Friday, December 24, 2010

Happy Floating Holidays!

As HR professionals we recognize that diversity breeds collaboration and new ideas and better communication. We understand that by being inclusive in our hiring practices we do a great service to our workforce by providing different cultural perceptions to business challenges. We know that Title 7 is the crux of the law for adding value to companies of almost every size and every industry. But all too often companies with the best of intentions miss the boat during the days that reside on the calendar from around mid December though the end of the month. Even seasoned HR professionals can be found guilty of isolating certain parts of their employee base without even realizing it. 

If the idea of a floating holiday policy seems foreign or even worse, unnecessary to you; here's a few things to remember. Holidays are important to different people for different reasons. Webster's Dictionary defines the word "holiday" as 1) a holy day 2) a day for which one is not obligated to work. So even the origins of the word "holiday" references a religious aspect. And with that being said it is important to realize that there are employees in your workforce that place different variations of that "religious significance" on different days of the year. In many cultures or religions the calendar does not even account for when the holiday is actually recognized. Factors like the Lunar Calendar or the Solar Calendar or even the years particular Solstice can impact when a certain holiday is observed. 

So while the majority of the Western Civilization is celebrating one particular holiday; keep in mind others in your company could have a different view or variation the celebration or have no regard for the observance at all. So in light of the wonderful holidays in all of the different parts of the world, no matter what day of the year it is...

"Happy Floating Holidays" from Team LotusHR!