Annual Leave Build-Up Presents a Predicament For Businesses

Pre-COVID, most of your employees would look forward to taking some annual leave and enjoying a well-earned break. However, since the pandemic struck, the chances to get away have been dramatically reduced.

As a result, many of your employees may have been reluctant to use up their annual leave allowance in a bid to save it to be able to make the most of their time off. Consequently, concerns of burnout are growing as staff are choosing not to take time out from their jobs.

Data from e-Days found that of 50,000 users, 37% of UK workers had more than 14 days of holiday left to take before the end of the year.

The Concern

You may feel concerned that you will have a lot of your workforce absent for at least a day a week until the New Year. Data from e-Days shared the 69% of businesses have no clue of the overall cost of employee absence in their business.

Burnout amongst your employees undoubtedly leads to concerns over productivity. Giants like Google have asked employees to take a day off to address any work-from-home burnout. Research commissioned by LinkedIn found that three in five HR leaders feared homeworking would force their employees to take time out due to burnout and stress amongst teams.

Large amounts of holidays have been cancelled as a result of coronavirus. Many workers may take advantage of the Government rules announced regarding annual leave. The announcement stated, ‘workers who have not taken all of their statutory annual leave entitlement due to COVID-19 will now be able to carry it over into the next two leave years.’

Over two-thirds of full-time employees are planning on rolling over at least one day of annual leave into their next holiday period. The figure is roughly equivalent to 20million UK adults, which could prove costly to businesses. Thereupon, amounting £12billion in the UK if employers allow staff to roll over holiday.

How Business Should Tackle Annual Leave Accumulation

John Hackston from The Myers-Briggs Company said that employers should actively encourage employees to take time off. Additionally, be vocal about it, as being of benefit to the employee and the business. He pointed out that the change needs to start with the leadership teams. If the leaders are seen to be always working and never taking time off, employees will follow suit.

If holidays are not an option, HR teams and leaders should come up with new ways for teams to switch off. Importantly, taking into consideration how different personalities handle remote working.

It’s crucial that leaders recognise both their own styles of working and their teams to combat burnout before it begins.