HR tips for a stress free Christmas closure

HR tips for a stress free Christmas closure

Christmas gifts in a Christmas tree
Contents

Mondayisation

When a public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, employees who don’t normally work that day then get the following Monday as their paid public holiday — this is called Mondayisation.

National public holidays – 2023/2024

The public holidays for the upcoming Christmas break and for 2024, are as follows:

Christmas Day – Monday 25 December 2023
Boxing Day – Tuesday 26 December 2023
New Year’s Day – Monday 1 January 2024
Day after New Year’s Day – Tuesday 2 January 2024
Waitangi Day – Tuesday 6 February 2024
Good Friday – Friday 29 March 2024
Easter Monday – Monday 1 April 2024
Anzac Day – Thursday 25 April 2024
King’s Birthday – Monday 3 June 2024
Matariki – Friday 28 June 2024
Labour Day – Monday 28 October 2024
Christmas Day – Wednesday 25 December 2024
Boxing Day – Thursday 26 December 2024

Public Holidays and days in lieu

When a public holiday falls on a day your employee would usually work, no matter how long they’ve been working for you they’re entitled to a paid day off. You can only require an employee to work on a public holiday if it’s written into their employment agreement. 

If they agree to work, you must: pay them at least time and a half and give them another paid day off later (a day in lieu).

Transferring public holidays

Any employee can ask to transfer a public holiday to another day and the public holiday then becomes a working day for the employee. To transfer a public holiday to another day, both the employee and employer need to agree. You must consider the request seriously unless you have a policy that prevents transferring public holidays. Ensure you put any agreement to transfer a public holiday in writing.

You can decline requests to transfer public holidays — it’s good to give a reason, although you’re not legally required to.

Annual leave

During the Christmas closedown period the employer can direct employees to take annual leave. This is easy where the employee has enough annual leave to cover the break, so say has worked for over 6 or 12 months. Employees with less than one year of service can be paid 8% of their earnings up to the closedown.

If an employee doesn’t have enough leave, time off during the closedown will be unpaid. Employers can agree (at their discretion) to top-up the payment, which in turn creates a negative leave balance. There are pros and cons to this as it ensures the employee is not out of pocket through this period (which we know can be expensive) but the downside is that if the employee was to leave soon after this period, they may not have a positive leave balance to have paid the money in advance back.

As with any annual leave payment employees can request to have the leave paid out in full, in advance of the closedown. But it is much more common for leave to be paid in the normal pay-cycle.

Communicating expectations – payroll and company property

This time of the year is quite stressful and financially demanding for many people and their families. To help alleviate this stress for your teams here are some simple tips.

  1. Let you team know if you are processing payroll in advance prior to close down and the amount they will be paid, ensure this is communicated (give them all payslips if you don’t normally) well before closedown to ensure no last-minute scrambles to sort any payroll queries / issues on the last day of the year.
  2. If you do decide to keep paying your team as normal, please tell them this, let them know of any extra pay through this period (if any) such as end of year bonuses, discretionary bonuses as these things go a long way and you may forget to mention this in the lead up to the silly season! Plus, I am sure they’d love to thank you in person!
  3. If your team have motor vehicles, fuel cards, mobile and laptops etc which belong to the company, now is the perfect time to send out a memo or discuss individually the expectations around whatever use of these items have been agreed to. If company vehicles are fitted with GPS, remind them of this and fair and reasonable personal use (obviously depending on your company policies). It is much better to have this conversation beforehand than leaving it to fester and then snowball into an HR issue in the new year.
  4. Make a list of what you think could potentially go wrong with any misunderstandings if you are either open or closed during this period. Things such as contact numbers and who is on call, who is out of range, it is better to have a plan now that having the team trying to scramble in an emergency and have no one available.

New Year expectations

It’s important to have a start-up plan that ensures everyone is aware of their priorities and key focus on their return to work. You can also consider extending the first morning break in the new year by 15 minutes to give staff time to catch up and hear each other’s holiday experiences. This will reduce the disruption in the workplace through the rest of the day and coming week.

Contact us for help planning a stress-free Christmas closure with your employees and to tidy up any HR documentation.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

Navigating the complex world of HR: common pain points employers face

Navigating the complex world of HR: common pain points employers face

Illustration of an HR manager addressing team dynamics. Overcoming HR challenges.

