People Matter - March 2026
HR Dept
Managing productivity around public holidays
From March to June, Ireland enjoys four public holidays within approximately ten weeks. While you, like most people, will probably be looking forward to these days off, it can present challenges when running a business.
You’ve probably got experience of most of these challenges: The contracted work weeks making it harder to hit deadlines; employees looking to get that perfect timing on annual leave requests which bags them an extended break for relatively little allowance used (that might leave you short staffed); and maybe, even, some unauthorised absence due to people cutting a little too loose on those long weekends.
But with a bit of planning now, you can prepare and ensure your team gets the rest it deserves, whilst ensuring the business does not suffer.
We promote it in a number of contexts, but HR software comes into its own with absence management. Not only does software automate the admin of annual leave, but it allows you to report on who’s off and when, so you have clarity on whether you are looking a bit light in personnel at a key time. You can then manage the team accordingly – no nasty surprises for you or them.
If your operations are workflow based, regardless of whether employees take extra time off, some advanced planning will help ensure that milestones are met and projects completed. Acknowledge in upcoming meetings that you’ll all be a day short here and there, and build these timings into your management.
Because of the changes to sick pay introduced in recent years, we have advised for some time that you review your sickness absence policies and procedures. Ensuring that you have return-to-work interviews in place and robust sickness absence notification protocols will help at any time of year, and especially around public holidays.
Confidence amidst the changes (and continuity) of employment law
2026 is a year of change and unexpected continuity in employment law.
Two things which were touted to change but that have been kept the same for now are the (EU) AI Act, and increases to the amount of sick leave allowance employees can claim each year.
The AI Act implementation is delayed whilst EU technical guidance is finalised and to give the government time to create national regulatory structures. So in the medium term, it will come in.
Regarding sick leave, the current five days limit is seen as a compromise, after cost concerns for employers were widely voiced. It was due to rise to ten days this year. This is now unlikely to change any time soon.
But what of changes that have or will happen in 2026? We’ve already seen auto-enrolment pensions come in (albeit after a delay of their own), a routine rise to the national minimum wage and new pay transparency requirements. In December, a mandate will be introduced requiring that workers on digital platforms who are under the control and direction of an employer are classified as employees.
Changes that have happened, might happen, have been delayed, cancelled…
…It can be difficult for hardworking SME owners to keep up with it all and that is where we come in at The HR Dept. Whether you choose our excellent retained advice line, or targeted help with a one-off project or issue, we are the voice of confidence by your side; helping you prepare with clarity and make wise business decisions. To find out how we can best help you, please get in touch.
Sowing the seeds for summer
As keen gardeners will have prepared for a spring and summer in bloom by sowing their seeds in advance, so too must hospitality businesses have planted their seeds for success well before the seasons turn.
You’ll be familiar with the rhythms of recruitment if you have been in hospitality for a while. But with so much employment law change happening this year, you’d be forgiven for falling behind on summer recruitment planning.
Certain large events like Galway International Arts Festival and Electric Picnic hoover up seasonal workers, as well as events more localised to you. This year we have an extra big one too, with the men’s football world cup bound to cause a spike in bar work, especially if favoured nations do well.
If you want to get ahead of the game now, we can help with seasonal recruitment processes. We offer a range of support where you need it, from preparing effective job adverts to drafting employment contracts and much more. Just ask of you’d like to know how we could help you.
“Can I carry over my annual leave?”
“Can I carry over my annual leave?” is a common question in workplaces, though not necessarily one with a simple answer. Annual leave allowance is counted over a twelve-month period, and if you don’t run it over the calendar year, another popular timeframe is October. But some run it from April to March. If so, there’s a good chance you may hear this question around now as employees realise they have run out of time.
Taking a high-level view, The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 provides for four weeks of statutory annual leave. Separately to this are added our nine public holidays. However, there is no statutory right to carry annual leave over, but you may both agree to do so.
While balancing the needs of the business and employees taking annual leave in the right timeframes for their own benefit, it is often helpful to begin with an accommodating stance.
There are exceptions, such as where illness is relevant. Here, it may be carried over as long as it is used within 15 months after the end of the leave year. If you prevent them using annual leave (for operational reasons), it should be carried over and used within six months of the new leave year starting.
If, contractually, you offer even more leave, your employment contracts will determine what you do.
Ghost workers: A phantom menace
No this isn’t some Halloween spookfest, although it is an HR horror story of sorts from the UK. A manager at a family business selling vegetables devised a scheme to steal more than half a million pounds from her employer.
That scheme involved fake agency temporary workers, effectively ghosts, whom she had complete sign-off on (time sheets, invoices etc.), and she diverted the wages paid to them into her own bank account. The fraud was eventually spotted when her employers recognised the distinctive Latvian surnames she had used for her “ghosts”.
Her ruse was perpetrated over three years, but notably, after ten years of service completed. Sadly, this raises questions of who you can ever trust, and shows the need for robust checks and balances wherever responsibility and money are involved.
You’ve got mail, but you shouldn’t have!
Managing redundancies is never going to be the easiest part of running a business. But you can put yourself in the best position by following process, being diligent and showing emotional intelligence. Recently, it was reported that one of the largest companies in the world, Amazon, showed everyone how not to do it – by sending a draft email in error which revealed planned job cuts early, shortly before then confirming they will cut 16,000 jobs globally. Whoops!
But to be fair, they are offering an array of support, including time to look for a new role internally, or transition support including severance pay and outplacement services, which is good practice.
