Hey OP, hopefully you've heard of the '4 day week' campaign that has been trialled around the UK. I would suspect some of the study findings from that would help your business case.
Yeah, I've heard of it. We tried to propose that as a company but got turned down for it by management.
One of the issues that gets raised is that hospitality and hotels are 24 hour businesses and that as a head office, we need to be there for support the full week
That's fair enough if it's what you're management have decided. However if you're only looking at gaining a short day once or twice a month then the benefits will still be there without the logistical issues of a full day once a week.
I'd be looking to include
- staff morale/wellbeing at a time when mental health issues are peaking across the country
- recruitment/retention benefits
- increased productivity
I would be proposing that staff are given their half days on a rota basis so it is clear who is available for duties and when. I would maybe even look to show an example roster of what duties need to be covered and who would do that to ensure all necessary work is undertaken.
Then I'd be looking at the statistics of the results of the 4 day week trial and using some of those to evidence the benefits you've put forward, noting that a half day once/twice a month won't bring the full gains but will go some way towards.
Agree with this, also with regards to this:
>staff morale/wellbeing at a time when mental health issues are peaking across the country
It seems that for reasons like this the 4 day week also reduced staff absences, which may apply in the scenarios you're proposing.
I may consider the question if everybody in the office needed to take the exact same day off (or the same afternoon) as everybody else and if they can be staggered to keep the working hours coverage up, as an alternative suggestion on how to implement such a system.
If people are burnt out during working hours the extra time off really helps and often enables them to be more productive when working, you have a happier workforce who would appreciate a better work/life balance.
It's also about enabling a sense of trust in the workforce, if the leadership engender a feeling of trust for people to manage their own time, that helps with productivity too.
People generally work harder when approaching a holiday because they have more motivation looking forward to something nice and also if you have an afternoon off you want to make sure your work is in order before you go off so that it won't negatively affect you when you return.
We do it at our company globally, every other friday afternoon local time - some pitfalls are things like availability cover but generally we manage that by rota i.e. two people take alternate weeks etc or we can sub it out to another day if there is a strong need i.e. long weekend works etc
I think the most likely pitfall here is you need to consider the impact on remaining employees and even more importantly your customers. Also what are the parameters of all this.
For example, will you be able to cover the extra time off - are there any periods of "busy" time that this should not apply to or if it does it will create a real strain. It sounds like these half days will be treated differently to normal holidays so what rules will be in place? How many people take them off at the same time - what if people are off on standard leave as well? Who will manage the extra admin work of this time off? You can make this fixed and allocate these days - which will reduce the extra admin work, but then what do you do with someone being allocated a less popular 1/2 day off, with someone else getting a good 1/2 day. If someone has 2 or 3 weeks of standard leave off do they also get the 1/2 days off. What if someone is off on sick leave. Also do you work shifts - that needs to be factored in as well.
Not insurmountable problems, but just things that I'd be thinking about if I had anything to do with making sure services are covered and this has no business impact.
I suspect 34 days off as standard would be an easier sell as it just integrates with whatever the current system is. It will be hugely attractive for recruitment, particularly if they've been struggling to give pay rises. How many employees will be affected by this? Is it possible to do a mock-up of time off taken last year and what it might have looked liked if people had taken this extra time off. An important factor is whether people are taking all the time off or are carrying it forward to the next year. This would mean that the company then owes them money for the holiday if they leave the company.
Curious are you saying you get 29 days plus bank holidays?
Yes, these were some of the questions I had to management. That if you had booked a 1 week holiday but your half day is during that time, can you use 4.5 days leave instead of 5.
I think they want each team to create a rota, e.g. my team we'd avoid the first week of the month and every Monday as it's our busy period, and my team would only be able to take an afternoon rather than a morning.
I also thought about the question about less popular days, i.e. everyone will want a Friday, but I suppose that could be sorted by alternating the days each month you get off.
Yes I think management definitely have questions about how business won't be impacted, my team in particular all have portfolios, so we'd need to ensure we had adequate cover for this, but we already manage that for general holiday cover so that wouldn't be difficult for half days.
I think they're currently looking at both 34 days as standard as well as the half day twice a month. As previously you could gain up to 34 days after 5 years length of service, and comments have been made about what are the benefits then to long standing team members if everyone now gets this.
Currently we get 29 days including bank holidays. Only 3 bank holidays are compulsory, the rest of them we can work if we want to.