Navigating the complex world of HR: common pain points employers face

Introduction

In the realm of human resources, employers often find themselves navigating a complex landscape filled with challenges and pain points. Whether you’re a small startup or a large corporation, these HR hurdles can impact your organisation’s success. In this blog, we’ll explore some common HR pain points that employers face and offer insights on how to address them effectively.

1. Talent acquisition challenges

One of the fundamental HR challenges is finding and hiring the right talent. The job market is competitive, and identifying candidates with the skills and cultural fit for your organisation can be a daunting task. To address this, consider refining your recruitment strategies, leveraging employee referrals, and using technology to streamline the hiring process.

2. Employee retention

High turnover rates can drain resources and disrupt productivity. Retaining top talent is essential for long-term success. Develop robust retention strategies, such as providing opportunities for growth, recognising achievements, and fostering a positive workplace culture.

3. Compliance and regulations

Navigating labour laws and regulations is a perpetual challenge for HR professionals. Staying updated on legal requirements, investing in compliance training, and seeking legal counsel when necessary can help your organisation remain in good standing.

4. Performance management

Managing and improving employee performance is an ongoing process. Implement regular feedback mechanisms, establish clear goals, and offer professional development opportunities to enhance employee performance.

5. Employee morale and engagement

A disengaged workforce can lead to decreased productivity and increased turnover. Focus on boosting morale through team-building activities, open communication, and initiatives that promote a sense of purpose within your organisation.

6. Workplace conflict

Conflicts among employees can disrupt the workplace and damage team dynamics. Implement conflict resolution strategies, encourage open dialogue, and provide mediation resources to address issues promptly.

7. Benefits and compensation

Designing competitive compensation packages and benefits plans is crucial for attracting and retaining top talent. Regularly review and adjust your offerings to remain competitive in the job market.

8. Training and development

Providing employees with opportunities for growth and development is essential for both individual and organisational success. Invest in training programmes, mentorship, and continuous learning initiatives.

9. Diversity and inclusion

Creating an inclusive and diverse workplace is not just a trend but a necessity. Develop diversity and inclusion policies, provide diversity training, and actively promote an inclusive culture.

10. HR technology

Embracing HR technology can streamline processes, but its implementation can be challenging. Invest in user-friendly systems, provide adequate training, and ensure ongoing support for your HR tech solutions.

11. Workplace safety

A safe working environment is a legal and ethical imperative. Regularly assess and improve safety measures, educate employees on safety protocols, and comply with relevant regulations.

12. Succession planning

Identifying and preparing future leaders within your organisation is vital for continuity. Develop a succession plan that identifies and nurtures potential leaders.

Conclusion

While HR pain points are diverse and multifaceted, addressing them strategically can lead to a more efficient and productive workplace. By continuously assessing and adapting your HR practices, you can build a strong, engaged workforce that contributes to your organisation’s long-term success. Remember, HR challenges are opportunities in disguise, waiting for innovative solutions to propel your business forward.

Take our complimentary HR Audit to uncover your pain points and to come up with a plan to help address them.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

How to reward and recognise employee performance

How to reward and recognise employee performance

Employee Performance: How To Conduct Performance Reviews

How to reward and recognise employee performance

Inspire employee motivation with annual performance reviews

Everyone likes to feel valued, and that their work is recognised – and that’s why employee performance reviews are so important. To this end, each person in your team should be very clear about his or her individual performance goals, so they know what’s expected of them.

Regular communication during the year should reduce or eliminate misunderstandings on expectations.  Rewarding employees is key to their future motivation, engagement and performance.  Most people try hard to achieve. How you go about evaluating employee performance will have a major impact on how engaged in your business employees will be for the remainder of the year – often to a greater degree than any monetary reward.

Universal common factors in setting you and your staff up for success through performance appraisals are:

  • People you employee need to feel valued, which means you must focus on the positives.
  • Communication must be crystal clear on what measures the achievement.
  • Where improvement is required, feedback must be positive and constructive.

The Performance Review is the time to celebrate successes, evaluate blocks & obstacles encountered and build training programmes to elevate future successes to a new level.  

Your employees should know exactly what to expect from you in terms of the employment review process. They will have a view on how much progress they made toward their goal and will need the opportunity to express this.

The three most important things you should include in a Performance Review

  • Achievements for the employee during the year need to be discussed and credit given for all achievements. Always start with positives and remember your employee may be feeling anxious. Positive feedback at the outset will help relax him or her.
  • Areas where full achievement was not reached but progress was made – review any restricting factors or blocks that the employee encountered. It is your job as the business owner to remove all roadblocks hindering success. Sometimes constructive feedback may be required in terms of results but often additional support is also required for the employee.
  • Future training and development plans. All employees must have a training and development plan resultant from the Performance Review.

