Handling the holiday rush: leave management software reveals the busiest month

Simon Lobb, Head of Zellis Customer Success – Insights, dives into leave management software data to better understand holiday request trends, then provides top tips to handle the rush. 

For more than half of UK employers, the most popular time of year for employees to book time off is January. This is when many employees apply for the holiday they want to take later on in the year.

In fact, according to the number of holiday requests made in Zellis MyView, requests peaked on Tuesday 2nd January 2024, the first day back at work for most of us.  

To get a handle on other important leave management trends, we reviewed data from more than 600,000 holiday requests. They took place between 1 November 2023 and 31 October 2024 and are drawn from a sample of 60 of our customer organisations.

After the January rush, what were the next most popular months for employees to raise holiday requests?

October was the second busiest month behind January for making leave requests. This is likely because employees needed to use their leave up before the end of the calendar year. During October 2024, we also found people employed mobiles and tablets to make 13% of their leave requests. At weekends, this figure tripled to 39%. 

The graph below ranks the number of holiday requests by month from November 2023 to October 2024.

Which were the top five busiest days of the year (2024) for leave management software?

1 – Tuesday 2nd January – First working day for most jurisdictions

2 – Wednesday 3rd January – First working day in Scotland

3 – Monday 8th January – First working day of the first full week

4 – Tuesday 2nd April – Day after Easter Monday bank holiday

5 – Monday 15th January – First working day of the second full week

At the other end of the scale, the least busy time for holiday requests was December, with Christmas Day being the quietest day of all. 

Which was the most popular day of the week to submit holiday requests? 

Across the board, Monday was the most popular day of the week to ask for time off. The volume of requests then tailed off throughout the week, with a slight uptick on Sundays. The implication here appears to be that employees use their free time at weekends to think about and plan their breaks before taking action on returning to work. 

How can employers best prepare to meet leave management peaks?

Here are some tips to help you manage peaks in holiday request volumes more effectively over the coming year:

1. Develop a clear holiday policy.

Ensure both managers and employees are aware of the rules and guidelines they need to follow by making your holiday policy as easily accessible as possible.

2. Regularly remind employees to take their leave.

The last thing you need at the end of the year is a staffing crisis because too many people waited until then to take up their remaining leave. Apart from anything else, taking holiday is vital to maintain employee wellbeing. One benefit for customer using Zellis HCM AIR and Microsoft Power Automate is the ability to create a workflow that automatically reminds employees to take their leave based on pre-set rules. Automating this process helps both HR and line managers work more efficiently.

3. Deploy effective leave management software. Look for a system that:

• Clearly displays each employee’s leave entitlement and the number of days, and ideally hours, they have remaining.
• Enables managers and employees to see what leave other team members have booked to avoid clashes. The upshot is that minimum staffing levels can be maintained without fuss.
• Makes it possible to add different forms of leave entitlement, such as birthdays or long-service.
• Enables employees to book leave before the start of the company’s next holiday year. This means they can plan their breaks in advance to obtain the best travel deals.
• Immediately notifies managers of employee leave requests to ensure they approve or reject them promptly.
• Delegates the approval process to a third party if managers are away, to prevent delay.
• Supports mobile and tablet devices to enable all employees, especially those without a laptop, to access it. This issue is explored in more depth in another blog: Why you need a mobile self-service payroll and HR system.
• Is fully integrated with your payroll system. This system must also fully comply with legislation and accurately calculate the holiday pay due to each employee, wherever in the world they are based. Here is some guidance on the latest UK rules: Holiday pay rules 2024: a guide to changes.
• Is fully integrated with your payroll system. This system must also fully comply with legislation and accurately calculate the holiday pay due to each employee, wherever in the world they are based. Here is some guidance on the latest UK rules: Holiday pay rules 2024: a guide to changes. 

With that in place, don’t forget to book some well-deserved time off yourself!  

The Zellis Leave Management software module supports employers dealing with all forms of employee absence, including holidays, sickness, and parental leave.

Learn more about Zellis Leave Management 

Customers: Feel free to ask your Account Manager or Customer Success Manager for more information.