❤️ Flex Holiday Trends

Hello and Happy Friday!

Imagine this: you start a new job and the lovely HR rep (because aren’t we all?) is walking you through the employee handbook. When they get to the section on company holidays, instead of seeing the standard 11 federal holidays, you learn that the company offers flex holidays. 

This means that you can swap President’s Day for Valentine’s Day, or Halloween, or one of the teacher workdays at your kid’s school - without using up your PTO! (Personally, the first 80 degree day of summer is the flex holiday I would always choose!)

This is one of the hottest trends in the total rewards world and many companies are taking note. As global workforces and intentionally equitable policies become the norm, flex (or floating) holidays are an easy way for companies to be inclusive of folks from different backgrounds.

Today we’ll look at the potential benefits of making the switch from standard holidays to flex holidays, and what a realistic view of that transition would look like. Let’s jump in!

Dreaming of a summer afternoon,

Jill 

Alright, let's get back to today's topic: Flex Holiday Trends.

Flex Your Flex Holiday Muscles

There’s a lot that goes into the switch from traditional to flex holidays. There are lots of ways to justify the decision, but also some potential downsides to consider, and then there’s the logistics of actually making the transition. We’ll walk you through them all:

Four reasons companies are making the switch:

1. Inclusivity. Flex holidays are inclusive of all ethnicities, religions, global workforces, and even just personal preferences. Not everyone celebrates Christmas or wants to take Labor Day off, but there may be other dates throughout the year that are important to them. Someone working from a different country may be used to recognizing official holidays that differ from those in the United States.

2. Stable productivity. Flex holidays allow for work to continue throughout the year, skipping those periods when everyone is gone and there’s no one around to pick up the phone or answer the frantic client’s email. It can also lessen the rush to get your PTO requests in early so you can get the best days off (e.g. Thanksgiving week PTO requests in March).

3. Increased morale. Anything that gives employees more control over their schedule is a win! Allowing employees to choose how they use those extra 11 days per year shows that the company values autonomy and respects their personal time. It shows that the company is paying attention to shifting employee expectations and is adjusting appropriately.

4. Support of recruitment & retention efforts. Flex holidays would catch the eye of a job seeker and could be the one little thing that tips the scale in your company’s direction for someone comparing job offers. And that scenario described in the opening of this newsletter? It has the potential to foster genuine joy for a person starting a new job. It shows that the company cares about work-life balance and actually encourages employees to take time off, instead of begrudgingly providing the bare minimum. This matters a lot, and can be one more reason for your top performers to stick around.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? Before running to your leadership ready to make the case for switching to flex holidays, let’s review some of the not-so-great parts of this approach.

Potential downsides:

1. It creates more work for managers. Your managers are already thoughtfully considering time off requests for vacation time, and now you’re adding 11 more days to the list.

2. And it can put managers in a tough spot. It could make it more difficult for managers to decline a PTO request if it’s at a bad time. If someone wants to take a flex day in the middle of the busiest time of year, it puts pressure on the manager to decide if it's feasible or not. And if some flex holiday requests are approved and some aren’t, it could be seen as favoritism or bias. 

3. It makes the PTO shuffle more complicated. With more time off requests flying around, it may require an internal PTO calendar to keep track of who will be out when, and relies on managers remembering to reference that calendar when reviewing a time off request.

4. It will likely require a new policy. What if someone doesn’t use all of their flex holidays? Do they get paid out at the end of the year or is it a “use it or lose it” situation? Is that fair - or legal? You’d need to do some homework on local laws regarding time off and make an informed decision about how to handle unused flex days.

It will take some preparation, but if you’re up to the challenge and think the reward is worth it, let’s talk about the logistics of making it happen.

Making the Transition

We’ve broken down the process of transitioning from traditional to flex holidays into four phases.

Phase 1: Make the Case

The goal here is to answer the question, “Should we even consider this?”

1. Survey employees. It’s never a good idea to assume, and in this case you’ll want to make sure there is positive enthusiasm for the idea of flex holidays. Ideally this would be part of a larger survey, so the focus isn’t squarely on this idea (in case you decide not to do it), and so it doesn’t contribute to survey fatigue. If the responses are overwhelmingly in favor of flex holidays, you know you can proceed and expect a positive reaction to the switch. But you may be surprised, and end up with less enthusiasm, in which case you’d have to decide if it’s worth pursuing at that moment.

2. Check the data. Making the case is always easiest when backed up by data, so make sure to dig into what trends exist from the last few years.

   1. Review your existing PTO policies and records. What trends do you see that could impact decision-making around flex holidays (such as high or low usage in certain periods of time)?

   2. Review other key metrics, such as employee satisfaction and retention rates, so you can assess the impact of the transition should you decide to move forward.

Phase 2: Policy Development

Here’s where it gets into the nitty-gritty. We’ve provided a list of some questions for the decision-making group to discuss, and you may uncover other things to consider.

1. Determine who is eligible (Full-time only? Part-time? Permanent contractors?). If only some populations are affected, will the others still observe federal holidays?

2. What company holidays will remain (if any) and how many flex days will you offer?

3. Will you institute any black out dates where no employees can request PTO?

4. What’s the approval process? Does the manager make the decision on their own individually? Do you ask all employees to submit their flex days for the year by a deadline so they can all be considered together?

Phase 3: Communication & Implementation

Once the details have been worked out and you’ve written the policy, it’s time to make a roll-out plan. 

1. Make sure your existing PTO process/system can accommodate this change. If it can’t, and it can’t be adjusted, you’ll need to create a separate internal system. 

2. Involve your managers. You can use this group to work out the kinks or determine what questions employees might have as you implement the new policy. They will then need to be trained on what they should consider when reviewing flex holiday requests, and how it will impact their review of vacation requests. 

3. Make the announcement! We recommend making it a verbal announcement so you can explain why you made the decision, how the process will work, and answer any immediate questions. It’s a good idea to follow-up with a written memo or 1-pager with all of the details for quick reference (in addition to employee handbook updates).

Phase 4 (Ongoing): Evaluation

Post-rollout, you’ll want to monitor how the new policy is being utilized and work through any issues that emerge. Getting ahead of any larger issues will help ensure your overall success.

1. In the short-term:

   1. Follow-up with managers to see how things are going to identify any issues they’ve run into that may require a policy or process adjustment. 

   2. Gather employee feedback, maybe as part of the next larger survey, to get their input and gauge satisfaction with the change. 

2. In the long-term:

   1. Longer term, review PTO data to look for trends in flex holiday dates, employee satisfaction rates, and any changes to the retention rate. 

   2. Based on this data, adjust the policy and communicate changes as needed.

Have you implemented a flex holiday program at your company? Please reach out - we’d love to hear from you and possibly feature your insights in a future newsletter!

THINGS WE'RE LOVING RIGHT NOW

If the logistics of flex holidays aren't right for your organization, consider implementing "summer fridays". Here's an episode from our podcast discussing how you can make it work for your team. 

This could also be a good time to review your company’s parental leave policy. If you work for a small business that doesn’t have one yet, here’s a toolkit from Superkin that will walk you through all the details, from benefits of a policy to communication scripts, plus a 30-minute consultation.

This Forbes article provides a list of Key HR Statistics And Trends In 2024, including that 45% of employees are burned out by organizational changes in 2023. 👀