A lot of an employee’s performance relies on you or Managers in your business performing their jobs well in providing resources and removing road blocks.

It is important you are open to all aspects of performance hindrance and look for positive solutions. The most common reason behind lack of performance tends to be lack of training or confidence.

Moving forward from the conducting of the Performance Review itself, remember the goal is to have a working plan for the year ahead that both you and your employee are engaged in and committed to.

Writing clear and specific goals with defined outcomes is your goal, inclusive of improvement in areas where performance was less than expected plus a training and development programme to overcome any confidence or skill based restrictions on performance.

The Employee that you invest time and training in will be the employee who stays with your business and adds increasing value year after year. Performance Reviews when conducted with a positive spirit and an open mind will result in engaged employees who know where their immediate and long term focus lies – and that you value them as part of your business vision for the future.

Are there any tools that can help with employee performance reviews?

One of the major challenges around employee performance reviews is that it’s all too easy to forget about them, or keep pushing them out, because there’s something more urgent going on in your business.

However, if you keep postponing, your staff are likely to feel that they’re not valued, and over time their performance could slide – or they may seek employment elsewhere. So getting performance (and pay) reviews completed on time is critical.

That’s where the People Management Toolkit in  EMS Hub, our HRIS software, can help you. It has everything you need for performance evaluations:The People Management Toolkit is an all-in-one solution for employee performance reviews, including:
EMS-hub
  • Annual performance reviews
  • Employee self reviews
  • Manager reviews
  • End of year scoring
  • Goal setting
  • KPIs
  • Action plans.

Tasks can be automated and delegated, with reminders set for HR, managers, and employees, so that the reviews are timely. Plus built-in reporting tools let you check on the completion rate of your employee performance reviews. What’s more, you can run departmental and organisational rating reports, giving you solid data for decision making like never before.

That’s just a small snapshot of what the People Management Toolkit can do…

The People Management Toolkit can also help you with staff training records, learning management, skills matrix development, managing 90-day trials, employee pulse checks, and more.

Next step

If you need hands-on help with employee performance reviews – or would like a software demo – please book a time with us to meet online to see how we can help you.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

HRIS HR management – The future of HR

HRIS HR management – The future of HR

HRIS Software

Why HRIS is the future of HR management

The global pandemic, and the related lockdowns and work-from-home culture, have all contributed to some major shifts in how we work and approach business:

  • Pivoting and flexibility: The importance of being flexible in the ‘how’ – but not necessarily in the ‘what’. For example, many retailers invested in ecommerce capabilities to take advantage of the huge demand for online shopping.
  • Location independence: The definition of how and where work gets completed has been changed forever. This has created a whole new paradigm in HR processes.
  • Technological shifts: The move to online everything, especially meetings and cloud-based collaboration tools.

These changes have demanded a new way of working. In turn, this has created a new reality where businesses continually need to review and rethink how they manage various processes – including HR functions and processes. Automation and online collaboration are a crucial part of that equation.

HR is one of the last functions to take advantage of automated processes and technology

To date, the HR sector has been slow to embrace technological shifts such as the automation of HR and recruitment processes. Yet this is arguably one of the greatest time saving and risk reduction tools available for business owners. Just how well businesses are organised to use digital technologies is a fundamental source of competitive advantage. After all, automating certain HR functions and processes can help free up huge amounts of time, allowing managers to focus on more important and value-adding priorities. Yet currently, many businesses still coordinate their HR functions and tasks through the use of spreadsheets and other time-consuming, data-heavy, and manual processes. But the faithful spreadsheet is no longer the best choice when it comes to workforce management – the biggest risk being that they are error prone, and also do not allow for automations and integrations.

So how can HR processes be automated?

HR processes can be automated through Human Resource Information Systems – known as HRIS. This is centralised, cloud-based software that’s been created and developed exclusively to meet the needs of HR managers and business owners. It doesn’t just store information; it can automate tasks and workflows, is interactive, and provides powerful reporting capabilities for decision making. It’s powerful stuff.

HRIS reduces HR documentation errors and improves compliance

Another important aspect of HRIS is that it can improve compliance with employment and other legislation. Not only will the Human Resources Information System standardise contracts and agreements (and make you aware when documentation is missing or incomplete) – it will also warn you when certifications and licences are due to lapse.

