Deloitte is letting its UK employees choose when to take public holidays

Deloitte is letting employees in the UK choose when to take public holidays in a bid to make their workplace “flexible” and “inclusive” amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The multinational on Wednesday announced 22,000 of its UK staff could even decide to move their off days around bigger holidays such as Christmas.

“Our new approach means that our people can choose to take public holiday leave on the dates that are most meaningful to them, in addition to their contractual and purchased holiday allowance,” said Jackie Henry, Deloitte’s managing partner for people and purpose.

The professional services company added that the employees can still be eligible to take public holidays on the days they fall.

Deloitte had introduced a flexible working model for its UK employees last year, which allowed them to choose “when, where and how they work in the future”.

The auditing giant has allowed extended flexible working since 2014, but less than half its UK workforce worked from home on a regular basis before the pandemic.

Deloitte said its office buildings will be used mainly for team collaboration, training and client meetings once offices are allowed to return at full capacity.

The firm added that new joiners would be given £500 to ensure they have the right equipment to work from home.

“We’ll also explore ideas for transforming our offices across the UK to allow us to work more collaboratively, both with our clients and our communities,” Stephen Griggs, Deloitte’s UK managing partner, said.

“We’ll test all of these new work set-ups with our people, and gather their feedback, so we understand what works and what doesn’t,” he added.

In November 2021, according to the company’s “Crane” survey, employers who favour workplaces were fighting back against the work-from-home boom.