When is the best time of year for employees to take a vacation?
I am a big believer in rejuvenation for your employees. Most of my employees request their vacation time in the summer months. As a new solar energy company, we don't have a designated slow season yet. When should employees take a break and for how long?
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Sep 5, 2018
Great question! For some businesses, it is easy to encourage employees to take time off during a particular time of year when business may be slow. For those businesses that don't have seasonality or an off-season, it can be difficult to know when to vacation.
The Business.com team recently published an article that may be helpful in helping you decide when to take time off. You can read it here.
Some scheduling tips to keep in mind:
-Even if your business doesn't have an off-season, keep in mind when other businesses are in an off-season, for example during the summer or in December, and see if you can afford to take time off then too.
-You can't always dictate when your employees should vacation. They earned the vacation time and should be able to choose a time of year that works best for them.
-Encourage your employees to detach from their phone and email while on vacation, and not do any work unless an emergency occurs. This way, employees will return from vacation feeling refreshed and ready to get back to work!
Jun 21, 2016
I agree that every employee should take every day given. In my opinion, the best time for an employee to take vacation is when their personal life dictates it. For people with families that usually coincides with holidays and the summer. For others, it may be winter and family events. The key is to make sure you have enough staff to cover missing employees regardless of the season. Good luck.
Jun 21, 2016
Yes employees must have a break. But when? this is their personal choice. Duration would mean may be 15 days or so. When you recruited them, did you share this question with them or do you have a Policy in place? Florence MacDonald
Jun 19, 2016
I would recommmend summer time. I own and run a leading UK Digital Marketing company - odysseynewmedia.com . In our experience this time of year is best because clients are away and are also more understanding if we take holiday time off during this time too.
Jun 16, 2016
The real question that I think you are concerned about it "how does the work get done when employees are away". You don't really care when you staff takes their vacation, as long as the "must-do" work gets done. It is "their vacation" after all. So - my suggestion is to put together a strategy to cover the work. If you put a "buddy-system" in place, such that everyone has a "back-up person" (i.e. someone that can 'somewhat' take care of things while he/she is away). Make sure people are trained in some other person's must-do duties. And properly "project manage" your significant jobs. This means understand up-front when people are taking their vacation (several/6 months in advance), how well you are going to be staffed for each project during the project length (incorporating everyone's vacation schedule), etc. This way, if you know the skills you are going to need - during which months -- you can properly up-train the right people and/or make them know of the upcoming skill needs (several months before).
Proper project management is the real answer to vacation issues, because people take vacations depending upon their individual needs (kids in school, their anniversaries, their beach-time-share availability, special cruise rates etc).
Jun 14, 2016
As most of us knows we usually sechedule employees vacation at the time low sales or at the time when there is no movement in market ,.
Jun 14, 2016
Whenever the heaviest vacation time Usually around the July 4th through Labor Day 1-2 weeks...and around Christmas
Jun 14, 2016
There is no such thing as when an employee can take leave .At any time of the year employee can take leave.The ideal time should be around Christmas or Deepawali or any other local holidays.
Jun 13, 2016
Hi Carolyn,
Good for you for making employee well being a priority! This will go a long way towards business success — not only because your people will be well rested, but thanks to your positive attitude.
Since you don't yet have a designated slow season, I'd suggest simply staggering the vacations so everyone is not gone at the same time. How far in advance do you ask your team to request time off? With enough notice, many people can still vacation in summer without leaving your business in the lurch (e.g., when someone comes back from the first two weeks in July, the next one can take the latter two weeks, and so on.)
Not everyone will want to take the same length of time away, and again, it depends on your policies. How do employees accrue time off? Typically this is a function of time with the business, with someone "earning" up to two weeks after a year of service.
Hope this is helpful. With a caring perspective like yours, you're already a step ahead!