Welcome Holiday! This is how we ended our troubling school compositions. Now, after half year of work, we would make it’s apology in far more numerous and great words; it wound maybe include the rough sand, the hot sun, the salty smell of the sea, the fade one of relaxation, maybe a sunset or a sunrise. No matter how long or short our summer holiday would be it is clear that it represents a special moment maybe because that after so many years of school the perception that summer is synonym with the big vacation has deeply ingrained.

As for the companies, summer represents the longest period of…difficulty. That is because is unfortunately combining financial pressure of vacancy compensations with the personnel prolonged unavailability. Even the ones who remain at work do not perform in an atmosphere that is clearly relaxed, so for almost a trimester companies are forced to work with their engines at minimum speed. Companies that impose the same period for holidays to all employees are the exception, a practice that is more and more frequent in Romanian IT industry.

How do companies get ready for the great holiday?

A thrifty man makes a chariot in winter and a sledge in summer. The companies that respect themselves plan holidays, employee back-up strategies and the ones in case of a crisis ahead. The legislation in this case is very clear and favorable, the only unknown element being the employees who aren’t willing to plan the holiday further ahead.

In case the back-up strategies are planed inside the company, holidays can modify only their juncture. The most important things that these strategies must include are:

Succession: who takes whose place during holidays? In general succession bases on job similarity. In other words, the secretary could never be a valid back-up solution for a technical consultant. In case this strategy is missing, companies call in intuitive and spontaneous back-up, through “bargain” inside the department. The disadvantage is clear chaos can find place just as ad-hoc as the newly found solution.

Communication: is without doubt the most complicated, both regarding clients and the internal one: e-mails, telephones, someone has to answer during holiday, and that someone must be informed and available. How do we redirect telephones and e-mail answers? How can we be as prompt and exact in interventions during vacation without disturbing the people who are at their maximum of relaxation? It depends on the technology that every company uses, the ingeniousness of the back-up strategies and on the flexibility and adaptability of the ones who remain “on guard”.

Crisis action plan: what do we do if a critical system for the company or for the client crashes? Basically this plan should be included in the back-up strategy, and employees should know it and accede to it before they leave on holiday.

An index of efficient back-up strategy is the number of requests to the colleagues that are in vacation for some common situations and not of crisis. It is clear that if we end up calling our colleagues because we can’t find a file or we’ve forgotten a telephone number, we have a real problem both with succession and with internal communication.

The important thing is that no matter the difficulties that the company faces, employees should have the possibility to take a continuous holiday for at least two weeks. Other vise they can’t totally disconnect and their posterior performances and even their health would be seriously disturbed.

Finally, do not forget that before a vacancy and most important in the period following, employees tend to be less detailed oriented less prompt in achieving their punctual tasks. Avoid overload in this period of time.

ITex is closed for overhaul to during august, even though someone will be on watch.

A nice holiday to all of you and we will be back with fresh forces in autumn!