The need to move towards electronic HR management is now greater than ever. Businesses that automate administrative and highly repetitive tasks can free up resources to focus on longer term ‘macro’ activities such as shaping organisational culture, building the workforce of the future, and addressing the needs of its people – particularly in critical areas such as diversity and inclusion.

Which HR functions and processes can be automated using HRIS?

The automation functions vary between HRIS solutions; here are some of the things you can do with the various modules of our  EMS Hub HRIS software:
EMS-hub

Recruitment

  • Automate recruitment requests and approvals, and easily create position descriptions and job ads – and our HRIS software integrates with your favourite job boards.
  • You can also automate the application process and filter the best candidates, plus there’s a built-in applicant tracker and rating scale.
  • Reference checking functionality makes it easy to locate referees for each applicant and then keep track of the results.
Discover how the recruitment software module in EMS Hub can help you work more efficiently.

Documentation and Compliance

  • Stop using valuable management time on minor tasks such as chasing people to return forms and then processing them.
  • Consistent online onboarding processes ensure a well organised, faster induction process that can have a positive and lasting impact on new employees.
  • Induction tasks can not only be automated, but also delegated.
  • Manage regular pay review processes in a timely and effective way with important information, such as job evaluation data. Our HRIS software can also keep track of temporary and permanent variations to salary, and integrate with payroll systems.
  • Reporting capabilities let you undertake salary benchmarking, so you know how competitive your organisation is in the marketplace, and also compare roles, departments, and levels.

Find out how to automate your documentation compliance.

Employee Record Management

  • Produce fast and accurate attendance metrics when dealing with attendance issues – this helps managers ensure compliance, and be aware of any issues early on.
  • Allowing employees to update their own personal details can drastically improve the employee experience by having a sense of autonomy and of ownership over their personal information.
  • A portal for leave management means that employees can easily request leave online, and check on the progress of their requests. What’s more, online leave management minimises queries and eliminates double handling and errors.
  • The leave management functionality in our HRIS software integrates with payroll systems for a seamless connection between payroll, people, and processes.
  • Emergency contact details are immediately at hand, should they be needed.
See how you could automate your employee record management and save valuable admin time.

People Management

  • Employee surveys, pulse checks, engagement surveys, and satisfaction surveys have the potential to enhance staff motivation and productivity – as well as provide valuable insights to management. Our HRIS software has a wide variety of surveys and templates ready for you to use, and can easily be customised. Read more about employee surveys.
  • Performance evaluations have never been easier, with everything you need for goal setting, KPIs, action plans, annual performance reviews, and end of year scoring. Complete with the ability to set reminders plus collaboration tools. Read our best tips on managing employee performance.
  • An online performance review system has the ability to improve employee productivity and engagement by facilitating continuous feedback. It enables employers to align individual and team goals with organisational strategies and streamlines the employee appraisal process by offering a range of pre-built goals and development objectives.
  • Manage learning and training easily: develop a skills matrix that identifies gaps, create development plans, and manage it easily with an online approval system so you can manage your budget.
  • Get notifications when certifications expire, and send reminders before training certificates lapse.
  • 90-day trial processes just got easier, as 90-day check ins are automatically generated, making it easy to manage your new hires.
Read more about the automation capabilities in the people management toolkit.

Offboarding

  • As soon as an employee resigns, the offboarding process is initiated. Our HRIS software can automatically generate letters that outline contractual obligations and restraint of trade.
  • Offboarding tasks and checklists are automatically generated and can be delegated.
  • Exit interviews and surveys can be automatically generated.
  • By initiating the offboarding process promptly, it gives you maximum time to ensure all the knowledge from your employee is captured, thereby maximising the employment notice period.
Discover how you could automate your employee offboarding processes, and make the most of any staff resignations.

Employee Issue Management

  • Easily check the history of any employee conduct issues.
  • Develop employee performance improvement plans to encourage staff to step up.
  • Guidance on how to manage unsuccessful 90-day trials.
Find out how employee issue management can be automated in our EMS Hub software.

Next step

Find out more about how our HRIS software can help you – or book a demo of the software to see what it could do for you.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

How regular employee surveys can improve business performance

How regular employee surveys can improve business performance

Answering a document named employee survey

Is it a good idea to do frequent employee surveys?

Short, regular employee surveys are called Pulse Checks, and are one of the different types of employee surveys an organisation can undertake.

