Three Things to Consider for a New Annual Leave Year in 2021

Avoiding Annual Leave Disasters in 2021

The vast majority of organisations run their annual leave years from January to December.

While HR software takes care of pro rata calculations and works out balances, there are still a few things to bear in mind as the year closes out.

The same issues will also apply if you run a financial-year-based annual leave year that might deliver similar issues around spring or summer breaks.

1. Do your carry-over settings match your actual carry-over policy?

It’s important to be sure that your carry-over limits are defined in your HR system and match what your policies state.

Especially as staff look to see how many days they have left that they can use into the next leave year.

Some may have already made bookings for time off assuming they’re using a number of unused days into 2019.

But your current settings might not specify that maximum.

We’ve assisted a few customers with carry-over enabled – yet their actual carry-over limits were not set in line with what’s in their company handbooks and/or employee contracts.

That means team members have booked time off in the coming year out of their next year’s allowance, not their carryover.

You can contact HRLocker Support to check you have everything just as it should be.

2. Have you added in the public holidays for each relevant jurisdiction you operate within into the system for 2019?

This is important as your employees may have already made bookings for early 2019 and therefore used days they should not need to if the 2019 holidays are not set in the system for their office.

A quick check could save a few headaches and knock on doors in the run-up to or after the break.

3. Run a report on annual leave balances

This is especially important if you don’t allow carry-over or if you need to inform employees that they have too many days built up that they can’t use.

It’s also relevant if you recompense anyone for unused time off to let payroll know.