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Holiday scheduling: What employers are planning in 2013

11/07/2012

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According to a new Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey, a great majority of employers (more than 90%) will observe these six big holidays in 2013 by closing for the day:

* New Year’s Day (Tuesday, January 1)

* Memorial Day (Monday, May 27)

* Independence Day (Thursday, July 4)

* Labor Day (Monday, September 2)

* Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 28)

* Christmas Day (Wednesday, December 25)

Again this year, employers are much less likely to close on religious holidays other than Christmas. Forty-five percent of organizations will be closed on Christmas Eve and 99% of organizations will be closed on Christmas Day, says the SHRM survey of 573 HR professionals. The next most popular religious holiday is Good Friday, with 21% reporting their offices will be closed on Good Friday.

SHRM says many companies, in lieu of structuring their holiday calendars around religious holidays, encourage employees to observe religious days through paid time off (PTO), accrued vacation, personal leave or floating holidays. SHRM’s 2012 Employee Benefits report says 51% of organizations provide a PTO plan, 43% provide a stand-alone paid vacation plan, 40% offer paid floating holidays and 26% provide paid personal days.

Here’s a breakdown of the percentage of HR professionals who say their organizations will be closed on the following days:

Tuesday, January 1 (New Year’s Day) — 96%

Monday, January 21 (Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday) — 34%

Monday, February 18 (President’s Day) — 36%

Tuesday, March 26 (beginning of Passover) — 1%

Friday, March 29 (Good Friday) — 21%

Monday, April 1 (end of Passover) — 1%

Monday, May 27 (Memorial Day) — 95%

Thursday, July 4 (Independence Day) — 94%

Friday, July 5 (day after Independence Day) — 11%

Monday, September 2 (Labor Day) — 94%

Thursday, September 5 (1st day of Rosh Hashanah)— 1%

Friday, September 6 (2nd day of Rosh Hashanah) — less than 1%

Friday, September 13 (evening of Yom Kippur) — less than 1%

Monday, October 14 (Columbus Day) — 15%

Tuesday, October 15 (Eid al-Adha/Festival of Sacrifice) — less than 1%

Monday, November 11 (Veterans Day) — 20%

Wednesday, November 27 (Day before Thanksgiving) — 8%

Thursday, November 28 (Thanksgiving day) — 99%

Friday, November 29 (day after Thanksgiving day) — 71%

Thursday, December 5 (last day of Chanukah) — 0%

Tuesday, December 24 (Christmas Eve) — 45% (24% say they will close early)

Wednesday, December 25 (Christmas Day) — 99%

Thursday, December 26 (day after Christmas) — 19%

Tuesday, December 31 (New Year’s Eve) — 31%

Days between Christmas and New Year’s Day — 12


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.


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