Time to review your holidays
There’s only 3 months left of your company’s holiday year if it ends in December – so make sure to check now that everyone is on track to have taken their annual allowance. The minimum allowance a full-time person should take is 20 days (plus bank holidays) to prevent burnout and improve work-life balance. Taking annual leave also lowers absenteeism and maintains long-term productivity.
If you have people who still have lots of days to take, discuss booking that time off – it’s your employees’ statutory right to receive and take holidays. Otherwise, you may end up with a rush of leave requests in December. And most importantly, you have a duty to inform people that if they don’t use their holidays – they may lose them.
October is Menopause Awareness Month
As menopause and perimenopause affects over 5.5 million women in the UK workplace, this month why not make sure you have a working menopause policy to share with your team and remind them that the door is open to discuss support with symptoms.
We thought we’d take this opportunity to give you some lesser-known facts:
- Perimenopause is the transitional phase leading up to menopause and typically starts in a woman’s 40s and lasts around 6-8 years before periods stop completely (longer for those with ethnic minority backgrounds).
- 15% of women use HRT, but it generally takes 3 trips to the GP to get a prescription for it.
- 50-55 is the age range of women with the highest rate of suicide.
- 1 in 10 women leave work due to menopause symptoms.
Don’t have a menopause policy? If not, Mint HR will send you a template completely free – just click the contact button below.