The holiday season is a great time for hardworking employees to wind down and relax with loved ones. As an employer or manager, it can be challenging to navigate a multitude of time off requests all at once. If you want to get ahead for the holiday season and manage time off requests with ease, keep reading for some helpful HR tips from our team!
Be Clear with Your Policy
Before you even start to take time-off requests, it’s important to sit down and clearly write your office’s holiday time-off policy. Once you determine how much time an employee can request off and in what manner, then you should be open and transparent when deploying that message to your team. You will want to consider and include any date restrictions that employees are not allowed to request off (example: must work Black Friday) in your time-off policy. Depending on how large your organization is, you may not be able to allow every employee to take the same day off, to ensure operations continue running smoothly.
Accept Requests Early
There’s no time like the present! The holidays are a busy time and as a manager, you do not want any surprises from your staff about time off. Be sure to distribute your holiday time off policy early and then start accepting requests right away. It would also be helpful to schedule one-on-one check-ins with your team members to get an idea of how much time off or flexibility they are going to need in the coming holiday months.
Be Flexible
Many employees find that the holidays come with an array of commitments and social obligations that can make our schedules busier than usual. If you have the means to be more flexible with your team during the holiday months, then you should offer them more options. Some examples include remote work days or condensed hour work days. You can also offer to let them come in late or leave early if they have holiday obligations or commitments.
Stay Transparent
Ultimately, what your team members want is a clear understanding of what kind of time off they can expect as they plan their holiday schedules. So it’s important to communicate clearly and be as transparent as possible early, so they can plan ahead for the holiday season. After the holiday season ends, we recommend setting up a time to receive feedback about your holiday time-off policy, so that you can adjust and keep your employees happy the following year.
Work with Prescott HR
Does your organization need help with crafting a holiday time off policy that keeps your team members happy? We are here to help! Prescott HR offers a wide range of services that can help your organization stay current in the ever-changing world of recruitment and employee retention. Our unintimated HR practices allow us to be focused and effective, providing your business with precisely what you need. Give us a call today at 443-351-8818 or contact us online.