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Summer vacations are a great time for employees to come back refreshed and ready for work. If you find it a challenge to balance your employees’ expectations with your business activities, our tips and scheduling tool can help.
Use a vacation policy: A business with more than two or three employees should have a vacation policy with a formal request form. When employees know the process of requesting and scheduling holidays, vacations will be a positive experience for everyone.
Prepare for vacations in advance: If not already stated in your vacation policy, give a deadline for submitting requests. Let employees know requests after that date might not be approved. Share the vacation schedule with everyone as soon as you can, perhaps by posting a paper copy or with a shared electronic calendar.
Try a company-wide holiday: If it works, you might close the business if everyone takes the same summer vacation or winter. Advanced planning is essential. Ensure you provide appropriate notice to all employees prior to their vacation during the ‘shut down.’ Make certain someone will deal with urgent issues from customers or suppliers and all tax deadlines will not be missed.
Make sure you understand your province’s Employment Standards Vacation Rules: While you have a lot of control in scheduling vacations, you must comply with the amount of vacation time and pay your staff are entitled to based on their years of service.
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