The Annual Leave Conundrum: ACAS Highlight Growing Issue

A report by ACAS has shown that nearly half of UK employees don't take their full entitlement of leave each year. So, what can employers do to help?

The report, based off Glassdoor research, found that half UK employees don’t take their full entitlement each year. On average, a worker takes around three quarters of their annual leave and loses 6.5 days a year in untaken holiday entitlement.

Additionally, 44% of respondents fed back that they continued to work in some capacity whilst on leave, and 13% had been contacted by their line manager.

Why Aren’t Employees Making The Most Of Their Leave?

Often, staff simply don’t know how much holidays they have left, and in smaller businesses where entitlement in managed on a spreadsheet or by paper, asking their manager can put people off. Sometimes the ideal dates are taken and people find it too much of a hassle to rearrange new dates, so simply choose to leave it. Simple admin issues can also be a problem, with people not managing their allowance or requests not being managed properly and the employee not wanting to chase up existing requests.

More commonly, employees are working to tight deadlines and put work before themselves, meaning they miss out altogether.

What Can Employers Do To Help?

Managing absences more efficiently is the first step. Not only does it mean that employees can check dates, book and receive approvals or rejections simply and easily, it also means that other people within the company can check if their colleagues are on holiday, and if so, refrain from contacting them with work-related issues.

Additionally, businesses should encourage staff to take all of their holidays, as it reduces the changes of burnout and means your staff are mentally and physically refreshed.

IRIS now offer IRIS HR, the comprehensive human resources software designed specifically for small businesses. IRIS HR is modular software, meaning you only pay for the features you need, be that in IRIS HR Core, IRIS HR Plus, or IRIS HR Pro.

All three versions of IRIS HR come with detailed absence management and holiday booking functionality. Employees can easily submit holiday and sickness requests to their line manager to approve or decline. IRIS HR keeps track of used, pending and available absence totals, automatically calculates an individual’s Bradford Factor and provides a team calendar of leave booked by colleagues. This means you can stay on top of your workforce’s holidays easily and hassle-free.

If managing holidays more effectively is something you’d like to begin doing, get in touch with IRIS today to start your free, no-obligation 30-day trial of IRIS HR.

Simply click the button below to get started.

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