Are bank holidays a burden on UK businesses?
To the majority of us bank holidays are a wonderfully brief sojourn from a hectic work schedule. They are a time for us to spend quality time with our loved ones and take a well-earned break from our hectic business lives. As the bank holiday draws closer, many probably wonder why we can’t have more time off throughout the rest of the working year, but the truth is our eight bank holidays are already having a negative affect on many businesses across England.
Though retailers and those in the hospitality industry often see business boom over these eight days, we have to think about the organisations that are losing numerous days worth of trade. If there are 253 working days this year, having 8 of those off doesn’t seem as if it would be too costly, but these few days can have a huge knock-on effect to businesses yearly profits.
Over the years, numerous bids to calculate the actual costs of UK holidays have been made. According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR, 2012), each public day costs the UK economy, on average, approximately £2.3bn in lost productivity.
Despite the bank holidays being a small burden, they do have their positives. It is important that employees have time off to unwind, to go back to work recuperated and ready to achieve their personal and businesses goals. From a business viewpoint, perhaps the economy would benefit from the bank holidays being spread out throughout the year. This way all members of staff still get their deserved and well-needed breaks, but companies aren’t financially hit as hard in such a short period of time.
Is this the end of the traditional bank holiday?
Earlier this month, the 144 year old tradition of UK banks closing on public holidays came to an end. Over 100 branches from the UK’s largest lenders opened their doors this spring bank holiday and many will continue to do so in the future. Today, many full-time workers find it particularly difficult to make it in to branches as a result of their 9-5 opening hours, so the change in tradition has been long coming in order to keep customers satisfied.
