Mastering the Holiday Entitlement Calculator: A Comprehensive Guide

Holiday entitlement ensures that all employees receive the equivalent of 5.6 weeks of paid holiday each year. Yet, it doesn't necessarily mean employees have that time immediately available at the beginning of the calendar year or even upon the anniversary of their hire date.

Holiday entitlement depends on an employee's work schedule, designated workplace holidays, and even employer decisions. Once all of these factors come into play, calculating holiday entitlement for a single employee becomes considerably more challenging.

If you're struggling to understand how your holiday entitlement works, you're not alone. This guide is designed to help demystify the process of determining holiday entitlement and explain how the holiday entitlement calculator can take much of the effort out of the task. 

Whether you're an employee planning a holiday or an HR professional managing leave policies, this comprehensive guide is for you. So let's dive in, and revolutionise the way we look at holidays.

Understanding Holiday Entitlement

Almost all people classed as workers (including part-time workers and those who work irregular hours) are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks paid holiday a year. For a full-time employee, this means 28 days of paid annual leave each year. While part-time employees have the same holiday entitlement rights, their paid holidays will amount to fewer than 28 days. 

Calculating Annual Statutory Leave Entitlement

A simple calculation is used to determine annual holiday entitlement for full-time employees. 

5.6 x 5 (working days) = 28 days

The same calculation can be used to calculate holiday entitlement for part-time workers who work the same number of days each week. For example, an employee who works three days a week gets 16.8 days off.

5.6 x 3 (working days) = 16.8 days

Determining paid leave for employees working irregular hours can be a little more complex. It requires HR professionals to calculate time off based on the average number of weekly fixed hours a worker has worked in the previous 52 weeks, at their average hourly rate.

On top of these different calculations, holiday leave can vary from one employer to the next. For example, bank or public holidays don't have to be given as paid leave. However, companies that observe these holidays can use them as a portion of holiday entitlement. This means calculating available holiday leave for employees would require subtracting the holidays observed by the employer. Additionally, an employer can choose to offer more leave than the legal minimum paid holidays. Often, these extra perks are provided to employees who have been employed for a longer period of time. As a result, it's reasonable to expect that different calculations are required within the same place of employment.

How Holidays Are Accrued

While employees are entitled to a specific number of holidays each year, paid time off is accumulated for hours worked. As such, employees accrue annual leave at the rate of 1/12 per every month worked. Holiday entitlement begins when an employee starts working for an organisation, and any remaining holiday hours must be paid in full when the employment ends. 

Using a holiday entitlement calculator

A holiday entitlement calculator is a powerful tool that can be used by HR professionals and individual employees to calculate available paid holiday time as needed. Instead of manually calculating time off on spreadsheets, employers can automate the process to provide employees and HR professionals with instant access to an individual employee's available paid time off. 

Holiday entitlement calculators are software solutions that use various data inputs to provide accurate calculations in real-time. They may be implemented by third-party providers or accessed online like the one administered by GOV.UK. These tools can help you calculate holiday entitlement for a full year or part of the year based on when an employee starts or finishes work part way through the year. 

Various holiday entitlement calculators may provide different features to help you evaluate holiday entitlement for complex scheduling and additional factors unique to your organisation. Depending on your choice of software, these options may be included. 

Time Worked per Week

Calculating an employee's paid leave depends on how often they work. A holiday entitlement calculator typically provides several options to accommodate various schedule structures. Your calculation will usually be launched with these options:

• Days worked per week
• Hours worked per week
• Irregular hours, including zero-hour contracts
• Annualised hours (for calculating an employee's working time and pay over a standard year)
• Compressed hours (for flexible schedules that allow employees to complete a full work week in fewer than 5 days)
• Shifts

Useful Read: The 4-day work week schedule - An Implementation  Guide

Employee Start or Leave Date

Whether your employment year begins and ends with the calendar year or the tax year, it's unlikely that all employees are hired and terminated at the beginning or end of the year. Holiday entitlement begins when an employee begins working. By providing an employee's start time, available paid leave can be automatically calculated based on the number of months they'll work during the year. 

Similarly, if a part-time employee only works specific months of the year, an expected leave date can come in handy. A calculator will allow you to enter an expected leave time to accurately calculate paid leave for the time worked. 

Additional Paid Holidays

Employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday time. There are no requirements for employees to provide extra time for employees who work overtime or for holidays when your establishment is closed for an observed holiday. However, employers can make choices to provide employees with additional time off and whether to observe bank holidays as an organisation. These choices can affect how paid holidays are calculated.

• Bank Holidays: The UK observes 8 bank holidays. If they're included in your company's statutory entitlement, a calculator may allow you to enter those holidays separately. You may also be able to note additional holidays you provide in addition to statutory entitlement. This is particularly useful to help create equal conditions for part-time employees who may accrue more time based on the days of the week on which holidays fall.

• Added Holidays: In many cases, employees may accumulate more than the required 5.6 weeks of paid holiday. If your company provides extra holiday time based on how long an employee has worked for the organisation, you may be able to add the additional days into the calculator for accurate calculations.

• Carry over: Employers aren't required to allow carry-forward of annual leave, but many do. A calculator may allow you to add these additional hours or days to an individual employee's calculation at the beginning of the calendar year. 

There are many elements that go into calculating holiday entitlement and available paid time off for each individual employee. By choosing a calculator that allows you to enter multiple data points, you can automate calculations so employees will always be updated and you can remain compliant with regulations. 

Developing transparent policies around holidays and leave

Most workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday or the equivalent based on their work hours. Rules surrounding when employees can take this time are up to the employer. However, you cannot enforce policies regarding holiday entitlement if your employees weren't notified about them. In the interest of treating all employees fairly and streamlining your payment process, it's essential to set policies around holidays and leave. 

• Carry over: If a worker gets 28 hours of leave, they can carry forward a maximum of 8 hours if allowed by their employer. If you supply your employees with added time off based on overtime or other factors, you can choose to allow that time to be carried over as well. It's crucial to create policies that inform workers of the paid holiday time they can carry forward.

• Bank holidays: Whether you include bank holidays in statutory entitlement or supply them in addition to entitled holiday hours, you need to pass this information along to employees. Develop and share policies before employees take time off, so you can be sure they understand the regulations surrounding absences. 

• Notice periods: You're required to pay employees for their accrued paid holiday time when they exit the company. By developing policies surrounding the time frame for notice of resignation, you can ensure you have time to calculate the remaining holiday pay.

Over 8 million employees in the UK work part-time. Creating schedules and calculating paid holidays for employees with varied work hours and alternating shifts can be challenging. Spreadsheets and calendars are prone to error and difficult to edit as conditions change. Luckily, the right software choice will allow you to automate the process and provide accessible information to employees.

Shiftbase is an easy-to-use employee scheduling software that creates a flexible schedule for a longer period. The platform offers a variety of features to streamline tasks for HR professionals and empower employees to take control of their own schedules. Holidays are automatically calculated with the software, allowing employees to instantly see available holidays and even submit absence requests. Worked hours and time off are automatically updated by the system, so employees can view their current holiday balance, hours used, and holiday accrual from the mobile app. If you're ready to simplify your scheduling and holiday entitlement process, get started with a free 14-day demo right away.