In 2020, the government took the unusual stop of allowing employers to change their policy on annual leave so that employees could roll over annual leave they had been unable to take due to the pandemic.
- Some of our clients took advantage of this relaxation because their staff were needed at work as a result of covid.
- Others took advantage of it as staff were furloughed and there was no money coming in and they couldn’t afford to pay staff at 100% to be off.
- Another set of clients allowed it recognising that staff were unable to actually go anywhere so for them holiday may have been worthless.
The summary of all of this is that some staff have had little or no time off in the last year and this is NOT healthy!
One really lovely practice which I saw during 2020 is a company who mandated ‘wellbeing days’. A day on which the entire company was off. It wasn’t deducted from annual leave, it was on 100% pay and it applied to everyone in the business top down to ensure that management and leaders lead by example.
How people spent the day was entirely up to them – a walk in the countryside, time with their kids without feeling guilty about work, meditating, cooking, reading, exercising – it is different for everyone, but it is a day they can have to themselves…… on the house!
Could you give your staff a wellbeing day?
If you need to keep the business running, how about giving people a day off to be taken any time in the next 4 weeks? A different member of the team off each Friday?
There are lots of way to make this work for your business, if you want to!
Show your staff you are thinking about them and gift them a wellbeing day.
And don’t forget to take one for yourself as well!
Yours in self care and wellbeing
Donna
I’m sharing some great resources with you to enable you to fully engage with your staff.
Understand the current trends and more importantly, what your staff want from you in the next 12 months – it may not be what you think!!!
Click the buttons below to access the resources – for free!
