The start of a new year might mean many things for businesses: time to scale up and expand their team; an opportunity to set ambitious new targets; and a chance to review processes. But it also typically means a surge in absences.

With January marking the renewal of holiday entitlement for many employees, the race is on to book annual leave—meaning that business owners and HR teams are snowed under an avalanche of holiday requests.

And if that wasn’t enough, instances of sickness and lateness rise vastly too meaning more admin burden is piled on…

Figures collated* indicate annual leave requests more than DOUBLE in January with a 105% increase.

And employers can expect sickness and lateness to rise too, as we’ve seen triple the rates year-on-year.

Alan Price, CEO at BrightHR, shares his insight: “While you can’t blame staff for being proactive and getting their holiday requests in as soon as possible, it can present issues for those organisations that are still relying on manual spreadsheets and filing paper forms. Not only does the paperwork pile up, but it’s also difficult to guard against potential clashes which can leave employers short-staffed further down the line.

“That’s why employers need absence management software in their toolkits that can track all absence types for their teams, with a simple calendar view and instant notifications of clashes.

“When it comes to lateness and sickness, it’s important to recognise the reasons behind the surge as there may be measures employers can put in place to protect both their business and their teams.

“And software can help you easily identify any patterns too, so if you see an employee is prone to more days off when the weather is gloomy, it could be that they have seasonal affective disorder, or their ailments worsen in the cold. In such cases, providing support through an employee assistance programme can be the ticket to improving staff morale and reducing absences.”

*Research figures collated from BrightHR’s absence management software.