Hiring: When Statutory Holiday Pay is Not Enough

Recruiter talking to the HR Dept, taking a new job vacancy

"Let's talk about the benefits the new Finance Director can expect. What's the holiday?"

"20 days plus eight bank holidays."

"The statutory minimum?"

"Yes, that's what everyone gets when they start. It goes up another day after two years of service."

In many businesses, this is simply considered 'fair' and therefore well-intentioned. But an experienced recruiter must challenge this.

On the face of it, earning additional days through service or perceived loyalty seems fair.

But if you're expecting a highly experienced person to leave their job to join your firm, few will forfeit the holiday entitlement they've accrued at their current firm for the bare minimum with you.

And when hiring managers often prefer applications from people who have shown a good length of service at past employers, rather than someone who moves about a lot, offering holiday benefits beneath the ones they've earned through loyalty elsewhere is baffling.

Think of it like this. Fairness and justification for enhanced holiday entitlement can, and should, be considered way beyond the employee's length of service.

Need help justifying a better benefits package to senior management? These are things to consider before going to market to replace your leaver.

Being Competitive

You'll fail to attract and retain good people if you don't recognise that annual leave elsewhere will frequently exceed the statutory minimum.

Businesses selling a healthy company culture know that taking time out is essential to employee well-being and therefore company success.

Indeed, if you're a business listing 28 days annual leave including bank holidays as a 'benefit' you're stretching the truth. It's merely a legal requirement.

Rewarding responsibility

An employee with a great deal of responsibility, including staff management, can expect to be in a position of increased stress or anxiety. They're likely juggling many things at once whilst driving the business forward.

Consider that the purpose of holiday days is to ensure that your employees are rested and capable of doing their best work.

Acknowledging irregular or extended hours

Those who can expect to work irregular or extended hours to ensure time-sensitive work is completed or cover for colleagues due to absences are often taken for granted, with additional hours unpaid or acknowledged.

All that whilst potentially facing burnout.

Increased paid breaks will give them the rest away from the business that's necessary to function at their best and demonstrate appreciation for their flexibility and contribution to the success of the business.

Managing stress

Bad stress is long-term, very harmful and should be eliminated, not brushed under the carpet or rewarded with holiday pay.

But 'good stress' is shorter term, is part and parcel of modern living, a fulfilling, responsible position and is likely to affect the most committed and conscientious of employees. Unchecked these same people/positions can tip into bad stress.

So, where roles carry a lot of weight, like senior posts with countless deadlines and demands and people management, you should consider having holiday entitlement reflecting the ample time needed to be away from the job, resting, enjoying personal time and coming back refreshed and focussed.

Recognising extended periods of travel or time away from home

Driving great distances each day to visit other company sites or having to stay away from home means unpaid time on work duties, eating into personal downtime and less time to switch off from commercial responsibilities.

How many of your employees who work away are on their laptops all evening? And are travelling in their own time?

This should be another factor to consider when deciding on a fair holiday entitlement for a position or individual.

Rested employees are happier, more focused and more productive. That's got to be good for business.

Pssst .... Want to know what other benefits attract and retain senior people?

Everyone's needs and wants are different but consider:

A bonus scheme - something they can influence

A generous company pension scheme (we've recently seen anything from 6% to 15% for a director-level role)

Private medical cover (with the ability to add family members at an additional cost to the employee)

Life cover, 4 x salary

Income protection

Flexible working week

If you enjoyed this blog, you might like: How to Attract More Over 50 Job Applicants.

Clare Wight is the founder and Managing Director of Clarity Appointments, an independent recruitment specialist. She was a Regional Director for The Employment Agents Movement, supporting other independent recruiters.

She remains an active member of Recconnect (formerly Members Only), a recruitment leadership network promoting high ethical standards, collaboration, diversity, equity and inclusion.

She believes business owners are more fulfilled and higher-performing when they provide emotional and professional business support to other business owners, even those they deem to be competitors. She does this actively, whilst challenging and updating her skills and knowledge of the recruitment sector, enabling her to offer the best advice to firms looking to make their next hire.