26 Jul Summer holidays and your small team: what to do now
Insight from an HR consultant in Wychavon on preparing your business for summer absences before they cause real problems.
I’ve been working with a few clients recently who are all facing the same thing.
Summer is coming, holiday requests are stacking up, and nobody has thought about what happens when those people aren’t there.
If you run a small team, even one or two absences at the same time can leave a serious gap.
The good news is that a bit of planning now saves a lot of stress later.
Here’s what I’d suggest you think about.
What Does It Actually Look Like When Your Capacity Drops?
Say you’ve got ten people. Two of them are off at the same time. That’s 20% of your workforce gone for a week or more.
For a larger company, that might barely register. For you, it could mean missed deadlines, unhappy clients, or the rest of the team stretched to breaking point.
The problem isn’t that people take holidays. Of course they should. The problem is when nobody has worked out what happens in the gaps they leave behind.
Start by Working Out Who Depends on Whom
Before anyone heads off, sit down and think through the key roles and responsibilities in your team. For each person who’s going to be away, consider:
- What tasks genuinely can’t wait until they’re back?
- Who else has enough knowledge to pick those tasks up?
If the answer to that second question is “nobody,” you’ve found a vulnerability worth addressing now rather than in August.
A simple handover document can go a long way. Even just a shared folder with key files and a brief walkthrough of what’s in progress. It doesn’t need to be a formal process.
And if the gap is too wide for anyone internally to cover, it’s worth considering temporary support before the pressure hits.
Does the Myth of “Everyone Just Gets on With It” Sound Familiar?
There’s a common assumption that the people who stay behind will simply absorb the extra work. And to be fair, most of them will. They’ll crack on without complaining.
But here’s the reality: covering for absent colleagues on top of their own workload, for weeks at a time, takes a toll. If you don’t acknowledge that, you risk losing those very people come September.
I see this pattern regularly. The summer goes by, the loyal team members hold everything together, and then they hand in their notice once things calm down. They’ve had enough.
So what can you actually do about it?
- Be upfront with your team. Tell them you know the load is heavier and that you appreciate what they’re doing. It takes a couple of minutes and it genuinely matters.
- Decide in advance which tasks or projects can be paused. Don’t let everything run at full speed with fewer people.
- Strip back meetings and admin during the busiest holiday weeks. If something can wait, let it wait.
- Check in with people while the pressure is on, not just after it’s passed.
What About Your Clients?
If your team’s capacity is going to be reduced, your clients need to know. Ideally before a deadline slips.
Most clients are completely understanding when you give them advance warning. A quick email or call to say “we’re running with a smaller team over the next couple of weeks” goes a long way.
What they won’t appreciate is finding out after something has been missed. That’s when trust gets damaged.
Treat Summer as a Useful Test of Your Team Structure
One thing I always encourage business owners to do is pay attention to what breaks when someone is away.
If a single person’s absence causes real disruption, that tells you something important. It highlights where knowledge is concentrated in one individual and where processes only function because of a specific person running them.
That’s valuable information. Not just for getting through summer, but for how you build your team going forward. HR consultancy services in Wychavon can help you identify and address these kinds of structural risks before they become bigger problems.
Questions Worth Asking Yourself Right Now
Before the holiday season is fully underway, take five minutes to think about these:
- If your most relied-upon team member was off for a fortnight, would anyone know how to do their job?
- Have you told your remaining staff that you recognise the extra effort they’ll be putting in?
- Do your clients know about any upcoming periods of reduced capacity?
- Are there any tasks you could pause or simplify during peak holiday weeks?
- What did last summer teach you that you haven’t yet acted on?
How I Can Help You Prepare
If any of this has struck a chord, I’d love to have a conversation about how to get your business ready for the summer months.
As an outsourced HR consultant in Wychavon, I work with small businesses to put practical plans in place. That might mean helping you map out who covers what, creating simple handover structures, or thinking through how to support the team members who’ll be holding things together while others are away.
The aim is to get you through summer without burning out your best people.
If you’d like to talk it through, please get in touch. You can call me on 01386 751740 or email kirsten@cluerhr.co.uk to book a discovery call.
