Juggling the summer holidays - from an employer's perspective
- hrbytara
- Jun 18
- 5 min read
If you employ people who have school aged children then you'll be familiar with the challenge of the kids having 6 weeks off and the parents still trying to work. It's hard to balance what your team need in order to manage their family situation with YOUR need to keep the business running.
With it being so difficult to find and keep good people, if you can creatively support your team at this time, while still managing to ensure you have the resources to deliver what your customers and the business operations need, then you may find you have a really attractive proposition that helps you hire and retain the people you need - plus get the best work possible from them.
Here are a few tips from Tara Hopkins.
Plan in advance (although perhaps it's a bit late for that this year...)
I always suggest raising the topic of time off in summer with the team early on. Get everyone to be honest about what they want to do and build a sense of collective responsibility within the team about the need to collaboratively find ways to cover all the work appropriately while still allowing people appropriate time off.
Have clear holiday protocols in place
It's a good idea clearly communicate rules about how many people can be off at any given time, who can't take leave on the same day as someone else (as they cover each other), and whether it's a first- come-first-served booking process or all requests need to be submitted and then evaluated together.
Make sure the rules are clear, well communicated, fair to everyone and consistently applied. It's also good to explain WHY the rules are needed - to enable you to still service your customers, perhaps.
Holiday purchase?
Some companies allow staff to purchase additional holiday allowance (perhaps up to one additional week) at the start of the holiday year and spread the cost over the whole year. It's relatively easy to put in place, but you do need to keep good records and communicate clearly.
Holiday purchase means it's even more important to plan ahead though - so that all that extra holiday gets booked in properly. And if you let someone purchase additional holiday, they still have their Parental Leave allowance on top of that.
Remember Parental Leave
I once spoke to a business owner who was incredulous that a member of his team had requested four weeks of unpaid leave during August, to care for her child. Unfortunately, before he called me, he'd already told her no and she had decided to resign. Scarily, that could have led to a very expensive legal claim for unfair dismissal due to refusing someone their statutory right!
A parent of a child under the age of 18 can take up to four weeks of unpaid Statutory Parental Leave in any 12 month period (up to a maximum of 18 weeks in total over the period from birth to 18th birthday). And it can be quite hard for you to refuse their request without ending up in legal hot water.
Make sure you know the rules - and call for advice if you need to.
Consider flexibility
Some people come up with ways to flex their normal working arrangements over the 6 week summer break to enable them to balance childcare and work more effectively.
Rather than taking time off, parents may ask to reduce their hours in certain weeks, to fit in with holiday childcare arrangements - such as activity and sports clubs. This can often be a good option for you as a business, rather than having people on holiday.
Two parents can potentially work at different times of the day, or on different days of the week, to help the juggle. Think about whether some tasks your team do can be done outside someone's normal working pattern and yet still be done promptly and effectively.
Some people ask to work from home (if their duties make that feasible). We don't recommend allowing people to work from home while also being the primary carer for a child under secondary school age. It may be OK for them to work at home with children present, if there's another person in the house acting as primary carer, but still think about whether your employee can work effectively or
not, depending on the particular circumstances.
Term time contracts
For some roles, it may be possible to offer term time only contracts. This generally means that someone works for only 39 weeks per year, with the 13 non-working weeks planned well in advance each year. They are generally not permitted to take any time off during term time.
If a role is normally quiet during the holiday periods, or you know you can get a student to cover during all the school holidays, then this can be a great way to make things work.
If you're thinking of doing this, we recommend getting HR advice on how to set up the contract arrangements, including pay and holiday. It's straightforward, but complicated in some areas.
Take on extra help
If you know you'll have people off or working reduced hours over the summer months, could this be a good time to take on some extra help? A student who's just finished A-levels or is on holiday from university could be just what you need.
They can help keep everything running smoothly and may
bring some new ideas and energy to the team as well. Just make sure you interview properly and bring them in early enough to get trained before everyone else starts taking leave - and check they aren't jetting off on holiday themselves!!!
Support with childcare costs
If the cost of holiday clubs or other childcare arrangements is worrying your staff, consider signposting them to information about Tax-Free Childcare. This is a way for working parents to get a top up from the government when they pay for accredited holiday clubs, childminders or sports activities.
Don't forget those without children
You don't want resentment to build between those with and without childcare responsibilities. So, be inclusive in the way you talk about tackling the summer period. Don't just give concessions to parents, but look at what everyone wants and needs. Most people who don't HAVE to go on holiday outside term time won't want to anyway - the prices are just too high - but don't fall into the trap of blocking people from time off in July and August just because they don't have children. That's another good reason to have a proper team conversation earlier in the year.
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