Employers Must Communicate Holiday Entitlement

Employers must clearly communicate to their workforce how much holiday allowance they are entitled to.

Research by Badenoch & Clark revealed that a quarter of British workers are still unaware whether their employers will allow them to have the royal wedding day on Friday April 29th off work.

Employees in London were most in the dark about their holiday rights as one in three workers confessed to the recruitment company that they were confused about their entitlement to a day of leave

The Government has declared that the wedding will be a bank holiday but some employers have sent conflicting messages to their staff because they still expect them to turn up for work.

Employers are not obliged to give their staff additional leave through public or bank holidays and that under the Working Time Regulations an extra bank holiday will not increase their entitlement to holidays.

A lack of clarification from management could cause anger and low morale among British workers so it is important that employees are told their rights either through a meeting or email.

Employers should make their decision quickly as last-minute announcements could result in workers reacting angrily and this will damage the relationship between managers and their staff.

One compromise which could please both parties is if employers allowed workers access to flexible working hours around important parts of the wedding day so that they could watch events such as the ceremony.

Lynne Hardman, Badenoch & Clark spokesperson, said that enabling employees to join in with the celebrations could boost morale in the short-term which will benefit productivity levels in the long-term.

She said: "If managed correctly, allowing workers to take full advantage of the bank holiday could be a great way to strengthen workplace morale on a day of national celebration."

Performance improvement consulting professionals are best placed to provide organisations with advice relating to the possible benefits and downsides of allow flexible working.

Flexible working practices are best suited to large companies such as Microsoft who allow 85 per cent of their British employees to work flexibly in order to get the best out of them.

Performance improvement consultants can apply business theory to your company to examine whether flexible working is appropriate for your organisation and employees.

Research by the Department for Trade and Industry discovered that the majority of businesses which implement flexible working have enjoyed more motivated employees and a reduction in absentee rates.


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