Don't get your tinsel in a tangle over absence this Christmas
Christmas is the “most wonderful time of the year”. But for the payroll department, the run-up to Christmas can be time-consuming and an administrative nightmare.
As well as the obvious complications caused by the influx in absence over the winter due to illnesses, there's also the temptation for employees to “pull a sickie” after the Christmas do.
And let's not forget the massive headache of holiday pay calculations to contend with - it can be difficult to keep track of it all.
And as if changes to payment dates, paying bonuses, overtime and seasonal workers weren’t already enough!
Calculating holiday pay can be quite complicated, especially when you must consider overtime, commission and seasonal workers who've joined part way through the year.
Some payroll software can help with calculating holiday entitlement and pay, but payroll specialists also have a duty to ensure employees get paid correctly and in line with payroll legislation.
Checks will need to be made for those employees who are absent due to sickness. The payroll team will need to find out whether the employee qualifies for SSP, calculate how much is payable and pay the employee.
For some employers, the end of December marks the end of the holiday year and the renewal of annual leave entitlement. If you use a holiday booking system that links directly to payroll, annual leave entitlement will need to be set up for the new calendar year including setting up bank holidays. This ensures employees can book the correct amount of holiday entitlement and don’t get paid for more (or less) than they are entitled to.
When selling holiday, employers must ensure that the individual still receives and takes the statutory minimum amount of days they're legally entitled to. Similarly, when buying holiday, their salary must remain above minimum wage.
Stay on top of employee requests. Consider using Absence Management Software to simplify the leave process.
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