Supporting staff to take full annual leave

Supporting staff to take full annual leave

Only 35% of employees used their full annual leave entitlement in 2024. With the summer approaching,

what can you do to encourage them to take it?

Reasons for untaken leave. encourage them to take it? Reasons for untaken leave. There can be various reasons for employees not taking all their leave, including workplace culture, staff shortages, busy workloads, difficulties in getting leave requests approved and concerns it will reflect badly on their performance. However, not taking it can result in an increased risk of stress, burnout, poor mental health and sick leave.

Legal position. Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, statutory annual leave can only be carried over automatically in very limited circumstances, such as where an employee has been unable to take it in the relevant holiday year due to being off sick or on family-related leave. Although you can agree to an employee carrying over 1.6 weeks of statutory leave (and any additional contractual leave), you won't have to do this as you can legitimately operate a "use it or lose it" rule.

Tip. Clearly set out your rules in a holiday policy. Also be aware that employees do have a statutory right to carry over up to four weeks' leave if you either haven't given them a reasonable opportunity to take it or encouraged them to do so or haven't warned them that any untaken leave which can't be carried over will be lost.

Steps to take. To ensure staff take their full annual leave, you can (1) actively encourage them to do so, e.g. by sending an email about the benefits of taking leave at the start of the holiday year and then sending

a reminder a few months before the end of it; (2) put in place an easy- to-use holiday booking and approval system that also allows employees to keep track of how much leave they have taken and have left and

see when others in their team are off; (3) lead by example, by ensuring managers and other senior personnel take their own leave; and (4) put adequate cover arrangements in place during leave so that employees don't return to a huge work backlog.

Make your holiday booking system easy to use, lead by example, ensure holiday cover is in place and take active measures to promote the benefits of leave, such as through regular emails. Be clear on your carry-over rules.