Ask Kate: Can I make my employee take a holiday? Help!

This caller wanted advice about whether or not they could enforce annual leave for their employees. So they asked Kate Palmer, Peninsula’s Employment Services Director, for expert advice.

Here’s what they had to say…

Hi Kate, now we’re halfway through the year, I’m realising that some of my employees have barely taken any time off work. I’m a bit concerned because I don’t want to suddenly be dealing with loads of annual leave requests later on this year where I have to turn some down. I also don’t want my workers to start burning out because they’ve not had a proper rest. I just want to know if I’m legally allowed to make my staff take holidays? I don’t want to cause any problems but I also don’t want to leave things and have issues further down the line. ThanksAnon

Kate’s reply was…

Hi Anon,

It’s good that you’re asking these questions now because sometimes, an employee not taking time off can be an easy thing to miss when there’s a lot going on in your business.

And it’s much easier to prevent problems of burnout or holiday backlogs than it is to manage them once they happen.

“I just want to know if I’m legally allowed to make my staff take holidays?”

To answer your question, yes. You are legally allowed to make your staff use their annual leave – whether that’s for your own business purposes or concerns over their health.

However, if you do ask your employee to take a holiday, there are certain rules you need to follow.

One of the rules is that if you want your worker to take annual leave, you have to make sure they will be able to actually rest and enjoy their time off work. If they’re sick for example, you can’t ask them to take annual leave. If they’re unwell, they would need to take sick leave.

You also have to provide a certain amount of notice. So if you’re asking your employee to take annual leave for a certain amount of time, the notice you provide has to be double the amount of leave you’re requesting your employee to take. For example, if you’re telling them to take two days off, you should give at least four days’ notice that you want them to take time off.

It’s not unreasonable of you to ask your employees to take leave if they’re not using their allowance.

In fact, you should be proactively encouraging your employees to take holiday. Taking annual leave throughout the year is necessary not just for achieving a healthier work-life balance but also for preventing burnout.

Employees who work for too long without taking a rest are more likely to experience work-related stress. And over time, stress can end up negatively impacting their performance and health. So it’s important to stay on top of it by encouraging time off and carrying out stress risk assessments.

“Now we’re halfway through the year, I’m realising that some of my employees have barely taken any time off work”

If it looks like quite a number of your employees aren’t taking time off work, I’d want to look into why that is. Are any of your employees struggling to manage their workload? Are they trying to meet unrealistic deadlines? Are they working outside of their hours on a regular basis?

This would ring alarm bells for me because an employee who isn’t taking leave might be struggling keep on top of work and there might be a wider issue there.

It might be a good idea to set up some one-to-ones with your employees just to check in and see how they’re getting on. If there’s an underlying reason why they’re not taking leave – whether it’s work-related or not – it’s important to check if they need any support or adjustments.

“I don’t want to suddenly be dealing with loads of annual leave requests later on this year where I have to turn some down”

When it comes to managing annual leave requests from staff, it’s important to make it clear in your handbooks, contracts and policies that you have certain rules. For example, you may have a first-come first-serve rule when it comes to holiday approval.

This helps set expectations from the start. So, your employees understand how much notice they need to give when making a leave request or the reasons why you might have to reject a request (i.e. you’d be understaffed because too many people are off at that time).

It makes life a lot easier when you have a robust holiday policy. Your staff can’t accuse you of being unfair for rejecting a request when they have your rules in writing. (That’s as long as your rules are fair too).

Sometimes though, a number of employees might request leave and you might approve conflicting requests without realising. That’s where having absence management software can be useful. Software can help you manage annual leave requests more efficiently and notify you when there’s a conflict. This can help you avoid running into any issues.

“I don’t want to cause any problems but I also don’t want to leave things and have issues further down the line”

Well, the good news is that because you’re midway through the year, now’s a great time to remind your staff to take their holidays.

Even just sending your staff an email to remind them why taking annual leave is important for their wellbeing can help give your employees that little nudge to book time off.

And if you find that your employees are still not taking holidays, that’s when you might want to start having one-to-ones and enforcing leave where you might need to.

If you have any concerns about approaching an employee or enforcing leave, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Here at Peninsula, we offer free consultations. So if you’d like to speak to an HR expert, free support is on hand. Just tap below to speak to an adviser.

Hope that helps.

All the best,

Kate