Striking the Right Balance: Handling Summer Vacations at Work

With summer upon us, summer vacations are looming. While large companies can handle employee time off relatively easily, smaller firms may struggle. Even large companies with key personnel—or small teams within large organizations—may find it hard to juggle responsibilities to accommodate vacations.

While it’s crucial for companies to encourage staff to take time off to promote mental health, stress relief, and work-life balance, businesses also need to ensure they can guarantee adequate coverage to continue operations and ensure consistent customer support.

In this feature, we look at ways businesses balance the need for mental health breaks and work-life balance against the risk of too many key people being out at the same time.

Managing Overlapping PTO Conflicts

When it comes to summer—especially for those living in the northern parts of the country—there are only so many weeks during which to schedule a vacation. It’s only natural that multiple staff may want to take time off at the same time. How do companies resolve conflicting requests? By order of request? Seniority? Other?

“At Premier Staff, we recognize that taking time off is essential for our employees’ mental health and overall job satisfaction,” says Daniel Meursing, CEO and Founder of Premier Staff. “However, we also understand that having too many key people out at the same time can put a strain on our operations, particularly during the busy summer event season.”

“When it comes to resolving conflicting time-off requests, we strive to be as fair and equitable as possible,” says Meursing. “Rather than relying solely on seniority or a first-come, first-served approach, we consider a variety of factors, including the employee’s role, the anticipated workload during the requested time off, and the potential impact on our clients and operations.”

Meursing says that Premier Staff also encourages employees to have open and honest conversations with their managers and team members about their vacation plans and to be willing to compromise and find creative solutions when conflicts arise. “For example, an employee may be able to take a shorter vacation or break up their time off into multiple shorter periods to accommodate the needs of the business and their colleagues,” he says.

Working on Vacation?

If a company knows it’s going to be short-staffed, should they consider approving time off on the condition that an employee check in periodically or be available for key issues? What implications does this have for hourly (non-exempt) employees? What risks should they be aware of?

“If a company anticipates being short-staffed, they may consider approving time off with conditions, such as periodic check-ins or availability for key issues,” says Michael Ashley of AshleyInsights. It’s crucial, though, he stresses that hourly (non-exempt) employees are fairly compensated for any additional work performed while on leave. “Businesses should be aware of the legal implications and risks associated with requiring employees to be available during their time off, including potential violations of labor laws and employee burnout,” he says.

Meursing of Premier Staff also advises caution if employers are considering asking staff to be on-call or work during their vacations, especially when those staff aren’t salaried.

“Asking employees to check in periodically or be available for key issues while on vacation can be a slippery slope,” he says. “While it may seem like a reasonable compromise to ensure business continuity, it can actually create more problems than it solves.” As Ashley also noted, for non-exempt employees, any time spent working, even if it’s just responding to a quick email or taking a short phone call, must be compensated. “This means that if an employee is asked to check in or be available while on vacation, the company must track that time and pay accordingly, which can quickly become a logistical and financial headache,” Ashley says.

Meursing also notes that—Fair Labor Standards Act issues aside—asking employees to be available during vacation can be counterproductive. “Expecting employees to be ‘on call’ during their time off can defeat the purpose of taking a vacation in the first place,” he says. “If an employee feels like they can’t truly disconnect and relax, they may return to work feeling more stressed and burnt out than before.”

Advice and Best Practices

HR and employee relations experts point to various best practices for successfully balancing employee and business needs when it comes to time off and summer vacations.

Schedule as far in advance as possible and be alert to potential issues.

One of the simplest, yet most effective, ways to help mitigate the risks and impacts of overlapping PTO requests is simply to encourage staff to request their time off as early as possible. This gives businesses both the time and visibility they need to identify and mitigate staffing issues in advance.

“We encourage our employees to plan their vacations well in advance and to communicate their plans with their managers and team members,” says Meursing. “This allows us to identify potential scheduling conflicts and work proactively to ensure that we have adequate coverage during peak vacation times.”

Kristin Anne Carideo, Co-Founder of ServiceCrowd points out that having employees schedule PTO in advance is only half the battle. It’s also incumbent on employers to track that planned PTO and adjust their plans accordingly. All that advanced notice is useless if it isn’t acted on.

“Know your numbers and prepare for PTO,” Carideo urges. “Your employees need it! They are entitled to it! So make sure you have accurate insight into your forecasted service hours and needs and are able to find temporary or contract workers to cover if needed.”

Cross-train employees for key positions.

Another effective strategy to mitigate the impacts of vacationing employees is to cross-train staff so that they can handle the core duties of their teammates when those teammates are out of office.

“We ensure that numerous team members can handle critical activities to mitigate the impact of a single person’s absence,” shares Phil Strazzulla, founder of SelectSoftwareReviews. “For example, before leaving for a three-week vacation, our marketing manager taught an associate on essential tasks. This not only covered the associate’s workload, but also provided professional development opportunities.”

Time off for employees is a crucial aspect of ensuring proper work-life balance, which benefits not only employee morale, but ultimately engagement, retention, and workplace harmony as well. The challenge for smaller teams and businesses is how to navigate those times of year when everyone is trying to take time off at the same time.

Being proactive and thoughtful in approaches to ensuring time off—and building back-up plans and options for covering for absent employees—can  help companies remain productive while also supporting a healthy work-life balance for their staff members.

Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.

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