Holiday hacks: how your staff can turn 15 days leave into 35 days off in 2020

Annual leave is a precious commodity, and every employee wants to make the most of their allowance. So, what if we told you that your team members can take at least 35 days off in 2020 using just 15 days from their entitlement?

This handy hack involves leveraging UK Bank Holidays to secure the longest run of annual leave for the fewest paid days off. Here’s how it works.

Take more time off by using Bank Holidays

Some employers include Bank Holidays in annual leave entitlements, others don’t. Either way, they are a good base for employees to build their vacation around in order to get more time off for the lowest amount of paid leave.

For example, booking a week off when there’s a Bank Holiday on the Monday gives colleagues up to nine days work-free for just four days’ annual leave. This is a great way to arrange a longer vacation in May or August using 20% fewer days from their entitlement compared to a standard week.

And there are other Bank Holidays which offer professionals even more time off for the lowest possible amount of paid annual leave. Booking the four days following the long Easter Bank Holiday weekend, for instance, means people can get 10-days away from work for just four day’s paid leave.

Get the most possible days off for Christmas 2020

While annual vacations peak in the summertime, many employees are more concerned about getting the maximum possible time off around Christmas, in order to be with friends and family.

Christmas Day 2020 falls on a Friday, which means the Boxing Day Bank Holiday will be delayed until Monday, 28 December. The New Year Bank Holiday then falls on Friday, 1 January.

By saving seven days’ leave until the end of the calendar year and booking them from 21 December onwards, workers can take 16 days off work over the festive period – finishing up for Christmas on Friday, 18 December 2020 and not returning until Monday, 4 January 2021.

Managing multiple leave requests during peak periods

While maximising public holidays gives employees the opportunity to recharge their batteries whilst using as little paid leave as possible, the spikes in requests can be a nightmare for bosses to manage.

Rather than burying your head in the sand and trying not to encourage staff to take time off, investing in an online platform for managing employee leave will make it much easier to coordinate who’s off and how their workload needs to be covered in 2020.

Centralising all annual leave requests enables your business to gain complete visibility over the movements of team members, so you can ensure that enough of the right people are available to cover operational requirements when others are taking time off.

In addition, moving to an online leave management platform digitises holiday requests, cutting the time, effort and paperwork required to book time off. Automatic notifications are sent directly to managers or HR staff, who can check the central database for any potential calendar clashes, before responding directly to the team member that logged the request.

By becoming more effective at managing staff leave, your business can give employees the holiday they want in 2020, without it compromising company business output. This way, everyone wins – and your team is boosted by the fact that you care as much about their wellbeing away from the workplace as their ability to do their job.

To improve the way your business coordinates holiday in 2020 with WhosOff’s leave management platform. Start your free trial to see how it works.

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