How to manage your team’s vacation requests?

19 of February, 2021

Vacation requests is an important part of managing your employees. Employers commit themselves to strict legal guidelines regarding what kind of leave they must give their employees. In some cases, like in France or Spain, there are enforced public holidays; as well as a set amount of vacation days to take. On the other side of the spectrum, in the U.S. officials do not require employers by federal law to afford paid or unpaid leave. Many however choose to offer their own terms for leave as an incentive.

A core part of your Human Resources team’s tasks is the managing of vacation requests, including in lieu or compensation days off. They must understand the vacation laws applicable to the country your business is based in. To help them, start learning about the different ways you can manage your team’s vacation here.

Vacation policy examples

There are no real global rules for how countries, and thus the businesses within them, regulate the amount of vacation the employee has. It is why having a specialized team in HR for managing employee vacation and compensation is common in large multinationals.

There are certain definitions and types of vacation examples or holiday regimes you must know though. First, in the United Kingdom you have what are known as bank holidays or public holidays in the USA. These are holidays that are applicable to everyone and where the office is usually closed. The UK however allows employees to work on a bank holiday and take in lieu days off instead. This is combined with a fixed amount of days the employee is entitled to take off.

In the EU, bank holidays are usually enforced by law and thus you don’t have as much flexibility. You must factor this in to your vacation policy. You must also remember the EU legislation on working days and vacation compared to the U.S and UK. Also, in case of sick leave, you must make sure you are HIPAA compliant in the U.S.

Detailing your vacation policy and communicating it

Once you have an understanding of how your vacation policy is shaped by your national legislation, it is time to strategies as to how you are going to detail your vacation policy. Think of the following factors :

• How much advanced notice employees should give to their line managers when they are taking holidays.
• Who are the responsible parties for allowing an employee to take time off at the requested date.
• How are you going to monitor what your employees choose as vacation and what they can still take as holiday, as well as in lieu days if applicable.
• What will be the digital platform your employees can make the request from. You can choose to simply have them ask you in person, but we recommend using a digital platform to really help you track your employees vacation properly.

You also need to communicate your policy during the onboarding process. Employees need to have a sense that the vacation policy is fair and that whatever they put in they also have to take out from time to time.

Some tips for managing vacation requests

Often you will find that employees tend to take vacation around the same periods of time and you are faced, especially as an SME, with potentially shutting down operations for a period of time. To avoid this, you can plan in advance how your business will manage your employee vacation requests with the following tips :

• Have a detailed register of what your employees have taken as vacation, in case of an inspection. Without proper oversight of vacation taken an inspector may fine you for taking liberties with employees rights.
• Strategize how you will deal with an influx of holiday requests over a particular popular period to take such days. This can include hiring temporary interns with a fast-track onboarding process. They may need to cover for the lack of labor resources during the summer for example.
• Try to obtain reports on employee absenteeism and adapt your vacation policy accordingly. Not giving your employees a break from time to time may give them burnout.
• Many companies used to use Excel, but now you can use synced sheets, or better yet an app with a more user-friendly UI to manage your vacation logging.