How HR should manage employees during Ramadan

Flexibility, understanding and consideration are the keys to enabling employees to observe Ramadan whilst maintaining productivity. 

While there is no automatic entitlement for time off due to Ramadan, companies do have an implied responsibility to care for staff during this time.

HR Grapevine spoke to ELAS about how HR can manage employees during this time. Pam Rogerson, HR Director for ELAS, advises that employees wishing to take time off during the month should submit holiday requests in the normal way and an employer should authorise them according to their usual rules. It would be reasonable to consider giving an employee unpaid leave, if the company can accommodate it operationally.

Rogerson says: “From an HR perspective it’s about assessing the operational requests for the time off and deciding if they are reasonable and operationally acceptable. It’s good to communicate a company policy on this as Ramadan, and other religious holidays, will affect the company year on year. Issues can often arise with miscommunication; some employees may incorrectly think that the employer is obliged by law to facilitate time off requests and therefore be unprepared when they are not granted. One would imagine that, in an organisation where there are a significant number of employees observing Ramadan, plans would already be in place but if not, then it may be too disruptive to allow all employees to take time off – whether it’s annual or unpaid leave. This can lead to some employees feeling that they’ve been discriminated against when, in fact, operationally it may have been that leave was granted on a first-come first-serve basis.”