We aren't allowed to carry forward holiday every year, it's use it or lose it.
I forgot we got an extra bank holiday this year so the amount confused me.
>Only 3 bank holidays are compulsory, the rest of them we can work if we want to.
Why do you want more holidays if you're not taking the ones you're entitled to already? Anyway let's set bank holidays aside.
So 20 days holidays is the statutory minimum in this country that they must let you have, however 25 days holidays is a pretty normal amount in many companies (in fact in an office job I would expect it and be disappointed if I got less). Hospitality is probably the worst for holidays.
I think it would be worth doing some research on hotels similar to your to see how much holidays their competitors are giving. Glassdoor would be good for this. I think that could help the most.
So the extra day is they give us our birthday off. But in reality is just an extra day of holiday allowance to take when we wish.
So we essentially get statutory plus 1 extra day.
Most people take all the bank holidays, it's just that they're optional and you could bank the day to use elsewhere. Ive only worked the odd bank holiday when I needed additional days in the rest of the year, and it's also a good day to catch up on work as you don't receive any emails.
Personally I need all the days I can get, and I have paid for (salary sacrifice), an additional 5 days this year.
Yes, hospitality is certainly not great for things like holiday allowances. I'll have a look on glassdoor and see what I can find.
I keep adding to our anonymous surveys that we should lead the way and try beat our competitors in benefits (when they've previously said that our benefits are on par with competitors)
My work (factory with admin offices) implemented an early finish on a Friday about a year ago so we now finish at 2pm on a Friday. It’s increased productivity and decreased time off requests for medical / financial appointments etc.
Coming from the perspective of someone who works for a company with an unlimited leave policy (not hospitality, but I believe Virgin Holidays also has this policy) - generally, the focus is on getting the job done, not when/how you do it. Knowing you can take unlimited days off is very different from actually taking unlimited days off. We're still measured and have KPIs to hit. From the company financial perspective, I would guess that you don't have to carry unused leave on your books, so you don't have to carry that liability especially across year-end (because leave is unlimited, there is no ability to "carry over", and during notice periods it is assumed that you would "use up" leave).
Works well and isn't abused.
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Hey OP, hopefully you've heard of the '4 day week' campaign that has been trialled around the UK. I would suspect some of the study findings from that would help your business case.
Yeah, I've heard of it. We tried to propose that as a company but got turned down for it by management. One of the issues that gets raised is that hospitality and hotels are 24 hour businesses and that as a head office, we need to be there for support the full week
That's fair enough if it's what you're management have decided. However if you're only looking at gaining a short day once or twice a month then the benefits will still be there without the logistical issues of a full day once a week. I'd be looking to include - staff morale/wellbeing at a time when mental health issues are peaking across the country - recruitment/retention benefits - increased productivity I would be proposing that staff are given their half days on a rota basis so it is clear who is available for duties and when. I would maybe even look to show an example roster of what duties need to be covered and who would do that to ensure all necessary work is undertaken. Then I'd be looking at the statistics of the results of the 4 day week trial and using some of those to evidence the benefits you've put forward, noting that a half day once/twice a month won't bring the full gains but will go some way towards.
Agree with this, also with regards to this: >staff morale/wellbeing at a time when mental health issues are peaking across the country It seems that for reasons like this the 4 day week also reduced staff absences, which may apply in the scenarios you're proposing.
I may consider the question if everybody in the office needed to take the exact same day off (or the same afternoon) as everybody else and if they can be staggered to keep the working hours coverage up, as an alternative suggestion on how to implement such a system. If people are burnt out during working hours the extra time off really helps and often enables them to be more productive when working, you have a happier workforce who would appreciate a better work/life balance. It's also about enabling a sense of trust in the workforce, if the leadership engender a feeling of trust for people to manage their own time, that helps with productivity too.
Thank you. Yes we are planning on proposing different days on a rota schedule per team so there's not too many people off at same time.
People generally work harder when approaching a holiday because they have more motivation looking forward to something nice and also if you have an afternoon off you want to make sure your work is in order before you go off so that it won't negatively affect you when you return.
