If you find your staff all want the same time off over the summer, it can be tricky to know who to prioritise. Parents could be facing high childcare costs, but equally everyone deserves time off.

We’ve put together some top tips, to help you share staff leave fairly:

Don’t show any favouritism

The best way to allocate holiday fairly is to show no favouritism at all. Giving parents priority could upset other members of staff, who believe they are being treated unfairly.

You also shouldn’t prioritise who gets time off based on their plans and who you think most deserves to have time off.

Instead, put a system in place that works for your business to make sure annual leave gets shared out equally.

Adopt a first-come first-served system

For many businesses, a first-come first-served system works well. It means you can allocate holiday fairly and gives staff an equal chance to book their preferred time off.

Alternate staff

Some companies find it works well to alternate the most popular days off between members of staff, so it is not always the same people left to work the same days every year. Creating a rota is a good way to keep track of this.

Allocate popular days

Alternatively, some businesses prefer to pull names out of a hat to allocate time off, so everyone has an equal chance of being picked.

Remove the stress with LeavePlanner 

LeavePlanner will let you approve holiday requests quickly, without prioritising parents or non-parents. You can apply blackout periods and set a minimum attendance, to make sure leave is divided fairly, which is particularly useful for popular periods like the summer holidays.

By going digital, you don’t run the risk of losing any paper holiday form requests, or getting them in a muddle and not knowing who requested time off first.

LeavePlanner will also flag any holiday clashes before you accept a holiday request, so you are not left short staffed.

To arrange your free trial, call Steve on 01252 636 070 or email support@leaveplanner.com.

Pssst! Check out our new all-in-one system, HR Planner, which incorporates an easy-to-use leave management solution, designed specifically with SMEs in mind.