{"id":9953,"date":"2018-01-30T18:18:02","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T18:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wholegraindigital.com\/?post_type=the-granary&p=9953"},"modified":"2024-03-05T22:42:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T22:42:10","slug":"holiday-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/granary.wholegraindigital.com\/holiday-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
All work and no play does not make for a happy life. Therefore we think it\u2019s incredibly important to balance out the time and dedication that our employees put into Wholegrain, with taking time out and fully utilising your holiday entitlement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This policy applies to all employees of Wholegrain. It does not form part of your contract of employment and may be amended from time to time. It includes information regarding holiday entitlement, as well the process that you need to undertake in order to organise and request your holidays.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Any, and all, personal data used in conjunction with this policy shall be collected, held, and processed in accordance with our \u2018Data Protection Policy.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Our holiday year runs from 1<\/span>st<\/span>\u00a0April until 31<\/span>st<\/span>\u00a0March and all full-time employees (those working 40 hours a week) are entitled to a total of 36 days of holidays per holiday year.\u00a0 This is broken down into 8 bank holidays and 28 days of annual leave. Annual leave includes 1 day off on the occasion of your birthday and 5 days of annual leave that needs to be reserved for when we close over the festive period. This entitlement is pro-rated for part-time employees as well as those employees who join part way through the holiday year.<\/span><\/p>\n If you change your contracted working hours, we\u2019ll recalculate your leave entitlement accordingly. Part-time employees who increase their hours on a temporary basis for a period of one calendar month or more will accrue additional holiday time.<\/span><\/p>\n Please don\u2019t make a habit of not taking your leave. For a start, we don\u2019t pay for any holiday you haven\u2019t taken (unless it\u2019s at the end of your employment with us). But more importantly, we believe it\u2019s super important to take time away from work to avoid stress and burnout, and recharge your batteries. And a happy, healthy team is one of our main goals.<\/span><\/p>\n We do however, have a few rules we need you to note:<\/span><\/p>\n There are normally eight bank holidays each year. Some of the dates vary from year to year, but as a general guide these are:<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ll confirm the exact dates of the bank holidays at the beginning of each year.<\/span><\/p>\n We reserve the right to deduct your bank holiday payment if you\u2019re absent from work (other than on Wholegrain business or agreed in writing by us) the day immediately before or after the bank holiday.<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re required to work on a bank holiday, you\u2019ll receive your usual rate of pay and can take your bank holiday entitlement at another time. Any bank holidays in lieu must be taken within the holiday year in which they are accrued.<\/span><\/p>\n We close Wholegrain for 5 working days over the festive period for a well-earned rest after what is normally a busy end of year.\u00a0 At the beginning of each year we will advise you of the dates during this period that we intend to close. If you are full-time you will need to reserve 5 days of holiday leave each year to cover the closure. If you are part-time, we will calculate with you what you need to reserve from your holiday entitlement for the closure.\u00a0 During the closure we will need to operate an emergency on-call system, just in case any of our clients require our immediate support. Details of this rota will be discussed following communication of the dates of closure. Any working time used whilst on-call during this closed period may be taken as time off in lieu on your return to work after the festive period.<\/span><\/p>\n To celebrate your special day, all employees can take their birthday off as holiday. Please request this time off in the same way that you would other holiday leave. Should your birthday fall on a weekend, bank holiday or other day off then you will get the nearest working day off in lieu instead. <\/span><\/p>\n Certain times of the year, such as Easter and school holidays, are naturally more popular when it comes to taking holiday. If you want time off over these periods, please get your requests in early! We\u2019ll do our best to ensure leave is allocated fairly.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n If you leave Wholegrain part way through the holiday year, you may be asked to use any accrued but unused holiday during your notice period. Alternatively, we will pay you in lieu of accrued but unused holiday up to your last day of employment with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019ve taken more than your pro-rated holiday entitlement by the time you leave, this will either be deducted from your final pay or in the event that does not cover the cost, then we\u2019ll ask you to reimburse us for the remainder of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you take holiday without seeking prior authorisation, this will be considered as unauthorised absence and your pay will be deducted accordingly. Depending on the circumstances it may also be investigated under our disciplinary procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the event that you need to cancel your holiday, please let us know with as much warning as possible by speaking directly to your Line Manager. If cancelled less than a week prior to the date your holiday was due to commence, we cannot guarantee that you will be able to add the time back to your holiday allowance. A decision on this will be made by the Managing Director at the point of cancellation. We appreciate autonomy and individual ownership in our team. Therefore, it\u2019s good for everyone to participate in the decision-making of their own holidays. It is not just a simple request you submit when you want to arrange holiday. You will actually be the one who leads the approval process of your holiday request and arranges cover for your work and schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A step-by-step guide for arranging and requesting your holiday period<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you