More than half of UK employees have holiday allowance remaining this year and are not allowed to carry it over to next year.
This was discovered by BrightHR, an HR software provider who found that 59 per cent of employees still have a holiday to be taken for 2019 but will not be able to take this holiday over to 2020.
In addition, 77 per cent of workers still have holiday allowance remaining for this year. Alan Price, CEO of BrightHR believes that taking your full holiday allowance is a good way to avoid burnout, which has now been officially recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a classified disease.
In August 2019, a rehab centre, Delamere, located in Cheshire announced it will be helping employees who are suffering from burnout as well as helping individuals deal with alcoholism and substance abuse. The WHO has defined burnout as a “syndrome” caused by “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
Mr Price said:
As businesses head toward the end of their leave year, employers should encourage their staff to take their full leave entitlement. Taking annual leave can prevent employee burnout and avoid disputes further down the road, such as an employment tribunal.
Employers should regularly remind staff about their remaining leave, and that untaken leave will be lost, subject to carryover rules. Employers should reassure reluctant employees that they will cover their workloads. And if this is a recurring concern amongst staff, employers should look at how they distribute work.
Employers who believe they are gaining if employees don’t take their full entitlement are mistaken, and they will eventually pay the price for not encouraging staff to take their full annual leave entitlement.
BrightHR put these results together by using its own data from 250,000 users.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