What is a pulse survey?

An employee pulse check or survey is a fast and frequent survey system, that does away with complex questions and is intentionally designed to be undertaken more frequently than the commonly used employee engagement survey.

Pulse surveys can be held monthly or quarterly (even weekly) and provide employers with a quick insight into the health of a company, hence the name ‘pulse’.

Regular Employee Surveys – what is involved?

Pulse surveys are typically made up of only 5-15 targeted questions, and are very quick easy for people to respond to. They are useful because the feedback your employees give can help you decide which areas need improvement and form the basis of a regular measure of changes in employee engagement and satisfaction levels within your business.

Regular employee surveys can improve employee performance

  • Employee engagement increases – by asking your team regularly for their feedback, you are encouraging positive engagement which also provides benefits such as:
    • Employee satisfaction. as employees become more engaged with their organisation, their job satisfaction levels rise, and they become more invested in the success of their organisation;
    • Employee Productivity: employees that are more engaged are found to be the top performers in an organisation. With higher motivation, they are driven to succeed;
    • Employee Retention: employees are far more likely to stay with an organisation when they are engaged and satisfied with their current job; and

Profitability: when employees are more engaged, they tend to have higher profitability rates as they are more productive and motivated to be successful.

Employee short surveys give employers better HR information

  • More relevant feedback – as pulse surveys are sent out regularly, you are getting a better look at how things are going ‘right now’ in the business rather than waiting each year to gain insights.
  • Culture – a happier, more positive culture is created in an organisation that is focused on listening to their people and actively working on initiatives to improve engagement.
  • Motivation – based on the responses you get from ongoing, regular pulse surveys you will have a better understanding of what motivates your people throughout the year.
  • Quick and easy to complete – because they are short and sweet, these surveys are not time consuming and allow for employees to give their honest input in a timely matter. This means that participation rates are higher on pulse surveys than the less frequent alternatives.

Supports open communication – the ability to express your thoughts, concerns, and motivations is important in an organisation. By showing your people that you care to listen, they will feel more comfortable giving their honest feedback.

However frequent employee surveys do have some disadvantages

  • Employee surveys with high frequency can become less effective, as people begin to get ‘survey fatigue’.
  • Surveys should not be more frequent than fortnightly at most.
  • Poor communication and no follow-up – by running Pulse surveys employers are setting up expectations that ‘things will be done’. Therefore, because employees are putting in the effort to give their honest feedback, proper action must be taken after evaluating the feedback. If you do not do anything in response to what they say, they will be discouraged to providing their feedback in the future. Hence you need to ensure you have appropriate resources available to communicate with employees and act on their feedback (which is the expectation you are setting).

Inclusions for a good employee survey:

  • Select topics and questions you want to get feedback on e.g. choose 5-15 questions that you would like your employees to answer that will add value and insight to your business. These questions can cover a variety of topics, such as motivations, happiness, feelings about management, recognition, workload, job role, etc.
  • Develop a solid employee communication plan to run before, during and after the survey and ensure you stick to the plan.
  • Analyse the responses upon completion – look at areas that feedback has shown need to be improved, as well as reflecting on the positive areas.
  • Analyse trend data, showing how results in each key area is changing over time.
    In accordance with your communication plan, share the results with employees in a timely manner.
  • Take action – this is the most important step! Develop an action plan that includes key dates and who the person is who is responsible for delivering each item.
  • Review and repeat – repeat pulse surveys regularly. Continue to review responses and see if progress is being made with the changes you implemented.

Benefits of high employee engagement

  • Fully engaged teams perform significantly better than less engaged teams.
  • Statistics show that 87% of employees worldwide are not engaged at work. Businesses with highly engaged employees have been proven to outperform those who do not significantly in earnings per share.
  • Teams that are highly engaged have cultures that are safe and empowering, which is reflected in increased wellness and wellbeing.
  • Given everything that our people have been through with Covid-19 over the last year or so, now is definitely a good time to do a pulse check with your team to see how they are currently feeling about their roles, communication, relationships, the work environment, and their general satisfaction.

Are there any tools that can help with employee surveys and pulse checks?

Although free tools such as Google Forms and SurveyMonkey are popular, they lend themselves to an ad-hoc approach to surveys rather than an integrated system that’s aligned with your organisational goals and needs. What’s more, with these generic tools you’re starting with a blank page and you need to devise the survey questions yourself.

