Holidays - What Is The Meaning Of Holidays And Its Importance | HRMantra HR Software

Holidays - What Is The Meaning Of Holidays And Its Importance | HRMantra HR Software

5-7 minutes

Holidays: Definition

A holiday is a rest time usually given to students and working professionals on account of special occasions or events. On holidays, people take a break from their routine duties and responsibilities and relax to sit back and celebrate.

Oh No! It''s November already?

We are in that time of the year again when HR managers rigorously work on compiling the holiday list for the upcoming year. Easy to say, but the hardest thing to do.

But don''t worry, as we are here to help you easily make the entire process simple. From making the term holiday acquire clarity to giving you ten potent tips to prepare the holiday list, we shall make your task breeze through easily and be much more manageable.

So, shall we start?

Let''s Read in Detail:

• Understanding Holidays Meaning!
• Importance of Declaring Holiday Lists
• What is Restricted Holiday in India?
• 10 Steps to Preparing a Holiday List

Understand Holidays Meaning!

Hmm! Holidays mean a lot to working folks—not just taking off the job from both body and mind. It is a moment for them to refresh and enjoy cultural inclusivity.

Needless to say, holidays will be good for businesses to build a more improved working place for people to stick around while being happy and more engaged.

Holidays are important in maintaining a good balance between work and personal life for employees and give an opportunity for organizations to exhibit their values.

In fact, there is a reason employees wait for it patiently to see when their holidays will be listed. Well, learn about how significant these lists of holidays are in the following section.

Importance of Declaring Holiday Lists

It is important that the holiday lists be shared with employees. It is so because such a list, its formation, and the sharing together help HR managers and employees work systematically and in an efficient enough way for planning and executing proper time management. In simpler words, holiday lists help businesses maintain efficiency while avoiding last-minute scheduling conflicts.

Optional holiday, another name of restricted holiday is when the working people are given leave to observe, concerning religious and cultural composition, or individual preferences, not forgetting that these holidays are always on the company''s policy.

Restricted holidays take the very opposite stance from that of public holidays. Public holidays apply to everyone throughout the country, but restricted holidays are more individualistic and flexible in approach.

Restricted holidays are all about inclusivity. Not every employee in a workplace will follow the same religion or sect.

10 Steps to Prepare a Holiday List

Here is a quick 10-step guide to help you prepare an effective holiday list:

• Review: Analyze data for the last three years. This will allow you to keenly have a view of holidays that employees have taken during the years. Apart from just carrying out a holiday plan, you can also get in touch with other HR professionals to know about other employees'' holiday plans and have an overview of common holiday trends and best practices.
• Gather: Your holiday list has to match with the laws. So, the second step is to collect information on public holidays announced by your state government and central government from credible sources.
• Research: The trends and practices vary from industry to industry. So, if you are shifting your location, it becomes highly important to conduct a detailed study on the industry practices in that location.
• Closely Align: If the organization indeed values family time, then it can tag the holidays with either one day before or after weekends. This will consequently give the employees long weekends. There would be no reason nonetheless to lose track of the fact that these leaves are still binding by both the national and local labor laws.
• Create: This is a point where you will create a holiday list for review and approval. By the fact that you have a lot of details and information, no doubt you will face no challenge preparing the list.
• Propose: In the holiday proposal listing, state the name of the holiday, the date, the day, and any comments. Indicate a reason with the substantiation if you wish to propose changes to the listed holidays. This will allow management to make better decisions.
• Seek Approval: Seek approval for the envisaged holiday list from the higher management. Also, keep copies both soft & hard of the approval as a reference for record and during internal/external audits.
• Communicate: Try to share the holiday list for next year on or before 31st December. This is, especially, important for companies who observe 1st of January as a holiday.
• Publish: Don''t forget to share a copy of the list of holidays with every employee. This will help you promote transparency and accountability in your place of work.
• Utilize Software: One of the simplest software applications in India, which will aid in carrying out easily and quickly all the above-mentioned steps, has to be taken. This leaves management system designed to be simple and steps placed so precisely makes the process more efficient. Right with these software, one can easily prepare and share quickly the list of holidays. Plus, your employee can also assure an immediate list of holidays available with these employee self-service portals.

Hopefully, by now you would know what a holiday is, the importance of holidays, and the process to prepare a holiday list for your company.

Make the Holiday List 2024 Like a Pro. Don''t hesitate to seek the help of HRMantra for that.

Use HRMantra to automate leave management from start to finish. Then, while the software does its work, just relax even on a work day.

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