Managing Annual Leave During Holiday Periods: A Practical Guide for Employers

Managing Annual Leave During Holiday Periods: A Practical Guide for Employers | Tuesday 7 April 2026 | 4 min read

Overview

The school holiday period has the potential to place heightened pressure on businesses, with increased annual leave requests and demand for flexibility. Employers who plan early, apply policies consistently and promote wellbeing can still meet business needs, while allowing staff to take a break and supporting a healthy work‑life balance.

Annual Leave Planning and Policy

Clear, well‑communicated policies are essential. Employers should ensure that their annual leave policy is up to date, accessible and consistently applied. The policy should explain how to request leave, approval criteria, notice requirements and how conflicting requests will be prioritised. It should also confirm any limits on consecutive days or weeks off and rules about carrying over untaken leave. Employers should make it clear that no holiday should be booked before approval has been gained.

Employers may lawfully require leave to be taken at particular times or restrict leave during peak periods, provided that the Working Time Regulations are respected. Any restrictions should be proportionate, necessary to meet business needs and communicated in good time.

Proactive scheduling reduces last‑minute pressure. Encourage staff to book annual leave early, particularly during popular holiday seasons, remind them of remaining entitlements at regular intervals, and use shared calendars to maintain visibility. Managers should monitor balances and propose alternative dates or partial approvals where full requests cannot be accommodated.

Notice Requirements

Unless a contract or policy states otherwise, an employee must give notice of at least twice the length of leave requested. This is the statutory minimum, although employers tend to adopt their own notice provisions through contractual terms or a written annual leave policy.

Employers are entitled to refuse a request for annual leave, provided they give counter-notice of at least the same length as the leave requested, plus one day. Employers also have the right to require staff to take leave on specified dates, provided they give notice of at least twice the length of leave being imposed – this is typically seen during business closure periods, for example, over Christmas holidays.

Encouraging Employees to Take Leave

Encouraging staff to regularly use their annual leave allowance is not only good practice, but periods of time away from work are crucial to ensuring staff wellbeing and preventing burnout.

Managers should encourage forward planning and periodically review annual leave for their team to try to prevent a year‑end bottleneck.  Regular reminders, dashboards of remaining leave, and shared annual leave calendars are good ways to encourage booking leave.

Encourage realistic resourcing and workload planning before and during staff absences so staff feel able to take a break without worrying about the work they are leaving behind or what they may return to. Involving colleagues at an earlier stage in work that needs to be covered during a period of absence is a practical way to ensure a smooth handover and reduce disruption to business operations.

Consider a Flexible Approach During Holiday periods

The summer period typically sees increased demand for flexibility, including adjusted hours, remote or hybrid working and temporary schedule changes aligned to childcare. It is important to ensure a consistent approach to decision-making when considering requests for flexibility. During peak seasons, employers may find that informal arrangements and temporary adjustments can be supported in the short-term, but given the change to flexible working rights (since April 2024), it is possible that it could give rise to more formal flexible working applications for permanent change.

Documentation and Record‑Keeping

It is important for managers and HR to keep records of leave requests, approvals, refusals and the reasons for decisions. Accurate records support transparency, facilitate learning to reduce the impact on business operations for future seasons, and provide an audit trail in the event of any concerns being raised.