Holiday Entitlement and Benefits

Posted by Olivia McDermott on July 17, 2016 at 4:43pm in HR Policy and Reward & Recognition

Hi All,

I have been given the challenge from rolling the dice to start a conversation in the HR Zone and have a need for some advice!

We are currently in the process of implementing a new holiday and absence management system and it is giving us some thought and opportunity to review how we currently manage and offer holidays.

I was interested to get some feedback on the following from other organisations,

How much holiday entitlement do you offer employees?
Do you increase holiday entitlement with length of service? If so, how and is there a limit?
Do you offer an employee's birthday as holiday?
Can you buy and sell holiday?
Do you allow carry over of holiday? If so, is there a maximum and time limit to use it?
What is the feeling/thoughts in your company on your holiday management and arrangements?

Thank you in advance,

Liv

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Replies

Samantha Wilkinson July 27, 2016 at 2:03pm

Hi Liv,

We offer 25 days as standard.

After 5 years, employees receive an additional 2 days. After 10 years service, another 3 bringing the total to 30.

We don't offer an employee's birthday as a holiday at the moment.

We can purchase up to 3 days annual leave via our flexible benefits scheme but we can't sell it.

We can't carry over any holiday.

In terms of our industry, offering 25 days holiday to everyone is good, in the past I have had to start on 21 or 22 - we changed it last year to be more competitive. We also have flexible working so that people don't need to take half a day if they need to do the school run, and we let people work from home when required. On top of this, we also offer study leave and exam leave for anyone studying for qualifications so this again does not come out of anyone's annual leave entitlement.

I think overall the scheme is really good - we have a lot of sales people and I think it is better for them to take their holidays than to carry them over so that they do get proper rest periods throughout the year.
Mandy Bartington July 19, 2016 at 2:08pm

Hi Liv,

We offer 25 days a year plus the 8 Bank Holidays.

We don't offer extra days for length of service but are looking to give employees a day off for their birthday.

You can buy or sell a weeks holiday, this is rolled out in December as our holiday year is from Jan to Dec.

We allow employees to carry over 8 days and these must be used up by the end of March.

I think our employees see the holiday arrangements as generous.

Hope this helps

Mandy
- Olivia McDermott > Mandy Bartington July 19, 2016 at 7:32pm
  
  Thanks Mandy, really helpful! That is definitely generous allowing 8 days to be carried over.
  
  Best Regards,
  
  Liv
Diane Jones July 19, 2016 at 12:59pm

Hi Liv

In contrast to Sarah I work for a company that employs 16 people and even though we are part of a large German company we currently operate as a separate entity when it comes to our contracts and policies.

Employees have 33 days in total 25 + 8 BH

Holidays are not increased with length of service

We do not give an employee's birthday as a holiday but my son works for William Hill who give this benefit and I think it is a really nice idea

We cannot buy and sell holiday

We are allowed to carry 5 days forward to the following year but they have to be taken by the end of March

We shut down for a week over Christmas and make sure that employees reserve the days from their holiday allowance.

This works well for us as a company. On a personal note I would hate to work somewhere that only offered less holiday as I find that 33 days is never enough.

Diane
- Olivia McDermott > Diane Jones July 19, 2016 at 7:31pm
  
  Hi Diane,
  
  Thanks for the reply. Your current offering is very similar to ours in terms of days, not currently offering length of service, think birthdays is a great idea too and one we are considering! We are also considering carrying over the following year to be taken by March but only 3 days.
  
  I agree, I would be disappointed to work somewhere where the holiday was less and also where I had to work in between Christmas and New Year. (I see it as a real benefit to get that time off and enjoy festive season!)
  
  Best Regards,
  
  Liv
Liz July 18, 2016 at 10:02pm
Hi Liv

Interesting questions. Given me some ideas to put to my MD.

Thanks.

How much holiday entitlement do you offer employees?

