Watch out for custom and practice
This catches a lot of SMEs out.
If you’ve always closed on the Spring Bank Holiday, always paid everyone for it, always given a day in lieu when it falls on a weekend, that pattern can become an implied contractual term over time. Even if your written contract says something different.
If you’re thinking about changing how bank holidays are handled, especially if it’s a reduction in benefit, that’s a conversation to have properly. Sometimes it needs formal consultation. Sometimes it’s an update to the handbook with notice. Either way, it isn’t a quick email.
Remember people on leave or sick
Bank holidays interact with other types of leave, and most policies don’t quite cover this.
Anyone on maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental or parental bereavement leave still has rights to bank holidays. Usually that means the bank holiday entitlement is added back to their annual leave allowance so they can take it later.
The same logic applies for anyone on long-term sickness absence. They accrue annual leave during their absence, and that includes any bank holidays they’d have been entitled to.
If your absence and family leave policies don’t cover this clearly, the next bank holiday is a good prompt to update them.
Be fair with leave requests
Some bank holidays come with annual leave requests piling up either side.
The week of the Spring Bank Holiday is a classic. Three days of annual leave around the Monday turns a one-day bank holiday into a nine-day break. Plenty of your team will be eyeing exactly that.
Have a clear approach. First come first served. Rotating priority year to year. A request window that closes a few weeks before. Whatever fits your business, just make it fair and visible, and apply it the same way every time.
The Acas guidance on holiday entitlement is a good steer if you want to firm up your approach.
Help your team switch off
The whole point of a bank holiday, for the people who get it off, is rest.
Encourage your team to plan their workload around the bank holiday so they’re not catching up at 9pm on the Sunday, or starting Tuesday morning at the bottom of a 200-email pile.
A practical Friday afternoon note works wonders. “Here’s what needs to be done before Monday. Here’s what can wait. Have a proper break.” A small thing with a big effect on energy and engagement when everyone comes back in.
Bank holidays only work when they’re genuinely days off. That starts with a clear plan from you, not a flurry of half-answered messages on the Friday before.
How Limelite Can Help
Most of the bank holiday confusion we see in SMEs comes down to two things. A contract that’s a bit vague, and a policy that’s a bit out of date.
If your contracts have been around for a few years, or you’ve grown the team without revisiting the documents, an HR audit is a really useful next step. We’ll check the wording, flag the gaps, and help you get everything aligned with how your business actually runs. It’s the kind of thing that quietly removes a lot of future headaches. If you’d rather grab a ready-made template, head to our HR shop for off-the-shelf policies and forms.
If you’d like a hand with any of this, book a free 30-minute discovery call below.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call
About the author
Helen Scullion Assoc. CIPD, HR Client Manager at Limelite HR & Learning. Helen works as an outsourced HR partner for retained clients, supporting organisations across Worcestershire and the UK with day-to-day HR management, employee relations and practical people support. Connect on LinkedIn.
