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Inside this issue:
- Fix leave clashes early
- Time your bonus payouts
- Plan around holiday clusters
Hey HR Folks,
The next four months bring back-to-back festivals, bonus payouts, and holiday clusters that can throw off your staffing without warning.
Sort these three things now and the rest of the quarter runs itself.
1. Get your leave calendar under control
Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Diwali, and the year-end break all land in the next four months. Leave requests won’t trickle in anymore. They’ll arrive in clusters, often from the same team.
- Turn on self-service leave for balance checks and requests.
- Set blackout dates for teams that can’t go short-staffed.
- Publish team leave calendars before requests open.
- Audit your leave rules before the first clash.
See the leave management guide →
2. Time your bonus payout before the deadline decides for you
Statutory bonus under the Payment of Bonus Act accrues from April to March and gets paid out in November. Eligibility and payout decisions need to be locked in well before that date.
- Flag employees crossing the one-year eligibility mark before October.
- Separate statutory bonus messaging from festival bonus messaging.
- Decide now on partial payouts for this cycle.
- Put your bonus eligibility criteria in writing.
Read the Payment of Bonus Act →
3. Plan your payroll around the holiday clusters
Every major festival between October and November closes banks for a day or more, and payroll timing gets tight fast if you’re still processing it week to week.
- Map every gazetted and restricted holiday for your state.
- Move payroll processing 3 to 5 days earlier around holiday clusters.
- Confirm bank cut-off times with your payroll processor.
Check your state’s holiday list →
Your one job this week
Open your leave calendar and check for clashes.
- Mark any week where more than 30% of one team has already requested time off.
- Flag it to the manager before you approve anything else.
- Rework the queue so the team doesn’t go under half-strength during Diwali week.
Until next time!