>> 25 days + BHs
- Do you increase holiday entitlement with length of service? If so, how and is there a limit?
- >Not as a rule. Only 3 of the oldest serving members managed to negotiate extra annual leave days due to their length of service and/or seniority in the company.
- >Yes, there is a limit of up to 5 days
- Do you offer an employee's birthday as holiday?
- >No, but it's an excellent idea.
- Can you buy and sell holiday?
- Not anymore. Staff used to be able to buy and sell their holidays.
- Do you allow carry over of holiday? If so, is there a maximum and time limit to use it?
- >Some staff still hold old contracts, which allows them to carry over the holidays. Staff employed since 2010 have newer contracts, which clearly states they are not allowed to carry over their holidays. However, we allow them all to carry up to 3 days leave. There's no deadline.
- What is the feeling/thoughts in your company on your holiday management and arrangements?
- >Many would like more days and flexibility in terms of being able to buy and sell, for example.
>They would also like the ability to view the holiday calendar, which would bring to light the fact that some have more leave days than others.

Good luck!

Liz
- Olivia McDermott > Liz July 19, 2016 at 7:29pm
  
  Thanks for the reply Liz!
  
  I can understand why people would like to have the ability to view the holiday calendar. We currently upload information to our SharePoint Intranet for people to have visibility and so far we haven't managed to have anyone notice if someone has taken more leave than another due to an exceptional circumstance/authorisation outside of the policy. However we are soon to move to e-days and perhaps this could come up!
  
  Best Regards,
  
  Liv
  - Liz > Olivia McDermott July 19, 2016 at 9:38pm
    
    Pleasure, Liv. I've never heard of SharePoint before, but will look into it if it saves me having 2 sets of spreadsheets to update.
    
    We all have access to SuperOffice where we're able to book our holidays, etc on the calendar. However, most people don't and it's not as detailed and password protected spreadsheet I keep. I also update holiday and sick leave balance on their individual profile on our Employee Management System. Again , this is not ideal as it's not detailed and gives rise to queries.
    
    Your post has definitely made me think I need to look into an alternative. I know the staff would definitely be happier if I gave them access to something similar.
    
    Thanks and good luck with your new system!
Sarah Loates July 18, 2016 at 11:47am
Hi Liv

I have based my responses on my last organisation as I currently work with SMEs which tends to be statutory all the way. It was a unionised private sector utilities company with circa 18,000 employees in the UK just to give some context.
- How much holiday entitlement do you offer employees? 26 days plus 8 BHs
- Do you increase holiday entitlement with length of service? If so, how and is there a limit? Not generally although there were some collective agreements where this did apply, although note the age discrimination legislation limits this to 5 years in terms of service related benefits unless it can be objectivley justified
- Do you offer an employee's birthday as holiday? No but I think this is a great idea!
- Can you buy and sell holiday? Yes this was offered as part of a flexible benefits arrangements I can't remeber how many days you could buy though obvoiusly they would not be able to sell below 28 days (5.6 weeks)
- Do you allow carry over of holiday? If so, is there a maximum and time limit to use it? Yes it was up to 5 days and I think they had to use it by the end of Apil the holiday year was Jan - December
- What is the feeling/thoughts in your company on your holiday management and arrangements? Generally the carry over was applied inconsistently some managers were not happy to stick to the maximum of 5 days especially where operational requirements had prevented the employee taking holiday. I used to work in a small team where taking holiday around Christmas was an annual bun fight each year
Can anyone else help Liv it would be great to have some comparisons with public and third sector holiday arrangements.

Kind regards

Sarah
- Olivia McDermott > Sarah Loates July 19, 2016 at 7:26pm
  
  Thanks Sarah, this is great. It gives thought to any improvements we could make.
  
  Just to give some background on what we offer in my organisation is 25 days plus bank holidays, but our employees have to reserve an amount of days for a Christmas Shutdown. We shutdown Christmas Eve through to New Years. (saves the annual fight and goes down well!!)
  
  Best Regards,
  
  Liv