Introducing the People Management Toolkit in EMS Hub

The tool we’ve developed and use for all types of employee surveys is the People Management Toolkit within EMS Hub, which is a powerful suite of HR software.

EMS-hub

To help you get started with surveys, there are over 20 survey types to choose from in the People Management Toolkit, including:

  • Employee pulse checks
  • Longer employee surveys
  • Employee engagement surveys
  • Employee satisfaction surveys
  • Change management reviews
  • Exit interview surveys
  • HR audits
  • Annual performance reviews
  • Employee self reviews
  • Manager reviews.

Best of all, there are best-practice HR templates you can use and adapt. These will help you hit the ground running and save valuable time.

Plus there are reporting tools in the software, so you can check on the completion rate of surveys, and also run departmental and organisational rating reports. The results from your surveys will give you clear information for your decision making.

Find out more about the People Management Toolkit – or book a demo of the software to see what it could do for you.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

Employer’s guide to the Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day

Employer’s guide to the Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day

Can you ask your staff to work? How much do you need to pay them? Here’s what you need to know…

26 September 2022 has been designated as a one-off public holiday to commemorate the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. The official name of the holiday is Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day (QEII Memorial Day for short).

The legislation for QEII Memorial Day will be passed next week – which doesn’t give employers much time to prepare.

Important:

At this stage we’re assuming that the standard rules relating to public holidays will come into force. But if the new legislation for QEII Memorial Day is different in any way, we’ll provide updated information on this page. So please bookmark this page and keep checking back.

First things first: determine whether 26 September is an ‘otherwise working day’ for every employee

To know where you stand with regards to QEII Memorial Day, you need to know for each employee if that date is an ‘otherwise working day’ for them or not. That will affect whether you can ask them to work, and how much to pay them.

In some cases, it’ll be very clear whether 26 September is an ‘otherwise working day’ or not. But if it’s not so clear, you need to consider:

  • What is says in the individual employment agreement.
  • Your employee’s usual work patterns.
  • If the employee only works for you when you have work available for them.
  • Your roster (or other similar system).
  • The reasonable expectations both you and the employee have as to whether the employee would have worked on that day.
  • If your employee normally would have worked that day if it wasn’t a holiday, or if the employee isn’t on sick or bereavement leave.

Note that you and your employee must consider ALL of the factors above when reaching an agreement: you can’t rely on just one of these points.

Can I ask an employee to work on QEII Memorial Day?

You can certainly ask your employees to work on QEII Memorial Day. But you can’t force them to work that day unless:

  • 26 September is an ‘otherwise working day’ for that employee; and
  • The employee’s employment agreement requires them to work on public holidays.

Many employment agreements have a catch-all clause relating to public holidays, saying that employees are required to work on a public holiday, and will do so if asked.

However, if the employment agreement doesn’t have a catch-all clause, or if 26 September isn’t an ‘otherwise working day’, you cannot force/insist that your employee works that day. You can still ask them, but they don’t have to accept.

(Sidenote: If you’re concerned your employment agreements aren’t as good as they could be, we’re happy to review them for free. Just get in touch.)

How much do I pay my employees for QEII Memorial Day?

How much you pay your employee depends on a few factors – here’s a guide for each scenario:

(a) The employee works on QEII Memorial Day

In this instance, the employee is entitled to the greater of their relevant daily pay or average daily pay for the time worked – plus half that amount again. In other words, they get paid time-and-a-half.

Also, if the employee works on any part of 26 September, and that day was NOT an ‘otherwise working day’ for them, they’re also entitled to an alternative day off – i.e. a day in lieu. That’s in addition to their payment for working on 26 September.

(b) The employee doesn’t work – even though it was an ‘otherwise working day’

Even though the employee hasn’t worked on an ‘otherwise working day’, they are still entitled to payment at not less than their relevant daily pay or average daily pay for that day.

(c) The employee doesn’t work – but it’s not an ‘otherwise working day’

The employee isn’t entitled to any payment under the Holidays Act in this scenario.

Does it matter if I get things wrong?

Yes – it matters if you get things wrong, even if you didn’t mean to.

If an employee (or ex-employee) is incorrectly paid for a public holiday, you could be held liable for the amount owed plus interest. And there may also be other penalties to pay. So this is definitely something you need to get right.

Do you need additional help or guidance?

Our experienced team of HR professionals has over 128 years’ collective experience. So if you need some prompt help or customised guidance, please get in touch.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.