Why your business suffers when employees are too busy to take holidays

A recent study conducted by GoCompare.com found that nearly a fifth of workers would rather sell their holiday entitlement back to their employers than take a break. However, 68% of the respondents surveyed said that they valued time over money, and a study conducted by Oxford Economics last year concluded that well-rested employees boosted workplace productivity and morale significantly.

“Time away from work and proper rest are important, so working more and having fewer holidays is unlikely to be a long term recipe for success for most people,” said Ella Hastings from GoCompare.

Adam Sacks, president of the Tourism Economics division of Oxford Economics adds: “It is a misconception that employers are ahead of the game when workers don’t use the time they’ve earned. Leaving earned days on the table harms, not helps, employers by creating a less productive and less loyal employee.” Research conducted by Alertness Solutions backs him up: it found that a break from the office can result in an 80% increase in employee performance, with reaction times improving by 40%.

So it’s clearly in your interests for your employees to feel comfortable taking a well-deserved break, but, in a study carried out by TravelSupermarket.com, the pressure of work was cited as the main reason employees fail to take their annual leave entitlement. A further 9% reported feeling guilty that a colleague would have to take on extra work during their absence.

So what can you do to encourage your employees to take their full holiday entitlement?

Some employees feel stressed not because they are overworked, but because they have never developed good time management skills to help them cope. For example, employees may not know how to prioritise their tasks, how to minimise distractions, or how to delegate tasks to appropriate colleagues. If employers can help their teams to develop these essential skills, employees can manage their work more successfully and feel more confident about taking breaks and holidays – which in turn boosts long-term productivity.

Creating a clear plan for cover will allow employees time for a handover, and also provide fair warning for those who may need to pick up extra tasks for a week or two.

Ensuring that goals and deadlines are both reasonable and clearly communicated in good time will assuage fears of nasty surprises on the eve of a holiday – or upon return to the office.

Finally, maintaining a culture of wellness and communicating that employees are encouraged to recharge their batteries will encourage individuals to use their holiday entitlement.

Mental health at work: is your organisation doing enough to support employees?

In CIPD’s latest absence management survey they report a rise in mental health problems among employees. Two-fifths of the employers surveyed reported rises in both stress-related absences and mental health issues.

Given that stress and mental health problems are on the rise, what steps can businesses take to support their employees and minimise the impact on performance?

Tackle the root cause of stress, anxiety and depression

Employers may have developed the skills to react appropriately when employees suffer from mental health problems, but how many organisations are investigating – and treating – the root causes of mental health issues?

As Ben Willmott, CIPD’s Head of Public Policy suggests, “attention needs to shift to understanding and addressing contributory factors at work.”

Proactive employee wellbeing

Do you consider your employees’ wellbeing when making management decisions? Do operational demands ever take precedence over employee wellbeing? Shortcuts in employee wellbeing may offer short-term gains, but long working hours, lack of work-life balance and a culture focused purely on performance are likely to result in stress.

Ben Willmott recommends that “an effective absence management approach is one which is coupled with a focus on health promotion and employee well-being.”

Set absence targets

By recording employee absences you can more easily spot patterns and trends. Setting absence targets can also encourage managers to find ways to minimise absences and support employee wellbeing.

Ben Willmott suggests that “the organisations that have a target for reducing absence, or have absence levels as a key performance indicator, are considerably more proactive in their approaches. They are more likely to offer a range of well-being benefits and support rehabilitation back into work”.

Train managers to tackle mental health issues

Are your managers equipped to have difficult conversations with employees? Managers are often on the front line – the first point of contact for employees experiencing difficulties. And it’s crucial that managers are able to respond to employees sensitively and supportively – and understand what support they can offer in the moment.

Ben Willmott agrees: “Manager training is crucial, as they are often employees’ first point of call for reporting an issue, but only 30% of organisations currently provide it.”

eLearning from VinciWorks

Help your managers to handle complex employee situations, including stress in the workplace and sickness absence, with eLearning from VinciWorks. Our training packages are available as off-the-shelf solutions, or we can tailor our training to match your needs..

How to increase employee wellbeing with eLearning

The words ‘health and safety’ often conjure up images of things like safety shoes, black and yellow tape on steps, and hi-vis jackets – the kinds of equipment we use to prevent accidents and injuries, and keep people safe.

But what about the ‘health’ half of the phrase, which is equally important?

Businesses tend to have a good idea of what goes into creating environments that encourage safety, but looking out for employees’ mental health and welfare is a different challenge altogether.

Employee wellbeing

National Stress Awareness Day is Wednesday 4th November, and this year’s theme is “Employee wellbeing as a worthwhile investment in your business.”

Last year, stress accounted for 35% of work-related ill health cases, amounting to a total of 9.9 million lost days, so it’s clear that potentially huge productivity increases are possible by reducing workplace stress.

Stress is caused when individuals don’t feel able to cope with what is demanded of them, and many factors can contribute towards stress at work including worries about redundancy and relationship conflicts between colleagues.

As well as being a cause of numerous illnesses leading to absence, stress causes people to be more prone to errors, fatigued, unhappy and overall unproductive.

Helping employees manage their own stress

Being able to recognise that they are stressed is the first step an employee can take towards managing stress and reducing its negative effects, leading to better business results.

Helping managers to create harmonious workplaces

As well as training individual employees to identify and manage their own stress, businesses should ensure their management staff are supporting a stress-free environment and have a thorough understanding of how to manage stress issues in teams.

To support this need, we also provide a course on Managing Stress in Your Team, which shows managers how to manage effectively without causing stress and identify possible sources of stress within teams long before they cause a serious issue.