The importance of regular holidays – not just in the summer

Whilst millions of Brits use August to head off on holidays, we still all hear many of our colleagues lamenting the fact that they haven’t had a holiday for goodness knows how long or those who claim they simply haven’t got time to go away.

All too often, these moans sadly become some sort of proof of commitment to the job, battling on without a break.

From a business perspective, you may think not taking holidays is a great idea - increased productivity, more ‘hands on deck’, and harder working employees?

However, nothing could be further from the truth.

We all need a holiday not just for our own survival, but for the survival of the businesses we work in – time to chill out, switch off and recharge our batteries. Resilience is all about Recovery, Recuperation and Re-energising

Not taking holidays is detrimental to our physical and emotional well-being, leading to unhappy, unhealthy employees and subsequently, lower productivity and higher absenteeism.

A recent survey on annual leave carried out by leading global recruiter Glassdoor, the average employee takes only 77% of their holiday leave. Reasons given included “Fear of falling behind in their work” and “Didn’t trust anyone else to do their work”.

So, why should people take regular holidays – and not just at the height of summer?

As well as being good for your physical and emotional well-being, here are some other tips.

• Holidays reduce stress levels resulting in less anxiety, depression, and long-term health problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
• You’ll sleep better, have time to eat more healthily and take exercise. Overall, you’ll look and feel better, and your mood will be lifted.
• Your creativity will improve. A change of environment and a break from the norm will inspire you. Ideas may spark more easily and solutions to challenges may become more apparent.
• Stepping out of your comfort zone is good for you. Having to reorganise your workload, create out of office instructions and delegate tasks will create opportunities to evaluate and improve systems, procedures, and responsibilities.
• Holidays give your brain a break from screen time, endless data, notifications, emails, and spreadsheets.
• Holidays make you happy.

As an employer, your ultimate goal is to have happier, healthier employees resulting in increased productivity, lower absenteeism, a healthier work-life balance and an improved culture.

Here are some useful tips to ensure your colleagues take regular holidays.

• Make sure everyone knows about your holiday policies – eg create a shared accessible calendar where people can see when other colleagues are off and book their leave accordingly.
• Encourage everyone to take their holidays, giving them the confidence to ask for time off.
• Consider a ‘use it or lose it’ holiday policy with deadlines and dates.
• Create an incentive scheme rewarding hard work with time off.
• Lead by example – make sure you take time off too .

If you’d like to explore the subject of business success more deeply, please contact me via Email: [email protected].