As we’re approaching summer, businesses should ensure that they are preparing and planning for the summer holidays. Many employees want to go away at this time, and as an organisation, it is important that you’re prepared for how this will impact your business, as well as the services that you offer to your customers.
Start with capacity planning
Capacity planning is about ensuring that you have enough employees, workers and managers to do the jobs that your business needs to continue operating over the summer months. Whilst some organisations and businesses will be entering a quiet period, as many customers and clients are also on holiday, other organisations will be preparing for an increase in work. Businesses should start with reflecting on the amount of work they expect to be facing in the upcoming months, and use this to identify how many employees they need to run their operations.
Once organisations have identified their workload, the employees that they need and the resources that they’ll require in order to manage over the summer period, they can use this information to outline how many employees from different teams can be off at one time. Ensuring that enough people are working throughout the summer months, and that there aren’t too many people from a single team off at once, will ensure that your business continues to run smoothly.
Businesses should take care to ensure that holidays are approved consciously and equitably across management and workers. Resentment can easily build amongst employees if their holiday is repeatedly denied due to the fact that members of their team are already off, when management’s holiday is consistently approved. This can negatively affect work culture and productivity, and in some circumstances, can also lead to resignations.
Make sure your staff are prepared
Organisations should also ensure that staff understand their responsibilities when they are taking time off. Employees should communicate any necessary information to the rest of their team before they go on holiday, so that their colleagues can manage any meetings, presentations and client work without additional support.
Programs like Microsoft Teams can help facilitate this by providing a central place for employees to upload and update information. If you think communication could be improved across your team, check out our article on how Microsoft Teams can help.
Streamline your staff leave planning with Time Booked
Transcendit’s software, Time Booked, can help you to manage staff holidays easily. Within Time Booked, managers can create Teams, and set a maximum number of people that can be on holiday at the same time.
When an employee requests leave within the application, Time Booked automatically lets the manager know. It also informs management when approving a holiday will exceed the maximum number of absences for that team. Time Booked also helps you to manage illnesses, overtime, events, leave and training, in an accessible and easy to use application.
If you’re ready to streamline your time management, and leave the stress of conflicting appointments and double booked holidays behind, get a free trial of Time Booked at TimeBooked.co.uk.
