Prepare your business for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday on 2nd and 3rd June 2022

As Her Majesty The Queen prepares to become the first British monarch to celebrate their Platinum Jubilee in 2022, festivities are being planned across the UK – including a special Jubilee Bank Holiday.

While most people look forward to this extra time off, for company leaders it adds an extra logistical challenge to planning your staffing levels and work holiday calendar.

To help your business prepare for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday, WhosOff has put together some helpful holiday management guidance:

When is the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday?

To mark an unprecedented 60 years on the throne, the government has announced that UK workers are entitled to an extra Bank Holiday in 2022.

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday will take place on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd June 2022, creating an additional four-day public holiday similar to Easter weekend.

Will we still have a Spring Bank Holiday in May?

To create the long Platinum Jubilee weekend, government officials have moved the UK’s Spring Bank Holiday from its traditional end of May slot to 2nd June to kick-start the long weekend.

Friday 3rd June is an extraordinary public holiday to honour the Queen’s long service milestone.

Do employers have to give staff time off for the Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday?

Legally, public holidays don’t have to be granted as additional leave. Employers have the choice whether to include Bank Holidays in staff leave allowances or to offer them as extra days off above people’s paid leave.

There are many factors that affect companies’ choice of holiday set-up. For example, if you run a company that operates 24/7, it’s logistically impossible to let everyone down tools for every Bank Holiday.

In contrast, if your industry is very intense and staff are prone to burnout, shutting down operations for public holidays gives them more time to rest, recharge and refresh themselves. And more time off is an attractive perk when you’re trying to recruit new talent.

Whatever approach your business choses, it’s important to formalise this arrangement in a consistent company annual leave policy. This way, every team member knows exactly where they stand – and they can discount public holidays from their total annual leave entitlement (if necessary) when calculating how much time they can take off.

How can companies prepare for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday?

2022’s extra Bank Holiday has the potential to throw a spanner in the works for HR staff and administrators – but there are several steps you can take to make sure this doesn’t happen.

First, put a clear policy in place confirming whether public holidays are included in staff holiday allowances. WhosOff’s free annual leave policy template can help you formalise this information if you don’t have up-to-date documentation.

Second, communicate the change in dates with your entire workforce. People may not be aware that there is an extra Bank Holiday for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, or that the Spring Bank Holiday won’t be taking place in May as a result. Share a full list of 2022 Bank Holiday dates with them, along with details of how it affects their leave entitlement.

2022 UK Bank Holiday dates

Third, explain what your protocol will be during the Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend. Are you planning a four-day office shutdown? Or will the celebrations mean you’re actually busier than usual – for example, if you run a hospitality venue – so staff won’t be able to take time off over the jubilee weekend?

Setting expectations early avoids disappointment, and allows you to put a package in place to make working the extra Bank Holiday more appealing if necessary – for example, double/triple pay or the chance to earn time off in lieu.

Finally, if you’re faced with a scenario where your business will remain open but some staff will be permitted to take time off, set clear deadlines for submitting annual leave requests. Last minute holiday submissions often result in mistakes happening; for example, two key team members being granted the same time off.

What’s the best way to manage Bank Holiday time off requests?

Coordinating the work holiday calendar can be a complex task in a normal year. Throw in the challenge of an extra Bank Holiday and your 2022 leave planner has to work even harder.

One of the reasons that companies find extra public holidays frustrating to manage is the way in which they track staff time off. If you’re using a word document or spreadsheet, one small change to holiday entitlements can take hours to implement.

In contrast, businesses using an online holiday tracking tool like WhosOff aren’t fazed by Bank Holiday changes, because a digital system is much more flexible. It takes a matter of minutes to move the Spring Bank Holiday and add an extra day for the Platinum Jubilee.

More importantly, an online leave management system promotes clear, compliant holiday approvals. Unlike spreadsheets, where multiple versions can be saved to your server, one true version of the holiday calendar is available to staff at all times – so they can see exactly where UK Bank Holidays fall in 2022.

WhosOff also enables your business to implement rules for requesting and approving annual leave that align with your company holiday policy. So you can book a company day off over the jubilee weekend if you’re planning to shut down operations, or tighten permissions around who can take time off if you’re going to be busier than usual.

Try WhosOff leave management software for free

Whatever your approach to managing Bank Holidays, the key to success is managing staff expectations. The sooner people understand what’s going to happen, the smoother logistics will run, and the less likely they are to feel disappointed.

And by putting an online holiday planner like WhosOff in place now, you’ll have the flexible infrastructure to manage the Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday with the same ease as established public events.

Start your free WhosOff trial now to manage staff leave online in 2022 – including Bank Holidays.

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Photo by Mark de Jong of Unsplash.com

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Posted by Bradley Revell
on Thursday, 27th January 2022