits. The employees can enter their personal information, such as birthdays or the day that they were employed. The HR manager will get a notification of these dates automatically, never forgetting an employee’s special day. Besides important dates, employees can also add emergency contacts and medical information, making it easier for the company to help and call the right person, should something happen.
Employees can always access their planning and keep track of their own hours, overtime, and free days. An online planner makes it easy for staff to request (sick) leave and see if it’s approved or not, without having to contact the HR department. The absence and overtime will be automatically tracked and settled with their available balance. The programme will also notify the HR manager if the company is understaffed or overstaffed so that the manager can adjust accordingly.
Online planners make holiday planning easy because the programme knows exactly how many days an employee has left. It can easily be seen if an absence request overlaps a public holiday or someone else’s absence.
Benefits for Employees
The online planner can be accessed by employees at all times. For part-timers or temporary employees, it is easy to see the hours that they are scheduled in a mobile or desktop application. Requesting leave is easy and can be done without having to contact the HR department. Employees can view all the requested holidays of their teammates and plan their own holidays accordingly.
Besides, it is easy for them to see statutory holidays, so they can keep these in mind while planning. The staff can also create their own reports, including their worked hours, overtime, and absence.