HR expert says businesses should encourage Anzac Day-style four-day weekends when dates align

The 2023 calendar has meant Anzac Day falls on a Tuesday this year and, as always, the mid-week public holiday means an extra-long weekend for many Australians.

Maybe they’ve applied for annual leave in advance, maybe they’ve called in sick, maybe something in between.

Tahnee McWhirter, partner at human resources consultancy HumanX HR, encourages business leaders to embrace the extra day off as an opportunity.

“Smart employers will jump on the chance to help the team plan for that and maximise their holiday time.”

Planning and co-designing

“It’s being proactive,” said McWhirter. “It shows that you’ve got your finger on the pulse, and you’ve shifted your mindset from ‘annual leave is something to be earned’ to ‘let’s co-design this as a tool to help you get some balance and enjoy life as well as work’.”

It’s hard to know just how many Aussies have dropped working the day before ANZAC Day but if social media sentiment is anything to go by, it’s quite a few.

Isn't it just accepted now in Australia that when a public holiday falls on a Thursday or a Tuesday that absolutely nothing of note will get done on the Friday / Monday?

— Tim Byrne (@TByrne75) April 21, 2023

Behold! There’s a new game for Aussies on the Monday before Anzac Day: how many out-of-office replies can you collect?

— Jen Dudley-Nicholson (@jendudley) April 24, 2023

Are loads of people taking tomorrow off to make it a four-day weekend? #AnzacDay

— Neil McMahon (@NeilMcMahon) April 23, 2023

Daniel Briskey, founder and managing director at NRG Services, a Queensland trade services company, said 26 of his 194 staff have taken annual leave today.

He said the public holiday adds a lot of stress and pressures, adding “I don’t love the month from a business perspective.”

But despite April and its challenges, Briskey also said “It’s a great time to give the staff a much-needed break for all the hard work since January,” and helps the company get “ready to take on the second half of the year.”

Last year, when Queen Elizabeth II died, a once-off, impromptu public holiday of commemoration was announced for September 22. That sudden change, it was reported, could have cost the economy as much as $1.5 billion, though that figure factored in things like penalty fees that won’t be an issue on ANZAC Day eve.

HumanX HR, which was recently named a Smart50 Workplaces Top Performer, has conversations with clients to help them get comfortable with the idea of taking four-day weekends, and McWhirter said the response is positive. “Progressive business leaders know that the genie is out of the bottle and there’s no putting it back.

“They know that to be a progressive workplace you really need to be promoting the taking of leave.” 

The exception

One area things might get a “little bit tricky”, said McWhirter, is for frontline industries like hospitality, retail and healthcare. When staff are required to work through public holidays, “[those businesses] don’t have the luxury of designing these kinds of strategies.”

Business leaders must be mindful; “It can create a bit of inequity when you’ve got corporate head office enjoying this four-day weekend and the frontline workforce not doing that,” she said.

Leave’s new look

McWhirter said staffers are no longer looking at leave like a “savings account or retirement package”.

“They’re wanting to take their leave. They’re wanting to experience things outside of work.”

It might be too late to get the ANZAC Day extra-long weekend right this time around, but future public holidays are chances to plan and work together with staff to make the most of these opportunities and co-design schedules to the benefit of managers and workers.