Is it worth considering a flexible bank holidays scheme?

Benefits of flexible bank holidays

Four of the eight bank holidays in England and Wales usually fall in a two-month period - two for Easter and two in May. In addition, several of the bank holidays are Christian holidays, whereas there are none to celebrate, say, Eid or Diwali.

A flexible bank holidays policy enables employees to request to exchange a set bank holiday for an alternative day off on a date agreed with their line manager. It can be inclusive for multi-faith workforces as it means employees are not always being forced to take off the Christian holidays, but they can instead take a day off that’s important to their own religion. Plus, it enables employees to spread these single days off more evenly throughout the year rather than half of them being loaded into a two-month period, and as it’s a flexible working practice it can help with recruitment and retention.

Key considerations

Flexible bank holidays schemes won’t work for every employer. If your employees are contractually required to work on bank holidays and they don’t get those days off as annual leave, then this type of scheme isn’t for you. In addition, do first answer the following questions as your replies will dictate whether you should consider this type of scheme:

1. Does your workplace open on bank holidays so that employees can work if they want to? If not, can they meaningfully work from home?
2. Would the scheme work for all roles in your business? If not, do you really want to introduce a scheme that only applies to some roles? Doing so might cause dissatisfaction and resentment.
3. Can you monitor what work employees are doing on worked bank holidays in the absence of their line managers? If you can’t monitor, is there a risk the scheme could be abused by employees still effectively taking the day off on what is supposed to be a worked bank holiday?

Tip. A flexible bank holidays scheme is more suited to professional roles where employees manage their own workloads, they can work remotely and there is still work for them to do even if they can’t contact clients.

Implementation

If you do decide to go ahead with a flexible bank holidays scheme, it’s advisable to put a policy in place (click here ). You’ll need to decide: (1) how many bank holidays per year your policy will apply to - it’s better to limit this to three or four and you might want to name the specific bank holidays that are capable of being exchanged; (2)  the application and approval process for requests; and (3) how you’re going to maintain records of worked bank holidays and alternative days off.

Tip. Ensure the granting of a flexible bank holiday, and your scheme itself, are both discretionary and not a contractual right. Reserve the right to vary or withdraw your scheme at any time.

Tip. If an employee breaches your policy by not working on an exchanged bank holiday, you’d be within your rights to take disciplinary action just as if they failed to work on any other working day.