Numerous decisions are taken when starting a business so it’s inevitable that some areas may require a new approach as you build and grow.
This is particularly true when it comes to your people management.
What worked nicely with a staff of six, can become an admin nightmare by the time you’ve quadrupled your headcount.
Your Choice
Employers have the freedom to choose when their holiday year runs from, and any start date is possible. As a business, you’ll be thinking about balancing your operational needs with what works best for staff and managers.
Most organisations choose one of three options:
· Mirror the calendar year
· Align with the financial year
· Use an employee’s individual start date
Individual start dates can work well for some, but this can get complicated when your workforce expands.
Aligning with the fiscal year can help when producing financial reports, but you’ll also be contending with Easter bank holiday quirks - where two sets of Easter weekends can occasionally fall within one April to March holiday year. Or none fall within it at all.
Perhaps the simplest approach is to follow the calendar year, and around 76% of SMEs using WorkSmarter’s online
Holiday Planner start their new leave year in January.
A New Start Date
Changing the timing of your company leave year is easy enough to do, but there are some considerations to think about before you go ahead:
· Create a plan detailing how the situation will be managed.
· Ensure fair processes will be followed throughout.
· Ensure staff don’t lose out on any holiday entitlement.
· Consult staff; explain why you’re making the change; get their agreement.
· Put in place a transition period that meets your contractual holiday allowances.
· Contracts must adapt to reflect changing circumstances: you can read more about employee contracts in this guest blog from
Harwood HR Solutions.
If you do decide to change your start dates and want help or guidance with any compliance aspect, WorkSmarter can arrange in-house support from our specialist HR Partners.
Get in touch to find out more.
Stress-Free Holiday Planning
Updating holiday settings is easy on WorkSmarter’s advanced platform and you can do this any time you want from your account.
No matter when you run your holiday year, WorkSmarter’s flexible HR software works it all out. If you reset your dates, the system will recalculate everything for you and make the adjustments automatically.
Whether you track holiday by days or hours, roll-over unused time, or grant TOIL — WorkSmarter's easy to use platform adapts to suit you and provides full visibility for your team.
Book a quick
demo to see how everything works.
