An online travel agency recently published an article on how employees can take 45 days off work next summer, using only 22 days’ annual leave. In the coming weeks, you may experience a scramble for staff to book up their holiday for next year, which could cause problems for employers and result in staff shortages for prolonged periods of time.

We’ve put together a useful guide of the dates to watch out for in 2023 and how to manage your staff’s holiday effectively.

Easter Weekend – 16-day absence using 8 days leave 

Next year, the Easter bank holiday falls on Friday 7th April and Monday 10th April, so if employees take 8 days of annual leave (from Monday 3rd – Thursday 6th April and Tuesday 11th – Friday 14th April), it will mount up to 16 days of holiday, including the weekends.

Early May Bank Holiday – 9-day absence using 4 days leave 

By booking Tuesday 2nd May – Friday 5th May as holiday, employees can take advantage of the spring bank holiday on Monday 1st May and have 9 days off by taking just 4 days leave.

Late May Bank Holiday – 10-day absence using 5 days leave 

The late spring bank holiday is on Monday 29th May, so if employees take the previous week off (Monday 22nd May – Friday 26th May), they’ll have 10 days of consecutive holiday only using 5 days of annual leave.

August Bank Holiday – 10-day absence using 5 days leave

Same as the May bank holiday, if staff take the previous week off (Monday 21st August – Friday 25th August), they can enjoy 10 consecutive days for just 5 days of annual leave, including the August bank holiday which falls on Monday 28th August.

Make managing holidays easy

LeavePlanner lets you maintain the correct staffing levels by managing staff absences and holidays.

With LeavePlanner, you can apply leave blackout periods, or set a maximum absent staff level for a department or group, to manage how many days people can take off around these times of year.

LeavePlanner is easy to use and can also manage shift timetables to help arrange cover staff.

For a free, no-obligation 30-day trial, call us on 01252 636 070 or email support@leaveplanner.com.