decide which day\/s you are planning to take as a holiday, please follow the steps below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please Note: Handover is the key to making sure that your holiday is managed smoothly and effectively. It is unpleasant to be contacted from work while you are on holiday. So to make sure you can enjoy your holiday and your cover(s) can handle your work well, a clear and organised handover is a must. It is essential to arrange a handover meeting with your cover(s) to go through your handover document together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please note: Everyone has the right to enjoy their holiday. We recommend everyone to take some time off. However, during busy periods, it requires more planning and organising. Short notice is always going to be challenging for both sides. Plan your holiday in advance, and this will make it much easier to arrange for suitable team members to cover for you and this will lead to a smooth handover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like most of this policy and guidance, in theory it works perfectly, yet in real life sometimes things do go wrong. Here is a list of possible reasons where it can go wrong when you approve your holidays:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When something goes wrong during your holiday time, unless it is important and urgent, we will not interrupt your holiday time. Normally we would like to address this on the first day of your return. It is not to blame or point fingers, but we will invite you and\/or your cover(s) to a meeting and find out which part went wrong and how we can solve\/fix it together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is vital that we all understand in order to make sure everyone can enjoy their holiday, as a team we need to collaborate and communicate. We need to appreciate our teammates who cover for us and aim to make sure that this period is as simplified as possible. It is also crucial to fully own your work and take responsibility to arrange the alternative for your tasks and projects to be taken care of. If you have done everything in the check box, you will be able to enjoy your holiday fully, as you will not be worrying about work while you are away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We do not in any way recommend working extra time, it takes a toll on our work-life balance. We believe the best way to increase productivity is through improved efficiency, not additional working time. But sometimes you may find yourself working a bit late to finish your tasks or something urgent comes up at the last minute and needs to be dealt with immediately. In this case, you will need to inform your Line Manager first to discuss the situation and to agree if the time worked will be subject to TOIL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please note, TOIL needs to be arranged and discussed beforehand. If you are working additional hours without it being discussed with your Line Manager, you may not get the time back as TOIL. If you need to work additional hours regularly, for example more than twice a month, we will invite you for a meeting to discuss your capacity and workload, and help you to avoid working additional time and maintain a well-functioning work-life balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For emergency time off, it is understandable that sometimes we have something urgent come up and we need to attend to it immediately. For situation(s) like this, we will have a quick chat to estimate the situation and to understand how much time you need and how that time will be taken (ie. holiday, TOIL, unpaid leave etc). This time will be logged in our HR system (Bamboo HR) by your Line Manager following your initial conversation and updated when you return to work if needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All work and no play does not make for a happy life. Therefore we think it\u2019s incredibly important to balance out the time and dedication that our employees put into Wholegrain, with taking time out and fully utilising your holiday entitlement.\u00a0\u00a0 This policy applies to all employees of Wholegrain. It does not form part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,3],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHoliday entitlement<\/h2>\n
Holiday Rules<\/h2>\n
\n
Bank Holidays<\/h2>\n
\n
Festive season closure<\/h2>\n
Birthday Leave<\/h2>\n
Popular Holiday Times<\/h2>\n
Leaving Wholegrain and Holiday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Unauthorised Holiday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Cancelling Holiday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In the event that you are sick either prior to, or whilst on holiday, then please contact your Line Manager on the first day of your sickness so that your holiday, or the remainder of your holiday, may be postponed or rearranged. Please refer to the \u2018Sickness and Return to Work\u2019 policy for further information relating to sickness and holiday leave, which includes important notification requirements that all employees are required to follow in order to enable holiday leave to be altered. <\/p>\n\n\n\nHow to arrange and request your holiday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Check your schedule on the day\/the days you wish to take as holiday.
<\/li>\n\n\n\n\n
\n
You can now request your holiday on our HR system (Bamboo HR), including details of your workload, any client deadlines that fall in your requested holiday dates and who could cover you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n
Following your holiday being requested in our HR system (Bamboo HR), your Line Manager will be automatically notified by the system of your request. Once approved, your Line Manager will tag you in the \u2018Leave Request Channel\u2019 on Slack, letting you know that it has been approved. If the holiday is not confirmed by your Line Manager, you will be invited to a call to explain why and explore any potential solutions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n
You\u2019re all set to create your handover the week before the first day of your holiday.
<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\nThe situations where holiday will not be approved<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Where can it go wrong?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
What would happen if it did go wrong?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What about TOIL and emergency time off?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n