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Despite business disruption, firms forecast bank holiday benefits

18 April 2011

The two long bank holidays being provided to UK employees by the Easter break and the royal wedding will be beneficial to staff motivation, bosses have predicted.

Although 45 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) polled predicted they will see some disruption to their operations as a result of the holidays, just below one in three (30 per cent) anticipate they will benefit from improved morale among workers.

The survey by BDRC Continental indicates SMEs are in an "upbeat mood" at present and the smaller the firm, the more likely it is to forecast improvements as a result of the breaks.

Most likely to expect more of a lift from the bank holidays than a disruption were organizations operating in the service industry.

BDRC Continental's Associate Director, Vicky Whiting, stated: "It would be easy to assume that two long weekends in succession will be hard for businesses to cope with, but the lift those breaks give to employees clearly has an important impact on small firms."

In related news, a recent survey by SunGard Availability Services indicated the primary cause of business disruption in Britain is now the office rather than IT problems, with issues such as communications failures and power outages causing continuity difficulties