Why employers can look forward to the holiday season

You may already be aware that we work longer hours than virtually all of our European cousins – they seem to get distracted with events and celebrations, regardless of whether they are religious or political.

The Spanish still insist on their Siesta's, while the French continue to enjoy their long lunches and the Scandinavians seem to hibernate throughout the entire winter months, meanwhile back home, we Brits just keep calm and carry on working.
Apparently over 2 million of us clock up more than 50 hours a week and on average the UK worker still puts-in over 1,800 hours each year. Which is remarkable considering how many people work part-time.

The reason I mention this is because taking a well-earned break, whether it's a couple of days tagged onto a weekend or a couple of weeks during the Summer, a holiday should be a real treat. Whether you're an employer or member of staff.
Yet for one of our clients, holidays had become a bit of a nightmare…

See if you can relate to their experience:

This company employs 25 staff and there are two directors, who run their business in a very hands-on style. Anyway, one of them booked a four day ski trip in March only to find out that his partner was also away on exactly the same days – he was off to the races at Cheltenham.
In the whole scheme of things, it wasn't too bad and they obviously survived but it was definitely something that could & should have been avoided. It gets worse…

A few weeks later three members of staff who actually work in the same department all wanted to book time off during the same two weeks in July, which was just impossible. Debates and arguments followed and they eventually sorted out a compromise but not without plenty of stress and trauma.

The whole thing had left the two directors wondering if it could ever be possible to resolve their annual problem. They'd tried charts, request forms, inter-departmnent agreements, they had given priority for staff with school age kids and one year they even had a ballot system but what always seemed to happen was while managing to satisfy one person it was almost certain that they would  upset another.

They heard about hronline and the services we provide and checked us out. They were especially interested in our 'employee holiday' system so we set-up a trial. Which turned out to be just what they wanted, they told us recently that it has been a great success and that holidays are no longer an issue at their place. They are happy & their staff are happy

Who would have thought that an online service could deal with a real life issue!