How to create an effective annual leave policy

Annual leave huh, what a scam! You book a week’s leave to take a well-earned break and what happens? You work twice as hard in the two weeks leading up to it, worry constantly about what’s happening while you’re away, end up dipping into your inbox a couple of times a day while you’re off, and still come back to a zillion emails, have no idea what happened while you were away, and are instantly more frazzled than you were before your break.  

If that sounds familiar, read the rest of this and then share it with your colleagues – because taking annual leave really doesn’t have to be like that! 

Here at DSC we have really well structured annual leave and acting in absence policies that make taking time off the refreshing, relaxing and work-free break it should be.  

As with all organisational policies, there’s a huge benefit just to having things laid out in a way that’s clear, fair, and universally applied across the board. As with all of our policies and procedures at DSC we want them to reflect our values (Empathy and Excellence), and where possible add to the positive experience our staff have of working here. 

There are two main things that make our approach work really well: 

Forward planning 

For regular annual leave we (in monthly 121s and staff briefings) encourage our staff to plan as far ahead as possible, and always in conversation and collaboration with their teams and line managers. We usually start those conversations right at the beginning of our leave year, which helps to avoid everyone being off at the same time, but also helps with making sure people are taking regular breaks from work and not saving up weeks and weeks of leave while running themselves into the ground. We make that easy for everyone to do by having all of our core meetings, staff day, conferences and other events in everybody’s diaries at the start of the calendar year. For me that means I rarely have to miss a board meeting or rearrange leave to be at one – they’re all in my diary before I’ve even thought about my holidays! 

Acting in absence 

Planning is really helpful, but what about while you’re away? Well nobody in DSC goes on leave without having someone acting in absence for them. That person will have a handover meeting so that they know what critical things need to be done, what meetings to attend, and anything to keep an eye on – and hand back to the person they’ve been acting for when they return.  The person acting in absence can’t do everything (they still have their own responsibilities), but it means all of the important things are covered, any emergencies are dealt with, and the person returning from leave gets a really comprehensive update when they’re back rather than having to piece together the week they missed from their inbox.  

Because line managers always get a direct report to AIA for them it also serves as a great development opportunity. Staff acting in absence will attend leadership team and department meetings, get a better understanding of their line manager’s role, and because we’ve been doing this for years, it gives us a much more informed and engaged staff team. It also gives us a lot of organisational resilience in exceptional circumstances. If a member of staff is off for an extended period of time, there is always someone (or people) that have acted in absence for them and have an understanding of the most important elements of the role and what to do when they’re not around.  

Getting annual leave wrong can have a negative impact on morale, wellbeing, productivity, and overall organisational performance – but getting it right can contribute massively to a happy, healthy and engaged staff team. And to prove it, I’m going on leave for a week after today and instead of stressing about what needs to happen while I’m off, I’m writing this! 

If you’re thinking about reviewing or implementing a new annual leave policy (or any others for that matter), click here to check out the latest edition of DSC’s Policies and Procedures Templates – it’s got loads of really simple, supportive and enabling policies to make running your charity easier!