Holiday headaches

The recent spate of good weather has served as a timely reminder that the summer months are fast approaching. At this time of year many people start to prepare for their summer holidays. According to Alan Patterson, Commercial Team Leader of Carlton Resource Solutions (Carlton) the holiday season can prove to be a headache for employers.

He explains, Summer can be a problematic time for employers as it is likely that most, if not all, of their employees will want to take some time off during the summer months. As providing continuity of service to their clients is likely to be of prime importance to employers they have to find a way of ensuring that employees can take their annual leave without impinging on the day to day running of the business.

Alan has these tips for employers on how to cope with holiday headaches:

- Working practices
Making sure that that your company's day-to-day working practices are documented should facilitate the provision of continuity of service to customers.

It is good practice to have your procedures and policies detailed. During the holiday period these documents can be used a reference guide as to when and how things should be done. This is especially useful if temps are brought in to provide holiday cover, comments Alan.

This should ensure that corporate policies continue to be followed and will hopefully result in the company's high standards being maintained.

- Holiday policy
If you run a small company it is not unreasonable to limit the number of people who can take holidays at any one time. Holiday requests should be dealt with on a 'first come, first served' basis.

Adopting this approach should help those with small businesses to ensure that their customers do not experience a decline in the level of service that they receive during the holiday season.

Alan adds, The fact that holidays are allocated on a 'first come, first served' basis should encourage employees to plan their holidays in advance and submit their requests in a timely manner.

Employees should also be aware of whether or not holidays can be carried forward into the next year and if so how many they are allowed to carry over and when they have to be taken by, e.g. by end of January.

- Long absences
The world has become a smaller place and it is not unusual for people to plan long trips to visit far away places or perhaps to get married and go on honeymoon.

If one of your employees requests an extended period of annual leave you will need to consider how you will ensure that their duties are covered during their absence, remarks Alan.

It might be that their role can be split between several people with some of their work waiting for their return. If this is not a viable solution you might want to think about the possibility of employing a temp to provide holiday cover. There is nothing worse than returning from a relaxing holiday to a full in-box and loads of messages. If you do decide to take this course of action then your company policies, procedures and working practices should form an invaluable part of the handover process.

Alan concludes that planning is vital to ensure continuity of service provision to clients during the holiday season. In order to ensure that clients will continue to receive a high standard of service during periods when members of staff are on annual leave it is vital that employers take steps to ensure that standards do not slip.

Established in Aberdeen in 1981, Carlton Resource Solutions (Carlton) has grown and developed to cover all geographic regions through its operational hubs in Aberdeen and London. Recruiting for a wide range of technical and non-technical opportunities, Carlton matches candidates to employers across the full spectrum of occupations in the accountancy and finance, commercial, HR and training, industrial, information technology, technical and engineering disciplines, in both public sector and other corporate environments. Carlton recruits for permanent, contract or temporary placements. For more information call 01224 650500 or visit www.carltonrs.com.