How can I manage the holidays?

The school summer holidays have begun, a potential “nightmare” six and a bit week period for parents and their employers.

For pre-school children, effectively, there is no difference, but for parents and guardians of school age children, well, the “juggle” commences.

Some of the issues that are encountered when using childcare in school holidays are holiday clubs may not start before your work start time, and perhaps they finish prior to the end of your shift. Families may not be able to afford to put children into childcare, people who often provide care for the children are away themselves e.g. child minders, or grandparents.

Some parents never get to be on holiday at the same time as their partner because they are trying to cover the childcare between them. These are just a few but of course, school holiday cover isn’t just confined to the summer holiday.

Irrelevant of when the school holiday is, how can employers be proactive and help parents? The best place to start is to acknowledge that more people than average are likely to be wanting to take a large proportion of their holiday entitlement during this time.

Assess the impact this would have on the business and what are the minimum standards/levels of attendance that are needed.

Ensure that there is a fair process for people who are likely to want to take time off in the same period, irrelevant if it is for childcare purposes or not, if it isn’t going to be possible to grant everyone’s request.

If you are a smaller employer, would a company “shut down” be an option to consider? Also think wider than just employees who are parents, but also what about grandparents wanting to help?

Consider if there are some short-term flexible working solutions that could be trialled? Varying an employee’s start and finish time, or amending the days that they work could help. Ensuring there is the opportunity for employees to raise concerns early enough for a meaningful dialogue to take place. Employees need to remember their contractual commitments and therefore not expect any solution or option they put forward will automatically be agreed to.

Conversely, employers need to remember, the value of their employee to their business and the investment that has already been made and engage in seeking an amicable solution that can work for both parties.

If it is too late for this summer, there is always October half term to prepare for…