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Annual leave during the school holidays can often provide some difficulties for people in HR jobs, primarily because it increases the likelihood of resourcing constraints and last-minute absence.
This issue was recently highlighted by the employment relations organisation Acas, which reminded employers and their HR jobs personnel of the rules surrounding this element of working life.
Questions such as whether annual leave can be refused and if flexible arrangements are permissible were answered by the body – which recently gave advice on updating policies to follow the Equality Act – and it also encouraged businesses to plan as far ahead as possible to avoid crises.
The difficult, yet crucial, key to managing a company through the school holidays is to “balance the needs of the business with keeping a healthy and motivated workforce”, said Acas’s chief executive John Taylor.
In the last 12 months, the group received some 100,000 calls relating to this subject. It said there were an estimated 12.8 million working age parents in spring 2004 – so this number is likely to be higher today, leading to more requests for time off.
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