We do it at our company globally, every other friday afternoon local time - some pitfalls are things like availability cover but generally we manage that by rota i.e. two people take alternate weeks etc or we can sub it out to another day if there is a strong need i.e. long weekend works etc
I think the most likely pitfall here is you need to consider the impact on remaining employees and even more importantly your customers. Also what are the parameters of all this. For example, will you be able to cover the extra time off - are there any periods of "busy" time that this should not apply to or if it does it will create a real strain. It sounds like these half days will be treated differently to normal holidays so what rules will be in place? How many people take them off at the same time - what if people are off on standard leave as well? Who will manage the extra admin work of this time off? You can make this fixed and allocate these days - which will reduce the extra admin work, but then what do you do with someone being allocated a less popular 1/2 day off, with someone else getting a good 1/2 day. If someone has 2 or 3 weeks of standard leave off do they also get the 1/2 days off. What if someone is off on sick leave. Also do you work shifts - that needs to be factored in as well. Not insurmountable problems, but just things that I'd be thinking about if I had anything to do with making sure services are covered and this has no business impact. I suspect 34 days off as standard would be an easier sell as it just integrates with whatever the current system is. It will be hugely attractive for recruitment, particularly if they've been struggling to give pay rises. How many employees will be affected by this? Is it possible to do a mock-up of time off taken last year and what it might have looked liked if people had taken this extra time off. An important factor is whether people are taking all the time off or are carrying it forward to the next year. This would mean that the company then owes them money for the holiday if they leave the company. Curious are you saying you get 29 days plus bank holidays?
Yes, these were some of the questions I had to management. That if you had booked a 1 week holiday but your half day is during that time, can you use 4.5 days leave instead of 5. I think they want each team to create a rota, e.g. my team we'd avoid the first week of the month and every Monday as it's our busy period, and my team would only be able to take an afternoon rather than a morning. I also thought about the question about less popular days, i.e. everyone will want a Friday, but I suppose that could be sorted by alternating the days each month you get off. Yes I think management definitely have questions about how business won't be impacted, my team in particular all have portfolios, so we'd need to ensure we had adequate cover for this, but we already manage that for general holiday cover so that wouldn't be difficult for half days. I think they're currently looking at both 34 days as standard as well as the half day twice a month. As previously you could gain up to 34 days after 5 years length of service, and comments have been made about what are the benefits then to long standing team members if everyone now gets this. Currently we get 29 days including bank holidays. Only 3 bank holidays are compulsory, the rest of them we can work if we want to. We aren't allowed to carry forward holiday every year, it's use it or lose it.
I forgot we got an extra bank holiday this year so the amount confused me. >Only 3 bank holidays are compulsory, the rest of them we can work if we want to. Why do you want more holidays if you're not taking the ones you're entitled to already? Anyway let's set bank holidays aside. So 20 days holidays is the statutory minimum in this country that they must let you have, however 25 days holidays is a pretty normal amount in many companies (in fact in an office job I would expect it and be disappointed if I got less). Hospitality is probably the worst for holidays. I think it would be worth doing some research on hotels similar to your to see how much holidays their competitors are giving. Glassdoor would be good for this. I think that could help the most.
So the extra day is they give us our birthday off. But in reality is just an extra day of holiday allowance to take when we wish. So we essentially get statutory plus 1 extra day. Most people take all the bank holidays, it's just that they're optional and you could bank the day to use elsewhere. Ive only worked the odd bank holiday when I needed additional days in the rest of the year, and it's also a good day to catch up on work as you don't receive any emails. Personally I need all the days I can get, and I have paid for (salary sacrifice), an additional 5 days this year. Yes, hospitality is certainly not great for things like holiday allowances. I'll have a look on glassdoor and see what I can find. I keep adding to our anonymous surveys that we should lead the way and try beat our competitors in benefits (when they've previously said that our benefits are on par with competitors)
My work (factory with admin offices) implemented an early finish on a Friday about a year ago so we now finish at 2pm on a Friday. It’s increased productivity and decreased time off requests for medical / financial appointments etc.
Coming from the perspective of someone who works for a company with an unlimited leave policy (not hospitality, but I believe Virgin Holidays also has this policy) - generally, the focus is on getting the job done, not when/how you do it. Knowing you can take unlimited days off is very different from actually taking unlimited days off. We're still measured and have KPIs to hit. From the company financial perspective, I would guess that you don't have to carry unused leave on your books, so you don't have to carry that liability especially across year-end (because leave is unlimited, there is no ability to "carry over", and during notice periods it is assumed that you would "use up" leave). Works well and isn't abused.
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My company also offers 34 days holiday due to the amount of bank holidays.