Is stockpiled annual leave a problem in your business?

An article on HC Online recently warned that, excessive amounts of stockpiled leave can be a huge liability sitting on the balance sheet for employers – with Andrew McEvoy, Tourism Australia’s Managing Director, advising that it’s well worth planning for and addressing the challenges associated with accumulated annual leave.

This is particularily important when you consider that, employees who don’t take annual leave can often demonstrate higher levels of depression or anxiety-related stress compared to those who do take their holidays*.  

McEvoy advises that, "there are easy-to-implement methods employers can use to encourage a leave-taking culture, with clear benefits to be gained such as building and engaging with a productive employee community."

The "No Leave, No Life” campaign championed by Tourism Australia, allows enables organisations to tackle the issue of stockpiled annual leave. The campaign website features an employer resources toolkit with a series of modules and practical case studies to assist with implementing a successful annual leave program. 

Some of the key focus areas include:

• Identifying challenges facing management such as pressure to meet targets, lack of reporting, competing priorities
• Recognising the barriers to leave-taking and prioritising leave-taking policy in the workplace 
• Integrating leave-planning into current processes to ensure adequate coverage
• Engaging employees – CEO, management and HR commitment is critical to success

How to set objectives and review regularly

• Considerations to keep in mind when encouraging leave – compromise with employees on leave-taking within the context of your plan to ensure acceptable outcomes for employees and management
• Developing a holiday-planning checklist to help staff better manage their departure from and return to work
• Points to help managers look at how to measure the success of their annual leave policy

Do you know how much leave your employees have stockpiled?

An automated time and attendance management system can help you effectively manage leave and holiday planning processes by:

• Keeping a central repository of all employee leave records, tracking all leave types such as Vacation/Personal leave
• Calculating leave eligibility based on an employee’s hours worked and hire date
• Generating real time absence management and vacation planning reports
• Creating work schedules that take in account employees on leave, thus ensuring you have sufficient cover to meet customer or project demands and deadlines

In addition, Employee Self Service functionality empowers your staff to check their own leave records and entitlements, and request/book leave online without having to converse with their supervisor or HR.

If you would like find out more about effective Leave Management and Holiday Planning contact Mitrefinch today on 1300 884 331

* Dr Peter Cotton, Medibank Health Solutions Director