cost effective workforce management for the retail & leisure industries
UK workers have the most generous statutory holiday allowance
UK Government policies on statutory employee holiday entitlements mean that staff who have agreements to take bank holidays in addition to their basic leave allowance have the most Generous statutory holidays in the world according to Mercer’s Worldwide Benefit and Employment Guidelines.
I find it very interesting that when the Government announced the increase in Statutory holidays they were presented as the implementation of an EU directive, however the UK seems to have implemented potentially worse rules than were required.
UK employees have the potential of accruing 36 days off a year however the Government has allowed companies to include public holidays as part of their 28-day statutory holiday entitlement which can mean UK workers get fewer days holiday than some other European employees.
The problem is that many employers, especially in the retail and leisure industries had agreements with staff that allowed them to take bank holidays on top of their basic holiday entitlement. Many of Shopworks Work Force Management system customers tell us that they reached agreement on Sunday opening hours in the last year or two and that these agreements allowed staff to take bank Holidays in addition to their statutory minimum leave. Shopworks has access to a lot of data and most of our customers do allow 36 days leave and will have to reopen negotiations with employees if they don’t want to see their staff costs go up.
Holiday costs can represent a huge unbudgeted cost for employers; our data shows that a full time employee working for a company that uses Shopworks Work Force Management system works 224 days per year on an 8 hour shift. At the minimum wage (from Oct 2011), these days cost £55.36 per day including employers NIC but excluding holiday pay. If the employee is entitled to bank holidays in addition to their 28-day statutory holiday then this day now costs £64.25 per day. In a shop that is open 7 days per week and two staff on at all times means holiday costs adds £125 per shop per week, or £6,477 per shop per year. Including the bank holidays within the statutory holiday reduces the holiday cost in this shop by £442 per shop per year.
We find that many operators hadn’t been accurately accounting for holidays before they first take the Shopworks system and are surprised when they see the cost of holidays in our budget module. A Work Force Management system ensures that all holidays are properly accounted for, no excess holiday is granted and that the shop costs are reviewed against budget (including holiday costs) before a week’s rota is approved. Statutory holidays are a big expense for retail and leisure operators but by using a Work Force Management system such as Shopworks an employer can ensure that these costs are properly budgeted for and focussed on.