Firstly, from the Advo HR Team we hope you had a wonderful time over the festive period and are feeling refreshed and ready to take on 2026! We sure are!

January sees the start of annual leave years for many of our clients. Now is the perfect time for employers to get ahead with holiday planning to avoid the bottle-neck of the last few months where lots of leave remains untaken which creates staff shortages and may cause operational interference. Taking regular annual leave also supports employee wellbeing, both typical and mental and to avoid burnout. Forward planning also allows managers to plan resources more evenly to ensure whatever work or service is being provided is not impacted by annual leave. Lastly, it also helps employers to remain compliant with employment legislation.

Here are some key legal points to remember:

• The Working Time Regulations 1998 entitles most workers a minimum of 5.6 weeks or 28 days of paid annual leave which is inclusive of bank holidays.
• Carry over rules state the core 4 weeks generally must be taken within the year, while the additional 1.6 weeks can be carried over by agreement.
• There are some instances where more than the above holiday can be carried over into the new annual leave year such as when on family friendly leave (maternity leave, adoption leave, shared parental leave) or long term sickness.
• Holiday pay needs to be paid at the individual’s normal renumeration so if regular overtime or commission or other allowances are paid, this should be included in holiday pay calculations. There are differing ways to calculate this depending on the regularity of the work being carried out.
• As a last resort, employers can force employees to take annual leave by giving at least twice the notice of the length of leave to be taken e.g. two days notice for one days leave.

Tips for employers to take now

• Communication: Ensure individuals know your holiday policy, how to book their leave and any agreements or limits to carry-over. At regular intervals throughout the year managers should be reviewing annual leave balances and documenting their encouragement for individuals to book their leave. If you have a ‘use it or lose it’ policy, you must be able to demonstrate you have actively encourage individuals to take their leave and have not been obstructive.
• Start now: Encourage individuals to book regular holiday throughout the year, starting now. This is especially important if there are popular periods such as school holidays or if it is a busy time of year and the employer needs to limit the number of individuals who can take leave.
• Transparency: Individuals should be able to see their holiday entitlement and understand their balance.
• Audit: The start of a new annual leave year is an excellent opportunity to audit payroll processes and contractual holiday entitlements to ensure accuracy and compliance.

Taking the time at the start of the annual leave year to proactively plan and clearly communicate helps individuals to remain productive and healthy as well as operationally to avoid unnecessary disruptions and legally to avoid non-compliance with employment legislation.

For those clients who utilise Advo-One, transparency is key and individuals can see their holiday balance, book and edit leave. Remember reminder notices can be added to the system. Also managers can run annual leave summary reports to view annual leave balances in order to manage this more closely.

If you have any questions or would like more information regarding Advo-one please speak to your Advo contact for more information.