Is Your Business Summer Ready?

The sun is shining, the trilogy of Bank holidays have come and gone and so thoughts are naturally turning to the summer break.

July and August present both precious opportunities for well-earned R&R, as well as risks when key personnel, clients and suppliers all disappear for anything from 2 to 6 weeks.

Below is our guide to ensuring the holiday season provides the necessary rest and relaxation for both staff and the HR teams managing the mass exodus and return.

1. Managing Holiday Requests

Dealing with holiday requests can be a difficult and, often thankless, task.

Whilst the summer period affords greater opportunity to spread leave out than other seasons, the challenge remains of balancing the expectations of the over zealous employee who books an entire years’ holiday a year in advance, against the less organised last-minute who declares their intention to take leave whilst boarding the plane.

Our top tips are below:

• Have a clear policy around notification requirements, including how far in advance requests must be made;
• Include within any policy the right to decline requests, propose alternative dates and reserve certain approvals pending other requests (or nearer to the time if they are made well in advance – this is harder when someone wants to plan, book and save for a trip of a lifetime well in advance);
• Make it clear that no holiday should be booked until approval has been gained;
• Bear in mind that under the Working Time Regulations employers can require employees to take holiday during designated periods – there are statutory notice provisions entitling employers to serve notices and counter notices as to when holiday is taken;
• Always consider in advance whether there are any shutdown/lock out periods when holiday must or must not be taken and/or whether it is necessary to limit the amount of holiday that can be taken in one go;
• Ensure that any policies you have on booking annual leave do not inadvertently discriminate against certain groups

2. The right to switch off – or not?

The Government previously proposed introducing a new right to switch off through the introduction of a statutory code of practice. The proposal was not strictly holiday-related but rather focussed on disconnecting during non-working hours. It was largely a response to the blurring of boundaries between working and non-working time as a result of COVID and lockdown working practices. It was subsequently scrapped. However, the debate around the issue does raise important considerations in the context of holiday and the purpose of holiday to protect vulnerable workers and as a fundamental component of health and safety – to ensure workers receive an appropriate (and paid) period of rest and relaxation. All the case law around holiday and sick leave/commission/irregular hours etc. is focussed on this essential requirement of ensuring all workers are entitled (and not in any way disincentivised from having) a statutory minimum period of paid rest.

The onus is largely on the employer to ensure this happens. However, managing the switch off presents challenges for many businesses. Our top tips are:

• Actively encourage staff to take their holiday and, where possible, spread it across the holiday year;
• Train Team Leaders to manage holiday and put in place suitable arrangements for cover within a team to ensure people can have the break they need without distraction or a detrimental impact on services;
• Where emergencies arise and leave has to be cancelled or interrupted, ensure staff are encouraged to re-book their holiday at a later date (ideally within a set period after the cancelled leave);
• Ensure IT and privacy settings enable access to all necessary mail boxes, files and records in an employee’s absence;
• Require relevant staff to create suitable handover notes and that any deadlines are shared across multiple shared calendars.

3. Remote working

Routine home working is now a well-established practice across many sectors. However, many employers are now offering (and employees demanding) the right to work from another location on either a short or longer term basis.

Views differ widely on the value of such practices. Here are our top tips for managing remote working across the holiday period and avoiding it turning into an absolute free for all.

• Ensure you have a specific section on this in your hybrid working policy – it is reasonable to impose different (and potentially more onerous) obligations on employees working abroad or from a different address to that recorded on the HR system;
• Make it clear that all remote working from a different location requires prior written approval – it is not acceptable for employees to try and extend their holiday by tagging on a few extra days “working remotely” to cover either their long haul flight or last minute issues in resort;
• Set clear expectations on the security of equipment, data and confidentiality in respect of the places of work and means of working;
• Consider the Data Protection and GDPR issues around employees processing personal data abroad and the data security threats associated with the same;
• For longer periods, consult your tax and immigration advisers;
• Try and have a consistent and fair approach to dealing with such requests;
• Retain a right to recall staff/reject future requests/require unpaid leave if it isn’t working.

4. Data and Roaming Charges

If, despite your best efforts, staff insist on working whilst on holiday, ensure the necessary security, roaming and access requirements are set up correctly to avoid irate calls from staff and clients who are unable to communicate effectively and incurring exorbitant roaming charges.