It doesn’t really matter what time of the year it is, scheduling around vacation days, personal days and holidays is a pain in the neck. Productivity can take a hit when employees take vacation at the busiest times. And scheduling employees during the holidays can cause logistical headaches, dampened morale (no, not every can leave early the day before the holiday) and legal risks (it’s not fair that everyone can’t leave early the day before the holiday).
You wouldn’t dream of having informal payroll policies, right? Yet too many employers treat vacation time (a form of compensation) as a casual entitlement. And getting too informal can cost you. The first year everyone has Thanksgiving Day off (the actual legal holiday). Year Two, everyone leaves the Wednesday before Thanksgiving by noon (do you want to deny me the opportunity to get a head start on over the hills and through the woods to grandmas’ house). Year Three, “Patients never want an appointment the day after Thanksgiving, too many great sales. Why don’t we just take that day off too”!
You can minimize holiday scheduling hassles with some smart preventative measures, and adopt a clear policy for vacation request procedures.
Please visit this link SME Toolkit Build Your Business. It’ll provide you with a wealth of ideas about how to create a paid/unpaid leave policy for your office.
With summer just around the corner, now is the perfect time to make sure your vacation policies are clear and fair. And more importantly, designed to take one more headache off your plate!
