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Floating Hollidays

Human Resources Mgmt Daily Update

More employers offering “floating holidays” to accommodate religious holidays – According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), an increasing number of employers are offering “floating holidays” to accommodate religious holidays. The SHRM / Tanenbaum Center Religion in the Workplace Survey, released earlier this year, shows that 51% of employers offered floating holidays in 2001, up from 36% in 2000. Floating holidays allow employees a number of days to be used throughout the year for holidays of their choice. Although the Christmas holiday remains almost universal, with 98% of employers saying Christmas is an official workplace holiday, non-Christian religious holidays are observed in a very small minority of workplaces as well. For example, one percent of respondents say that Jewish holidays, such as Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur, are official holidays for their organization. Some employers (28%) allow employees to swap holidays. For example, an employer may allow an employee to work on Christmas in exchange for taking Yom Kippur as a holiday, the survey explains. Human Resources Management Daily Document Update ¶17,749