{ the dental team } by Jodi Schafer, SPHR
But I Was Here First! Navigating vacation request systems based on seniority
Currently, our vacation request policy allows requests for the year to be made in order of seniority. We have had this policy forever, but over the last couple years our staff has grown and the newer employees have complained that they will never have an opportunity to have any of the major holiday weeks off (Spring break, Christmas week and New Year’s week). These weeks are always the most in-demand and are quickly spoken for by our senior staff. Therefore, others cannot have time off then. Our employees with more tenure feel they have earned this privilege. Do you agree with them or should we consider changing our policy to be fairer to all of our staff? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
T
his is an interesting situation. The good news is that you have so many tenured
employees. The difficulty lies in how to recognize these years of service without doing so at the expense of your newer staff. I don’t think there is a perfect solution, but I would start by thinking about what is best for the practice. What type of culture do you have (or do you want to have) at your office? While on the surface allowing employees with the most senior- ity to choose their vacation days first seems to recognize years of service, it may inadver- tently be causing hard feelings with newer staff and creating an ‘us vs. them’ mentality.
I would also ask whether more years equal better employees. If not then you are reward- ing tenure and not necessarily performance, productivity and/or preferred behaviors. Recognizing loyalty and years of service is important, but there may be other ways to do it that don’t negatively impact the rest of your staff. If you think it is in the best inter- est of the organization to level the playing field when it comes to vacation requests, then I have a few suggestions for moving forward:
1. Consider putting together a ‘task force’ of employees who have an interest in this issue
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schedule makes it all the way to the bottom of the senior- ity ladder then it circles back around again and the person who picked first can now choose their next set of days off, but only if they haven’t already been requested.
OR
3. Let each department work their vacation schedule out amongst themselves. If more than one person wants to take off the same week, then they
and have them brainstorm possible solutions and come up with a recommendation. Be sure this group includes a good mix of employees in terms of position and years’ experience. Give them the goal of developing a system that is more balanced and a deadline of when you’d like their recommendation by. Then stand back and see what they come up with.
OR
2. Consider rotating the vacation schedule from highest seniority to lowest, but cap the number of days that can be requested at one time. This way the person with the most years of service still gets first dibs, but she can’t take all three of the most popular weeks right off the bat. The schedule is then passed to the next person on the seniority list and they pick their days and so on. When the
have to figure it out together. They may decide to split the week or maybe one person takes Christmas this year and someone else takes it next year. A strong team will be willing to be flexible with each other so that everyone ‘wins’ while still meeting the staff- ing needs of their department. You would only get involved if they were unable to work it out on their own.
Regardless of whether or not you decide to change your current policy, communication with staff is going to be key. They need to un- derstand the ‘why’ behind your choice, and you need to be ready to handle any questions or hard feelings that occur as a result. f
JODI SCHAFER is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and owner of Human Resource Manage- ment Services, LLC. Learn more at
www.hrmservices.biz.
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