Are you offering too many (or too few) holidays off work for your employees? Will your organization close on Columbus Day? How about Christmas Eve or the day after Thanksgiving?
To compare your holiday closing plans with those of other U.S. employers on various religious and secular holidays, review the findings of the 2014 Holiday Schedules survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
The 2014 survey says most employers (90% or more) will close on these holidays: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
Only 18% of employers in 2014 say they will close the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and 2% will close the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Are those holidays paid? More than three-fourths (78%) of organizations offer their full-time employees six to 10 paid holidays, and 51 percent give part-time staff up to five paid holidays.
What about floating holidays (other than personal days and paid holidays)? Thirty-eight percent of organizations reported offering “floating holidays” to employees. Of those that do offer these holidays, nine out of 10 (96%) organizations offer no more than five floating holidays a year.
In this survey, a floating holiday was defined as a holiday that provides an employee paid time off to observe a holiday not observed by the organization. For example, employees receive a paid day off (in addition to paid holidays or vacation days) to take when they wish, such as on their birthday or on another holiday that is not a scheduled holiday for the organization.
Here are the results of the SHRM survey, with the percentage of employers that say they plan to close on that day or plan to close early:
|
2014 HOLIDAY |
CLOSED |
CLOSE EARLY |
|
Wednesday, January 1 (New Year’s Day) |
94% |
* |
|
Monday, January 20 (Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday) |
36% |
0% |
|
Friday, January 31 (Chinese and Vietnamese New Year) |
2% |
2% |
|
Monday, February 17 (Presidents Day) |
35% |
* |
|
Wednesday, March 5 (Ash Wednesday) |
* |
* |
|
Tuesday, April 15 (beginning of Passover) |
0% |
0% |
|
Friday, April 18 (Good Friday) |
21% |
5% |
|
Monday, April 21 (Easter Monday) |
7% |
* |
|
Friday, May 23 (Friday before Memorial Day) |
2% |
10% |
|
Monday, May 26 (Memorial Day) |
92% |
1% |
|
Wednesday, June 4 (Shavuot) |
1% |
0% |
|
Sunday, June 29 (first day of Ramadan) |
1% |
0% |
|
Thursday, July 3 (day before Independence Day) |
5% |
12% |
|
Friday, July 4 (Independence Day) |
93% |
1% |
|
Saturday, July 5 (day after Independence Day) |
8% |
1% |
|
Friday, August 29 (Friday before Labor Day) |
1% |
11% |
|
Monday, September 1 (Labor Day) |
93% |
1% |
|
Thursday, September 25 (Rosh Hashanah) |
0% |
0% |
|
Friday, October 3 (evening of Yom Kippur) |
0% |
0% |
|
Saturday, October 4 (Yom Kippur) |
1% |
0% |
|
Sunday, October 5 (Eid al-Adha/Festival of Sacrifice) |
1% |
0% |
|
Thursday, October 9 (Sukkot) |
0% |
0% |
|
Monday, October 13 (Columbus Day) |
14% |
0% |
|
Thursday, October 23 (Diwali) |
* |
0% |
|
Tuesday, November 11 (Veterans Day) |
22% |
* |
|
Wednesday, November 26 (day before Thanksgiving) |
7% |
18% |
|
Thursday, November 27 (Thanksgiving Day) |
94% |
1% |
|
Friday, November 28 (day after Thanksgiving) |
66% |
2% |
|
Wednesday, December 17 (first day of Chanukah) |
0% |
0% |
|
Tuesday, December 23 (day before Christmas holidays) |
3% |
4% |
|
Wednesday, December 24 (Christmas Eve) |
35% |
32% |
|
Thursday, December 25 (Christmas Day) |
95% |
0% |
|
Friday, December 26 (day after Christmas) |
22% |
1% |
Holiday scheduling: 7 steps to help you keep the peace
You need a certain number of employees to work during the holidays, even on Christmas and New Year's. But, so far, your supervisors aren't getting many volunteers, and more vacation requests are coming in than you can approve.
What to do? Can you force employees to work certain days? Maybe, but that could trigger a religious-bias lawsuit. Federal law says you must make a reasonable effort to accommodate employees' "sincere" religious beliefs, including trying to give them time off for religious observances.
The best way to minimize scheduling disputes, especially around religious holidays, and avoid legal trouble is through a few smart preventative measures:
1. Make clear to applicants and new hires that they may need to work holidays or Sundays, or even overtime hours.
2. Start planning early. Some employers start planning for the holiday season in January, asking employees their preferences about holidays they'd be willing to work, noting who has seniority status and who worked on holidays the previous year.
3. Consider seniority and previous holiday service. Some employers rely strictly on seniority when deciding who gets first choice for time off; others keep track of who worked previous holidays. Both ways have the advantage of letting employees know what to expect, plus it leaves less room for favoritism accusa-tions.
4. Let money do the talking. You're not required to pay employees a higher rate just because they work on holidays. But holiday-pay bonuses can help fill the schedule and satisfy those irked by having to work a holiday.
5. Spread the burden. Call on as many employees as possible and break shifts down into smaller increments. By dividing work schedules equally, you'll be less likely to key in on certain employees for holiday work.
6. Don't make assumptions. Single people often get leaned on to work holidays. But what if your single employees are all minorities or members of the same religious group? You could give the appearance of discriminating by forcing them to work unfavorable hours.
7. Keep track of all requests for holiday time off. And keep a log of your organization's attempts to accommodate em-ployees' leave requests. If you think an employee's request will place an undue hardship on your organization, write down the alternatives you suggested to accommodate the employee. If the employee refuses your accommodation, document the refusal.
