In the months leading up to and during school holidays, many practices can be inundated with holiday requests for the same period. With an obligation for practice managers to ensure enough staff are present to provide adequate cover for patient care and daily administrative work, balancing leave requests can be tricky.

The right to refuse

As an employer the first thing you need to remember is that you have the right to refuse holiday requests. The legal situation is that, if you follow the correct processes in accordance with your employees’ contracts, then you can refuse all or part of an employee’s holiday request.

As an employer you also have the right to inform all employees of certain times of the year when holidays are not permitted or only a limited number of people can be away. This may be where seasonal demand is a factor and a high volume of employees cannot be away during such a busy period or if there’s planned training or a move of premises, for example. The key to this issue is consistency. You must ensure that when you allow holidays to certain employees but refuse others that the correct procedure is followed and both employees understand why that decision has been made.

It’s worth remembering that saying no to a holiday request is a standard duty of all practice managers because the last thing you want to do is jeopardise the wellbeing of patients, staff and yourself.

Booking time off

Government guidance states that the general notice period for taking leave is at least twice as long as the amount of leave a worker wants to take (e.g. 2 days’ notice for 1 day’s leave), unless the contract says something different.

An employer can refuse a leave request but they must give as much notice as the amount of leave requested, (e.g. 2 weeks’ notice if the leave requested was 2 weeks).

Balancing act

In situations when you can grant holidays without leaving yourself short staffed and the employee has enough holidays remaining then you should grant those holidays when possible. Remember that holidays can be of benefit to the employee’s welfare as they may need time to relax after a stressful year. Although you have the right as an employer to refuse the majority of holidays, you should keep an open mind as the last thing you need is your employees suffering from burnout.

It’s also important to be balanced and fair to all staff – the last thing you want is make a member of the team feel resentful towards their colleagues.

Communication, communication, communication

So how can practices ensure that holiday requests – and the need to say no when necessary – is fair to all and managed properly?

David Dixon, a specialist employment lawyer, says it’s all about communication and tact.

“There’s actually no obligation for managers to give a reason for a holiday request refusal. However, treat employees with tact and compassion, and saying no will always go down better.”

Here are David’s top tips for saying no:

• Get contracts right. The first thing to do is ensure contracts are accurate and up-to-date and clearly outline policies. For example, employees should be told via their contract that they should not arrange holidays until a request is approved, this way they cannot respond to refusals with the excuse that the holiday is already booked.

• Don’t rush into a decision. Consider requests carefully and think about the impact on the practice of saying yes. What’s the business case for saying yes or no?

• Give detailed reasons. Share your thoughts and reasons for saying no and the business case for saying no. If it’s service delivery or lack of patient care, then it’s a pretty strong reason that staff should be able to appreciate. Make it clear that there’s no favouritism and no punishment involved.

• Be open to discussions: A good manager will communicate well, so make sure your door is open to discussions with employees. If you say no, chat about alternative dates, reiterate your reasons for saying no and offer advice. For example, outline workplace policies and discuss how placing requests for popular holiday times earlier in the year can help. Some workplaces offer bonus days to employees who book outside of school holidays, which may or may not work for you.

• Be transparent. Prevention is better than cure, so why not add holiday dates to a wall planner so people know exactly what’s going on and who’s already away and when? Dedicated planners are available, or you could post an Excel spreadsheet on your intranet.

• Keep an eye on things. This may be the less savoury side of being a manager, but keep a record of any holiday requests you’ve declined. Monitor the employee absence around those dates to see if they take the time off sick. This, sadly, is a fairly common occurrence and would no doubt lead to real issues in a practice as there must have been a reason for declining leave in the first place!

The most important thing for practice manager’s to remember is that as long as you treat requests equally and fairly then you can refuse any holiday request that is not in the practice’s best interests. Communicate well and set out policies early and all should be fine.

How do you manage holiday requests? Let us know by commenting below or discuss in the Practice Index Forum here.

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