How to Effectively Plan for Staff Vacations

As the weather gets nicer and temperatures rise, so do the vacation requests that land on your desk.  But when several deserving members of your staff want the same days off this spring and summer, it can be difficult to determine how to grant the requests without jeopardizing your department’s productivity.

For accounting and finance organizations, the challenge is compounded by key deadlines related to end-of-quarter financial reports.  As a manager, this places added pressure on you to ensure you have enough people to handle the workload during the months when the second and third quarters end.

Following are scheduling suggestions to help you prepare for vacation season:

Develop a plan.  Create a system for granting vacation requests, whether it’s on a first-come-first-served basis, seniority or otherwise.  Also, clearly communicate the dates when you’d like all hands on deck.  In addition, if you haven’t done so already, explain how much notice you’ll require.  Remember that the earlier you know which employees want to be out at what times, the sooner you can start crafting a game plan to maintain appropriate staff levels. 

Delegate early.  Determine which employees are best prepared to take over crucial responsibilities when your senior finance and accounting professionals are absent.  Not only will this maintain workflow, it provides an opportunity to evaluate less-tenured workers as they take on new tasks and assignments.  Their performance while pinch-hitting also can help you identify excellent up-and-coming candidates for higher-level positions that open up at your firm.

Consider interim support.  Engaging temporary accounting and finance staff is another smart strategy for keeping critical projects on track.  This approach is particularly helpful when your team is operating at maximum capacity and there are few options for reassigning portions of the workload. 

Consider in advance what is needed for initiatives to progress when major players are on vacation and make arrangements for backup support from skilled project professionals.  Doing so will keep productivity and morale high by taking some of the burden off your core staffers who remain in the office.

Finally, when it comes time to take your own vacation, trust your team.  If you’ve made good hires, you have a staff of employees capable of making smart decisions and managing whatever issues may arise while you’re relaxing and recharging.