It’s Thanksgiving Day across Canada and if your payroll or HR personnel are wondering how they are going to assign the holiday pay to employees to eligible employees then your company, is behind the proverbial “Eight-Ball”.
In an article by Jon Hyman for workforce.com, titled, “8 Things You Need to Know About Holiday Pay” it lists some common questions that many companies still ask today about holiday pay for its employees. We selected three out of the eight that can be applied to both Canada and the United States. In no particular order they are:
“Can we require employees to work on holidays? Because holiday closings are a discretionary benefit, you can require that employees work on a holiday. In fact, the operational needs of some businesses will require that some employees work on holidays (hospitals, for example).
Can we place conditions on the receipt of holiday pay? Yes. For example, some employers are concerned that employees will combine a paid holiday with other paid time off to create extended vacations. To guard again this situation, some companies require employees to work the day before and after a paid holiday to be eligible to receive holiday pay.
If an employee takes a day off as a religious accommodation, does it have to be paid? An employer must reasonably accommodate an employee whose sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance conflicts with a work requirement, unless doing so would pose an undue hardship. One example of a reasonable accommodation is unpaid time off for a religious holiday or observance. Another is allowing an employee to use a vacation day for the observance”.
When it comes to holiday pay, it is unwise to assume and far better to be accurate. Depending on the jurisdiction in which your company operates, holiday pay calculations can be different. Government entities from Alberta to Yukon and other regions across Canada, have statutory holiday pay guidelines on their websites that your company can use. And, if your company has a collective bargaining agreement, this also has to be taken into consideration. One thing we know for sure is that if you are using an automated time and attendance system, but still have to figure out which employee worked the holiday through spreadsheets, then you are likely using the wrong system. And, as for manual time tracking, it won’t help you help you figure out how to apply statutory holiday pay.
There is no need for your payroll or HR department to be stressed out, if your company is using ATS TimeWork OnDemand. ATS TimeWork OnDemand is a dynamic, and award-wining application that automates the collection, calculation, and reporting of employee hours. This intuitive and robust solution automatically calculates and applies holiday pay based on eligibility and your company’s work rule policies, and leverages collected attendance data so you can minimize unapproved overtime, thus reducing labour costs. ATS TimeWork OnDemand is supported by powerful analytics tools, and is relied on by thousands of organizations to improve workforce productivity.
Bottom-line, if your HR or payroll manager is using ATS TimeWork OnDemand, they no longer have to worry about manually assigning holiday pay. After all, part of the Canadian Thanksgiving is to witness the colour of the leaves, as they change, eat lots of turkey and spend time with friends and family alike.
To learn about ATS Time and Attendance Solution download, a demonstration or call 866.294.2467.