Study warns of 'holiday dought' negative effect on UK productivity 

Published 24 August 2006

London, 24 August 2006

Many of us may now be feeling refreshed after our summer holiday, but UK productivity is set to nosedive for half of employees facing the annual ‘bank holiday drought’ which begins next Tuesday 29 August, findings of a new survey warned.

With no more bank holidays before Christmas Day, equal to 84 working days, exactly 50% surveyed by YouGov for UK workplace advisers Croner directly blamed a lack of public holidays between September and December for feeling unproductive at work.

Croner, part of Wolters Kluwer (UK) Limited and a provider of legal guidance and best practice advice and support in thuman resources and other fields, commissioned an omnibus survey by YouGov among 2119 people between 14 and 16 August 2006. The results were taken from a qualifying sample of 927 employees who receive bank holidays in addition to their normal annual leave entitlement.

Although a significant 39% voted for an extra bank holiday to recharge their batteries, according to the survey, the majority would rather take control over their own working patterns, with 34% preferring flexible working all year round, and a further 17% voting for an additional day of annual leave to take whenever they choose, said the report.

In fact, 42% said that a bank holiday has no positive impact on their job performance, with 7% actually saying it reduces their productivity on returning to work. 

Croner said that even though Britons may complain of being one of the hardest working nations with the fewest bank holidays in Europe, an additional bank holiday is not the answer to boosting productivity.

Instead, employers addressing productivity issues should be looking at ways to help their staff achieve a better work/life balance through offering more flexible working practices.

Richard Smith, employment services director at Croner said, “As a nation we moan about being overworked and not having as many bank holidays as our European neighbours. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the respondents to our survey said that a long period of time with no public holiday has a negative impact on their productivity.

“But when probed further, it became apparent that the frequency of bank holidays isn’t the real issue.

“Feeling unproductive is more likely to be due to becoming weary of long-term nine to five shifts rather than a lack of odd days off. While a single day’s public holiday is nice to have, it isn’t long enough to counteract the cumulative effect of hard work. This is why many employers offer statutory bank holidays in addition to normal annual leave, which allows for longer periods of rest and relaxation.

“Our research shows that, to improve productivity the most, the majority of employees prefer the option to work flexibly all year round. This sends a clear message to employers that, by introducing a flexible working policy for all staff, they could experience real commercial gains.”

Flexible working covers any working time arrangement other than what is thought of as a standard working week, such as part-time and term-time working, job sharing, homeworking, flexitime, annualised hours and compressed hours.

While government legislation currently only exists to allow those with young or dependent children to work flexibly, companies may, at their discretion, go beyond the minimum legal requirement and offer it to the entire workforce.

Smith added: “I’m sure we’d all jump at the chance for an extra bank holiday, but from a business perspective employers would see more economic benefits from looking at ways they can offer flexible working arrangements beyond the statutory minimum all year round.”

According to Croner, employers need to pay attention to the following:

• A legal right to request flexible working is available to the mother, father, adopter, guardian or foster parent (or the spouse or partner of any of these) who has responsibility for the upbringing of a child (who is under the age of six years, or 18 years if disabled) and who has worked for his or her current employer for a minimum of 26 weeks.
• Employers may, at their discretion, offer flexible working to the rest of the workforce. This is highly recommended as best practice, and is offered in many leading UK companies.
• The right to request flexible working includes the employee’s right to change his or her terms or conditions of employment.
• The right to request flexible working can only be exercised once a year and all changes made to the employee’s terms of conditions of employment are permanent, unless agreed otherwise.
• The employer must give all applications serious consideration and then meet with the employee to discuss his or her application within 28 days of receiving it.
• The employee may appeal the employer’s decision within 14 days of receiving the decision in writing. The employer must then meet with the employee to discuss his or her appeal within 14 days of receiving the written appeal.