Advice from an HR consultant in Glasgow on managing summer holiday requests fairly, avoiding disputes and keeping your small business running smoothly.
As an owner of a small business, you’re likely the person who approves every single holiday request.
That works fine for most of the year. Then summer arrives and suddenly you’ve got half the team wanting the same two weeks off.
Without a clear process, you end up making decisions on the spot that can feel unfair to the people who miss out.
And those feelings of unfairness don’t just disappear. They linger, and they affect morale.
Here’s what you can do to get ahead of it this year.
Why summer leave causes so many headaches
The core problem is a simple one. Most small businesses don’t have a defined process for handling clashing holiday requests. When two or more people want the same week off, someone has to lose out, and if there’s no transparent system behind that decision, it breeds resentment.
You might have been making these calls based on gut feel for years. Perhaps you’ve been approving whoever asked you face-to-face first, or whoever you felt needed the time off more. That kind of informal approach is hard to defend if someone challenges it later.
The good news is that a few straightforward changes can make the whole thing feel much calmer and fairer for everyone involved.
What the law actually says about refusing leave
You do have the right to turn down a holiday request. There’s no obligation to approve every one. But there are rules around how you do it.
The notice you give when refusing a request must be at least as long as the period of leave the employee asked for. So if someone requests five days off, you need to let them know it’s been declined with at least five days’ notice.
However, you’re also allowed to set rules within your annual leave policy about when leave can and can’t be taken, and you can ask employees to give a minimum amount of notice when submitting requests. This then supercedes what the law says.
One thing to be very careful about is discrimination. If you consistently prioritise parents during school holidays while refusing requests from employees without children, that could land you in trouble. Decisions need to be based on business need and applied consistently across the board.
Put a clear policy in place before summer starts
If you don’t already have a written policy that covers how holiday clashes are resolved, now is the time to create one. It doesn’t need to be complicated. A short, clear document that sets out:
- How much notice employees need to give when requesting leave
- How clashes will be decided
- Any periods where leave is restricted
Share it with the whole team well before the summer rush begins. When people know the rules in advance, they’re far less likely to feel hard done by if their request isn’t approved.
Choose a fair system for deciding clashes
There are a couple of approaches that work well for small businesses.
First come, first served is the simplest option. Whoever submits their request first gets priority. It’s easy to explain and easy to defend.
A rotation system works well if you notice the same people missing out year after year. Under this approach, someone who didn’t get their preferred week last summer would be given priority this time around.
Whichever method you go with, the important thing is consistency. Apply the same rule every time, to every person. And always record the decision along with the reason behind it. That paper trail matters if anyone questions your approach down the line.
Respond to requests promptly
Leaving a holiday request sitting unanswered for a fortnight is frustrating for the employee. They can’t book flights or make plans while they’re waiting to hear back from you. It also makes the whole process feel disorganised.
Aim to respond as quickly as you reasonably can. Even if you need a day or two to check for clashes, let the person know you’ve received their request and when they can expect an answer.
Encourage early planning
The earlier your team submits their summer requests, the easier it is to spot clashes and resolve them calmly. Send a reminder in spring asking everyone to get their preferred dates in sooner rather than later.
You’ll find that most conflicts are far simpler to sort out when you have weeks of lead time rather than days.
Keep an eye on how leave is spread across the year
Sometimes the pressure builds because one person has saved up a large chunk of their allowance for the summer while everyone else has been taking theirs steadily throughout the year. If someone is banking three weeks for August, that creates a real pinch point for the rest of the team.
It’s worth gently encouraging people to spread their leave more evenly. You should also think about workload cover. When someone is away, the colleagues left behind shouldn’t be drowning in extra work with no plan in place. A bit of forward thinking here goes a long way.
Sometimes the answer has to be no
Business needs do come first, and there will be times when you simply can’t approve a request. That’s okay. What matters is how you communicate it.
A brief, honest explanation of why you’ve had to decline the request makes a real difference. People are generally understanding when they can see there’s a genuine reason behind the decision.
Why HR software makes all of this easier
If you’re still managing holiday requests through emails, spreadsheets, or verbal conversations, things will inevitably slip through the cracks. As part of our HR consultancy services in Glasgow, I often recommend a simple HR software system to small businesses because it takes so much of the admin burden away.
Good HR software gives you a real-time view of who’s off, who has requested leave, and where clashes exist. Employees can check their own remaining balance and submit requests without needing to chase you. Everything is recorded automatically, which means you have a clear audit trail showing that decisions were made fairly and consistently.
It can also highlight patterns you might not notice on your own, such as a particular team being short-staffed at the same point every summer.
How we can help
We can review your current annual leave policy and help you put a fair, workable process in place. If you’re considering HR software, we can help you get set up so that holiday management runs smoothly from the start. And if you’ve already got a specific clash or dispute brewing, I’m happy to advise before it escalates.
As outsourced HR consultants in Glasgow, we work with small businesses to take the stress out of situations exactly like this. You can see how we have helped one of our clients with their policies in this case study.
If summer leave planning already feels a bit chaotic, let’s have a conversation about how to make it simpler. Get in touch and we can arrange a discovery call at a time that suits you, letstalk@albanyhr.com.
