During the recent decades, people have begun to give more importance to their days off and strive to go at least once or twice a year on a vacation with their loved ones. Thus, while employees are doing everything possible to put money aside and plan their vacations, the task of scheduling the days off for everyone in the most efficient way for the business is assigned to managers and human resources employees.
Inevitably, two or more employees will ask for days off in the same period, but not all the requests will be approved. So what can be done when multiple employees request days off simultaneously? How to avoid situations where a large number of employees want to leave on vacation during the same period and the workload may remain uncovered? How should be the leaves granted so that there will be no injustice to anyone, and every employee will enjoy the legal right to paid days off?
Things must be clear from the beginning
Employees must be informed since the hiring what is the vacation policy of the organization. If necessary, it would be better to be handed over a document with practices regarding the paid leaves regulations. These regulations could include the periods in which there is a higher workload, and when a smaller number of people can go on holiday at the same time.
Also, if being implemented such a regulation that will be given to the employee, it would be recommended to specify if he will have to work during legal holidays or major religious holidays. Moreover, these things must be exposed to him since the interview, so that in the future there will be no conflict on this with the prospective employee.
Equally, it should be clarified from the beginning that the management has the right to interfere in legal days off planning to meet the business needs of the organization. There are fields in which the granting of leaves during summer months does not affect business needs, considering that then the workload is lower. However, in certain sectors, such as retail or tourism, these months of the year bring a higher workload, and providing days off to a large number of employees at the same time could be a problem.
Setting deadlines
Many organizations use internal databases to which employees have access and where can submit days off preferences. Thus, they can enter a virtual calendar and can see if other colleagues with similar positions from the department have already booked vacation leaves within a certain period and may opt for another one. This way, there will be no risk of having their vacation requests rejected.
Also, managers should set deadlines, a time limit for the employees to submit their vacation requests for the current year. Depending on these requests, but also on the order in which the petitions were made, the management can plan and distribute easier the workload during the months in which most employees are away on vacations. Meanwhile, employees who have similar duties and functions can be granted the right to agree regarding their vacation leaves planning.
Therefore, we must not forget that every employee is entitled to a certain number of rest days, and the employer’s obligation is to provide them the paid leaves. Last but not least, the employer must bear in mind that no person shall be disadvantaged and that when problems related to vacation overlaps for a larger number of employees, things can be discussed and a beneficial solution for all parties can be reached.
BIA HR TEAM