Festive Season Time Tracking: Why It’s Essential

As the festive season approaches, many small and medium-sized business owners are gearing up for one of the busiest times of the year. It’s all hands-on deck, extra shifts, longer hours, staff covering holidays, and sometimes employees taking on second jobs to make a bit of extra money.

But amid the Christmas chaos, one crucial responsibility can easily slip down the list: tracking your employees’ working time.

As an HR consultant who has supported many employers through this period, I can’t stress enough how important it is, not just for payroll accuracy, but for compliance with the Working Time Regulations and the wellbeing of your team.

Why working time tracking is so important

At its heart, tracking working time is about more than admin. It’s about making sure your employees are safe, rested, and legally protected.

The Working Time Regulations 1998 set out clear rules on how much people can work and how much rest they must have between shifts. That means ensuring your staff aren’t working excessive hours, whether those hours are with you, or spread across a second job.

During the festive rush, it’s common for employees to volunteer for extra hours or take on additional work elsewhere. While that might seem like a win-win, the law places the responsibility on you, the employer, to make sure the total hours worked don’t breach the limits.

If an employee ends up working long shifts back-to-back, with little or no rest, it could put your business at risk, even if their second job is outside your control.

A recent case that highlights the risk

A recent employment tribunal case — Ogumodede v Churchill Contract Services (2024) offers a valuable reminder of why this matters.

In this case, an employee was working two cleaning jobs for the same employer: one during the day and one at night. In total, she was working around 17 hours a day, with very little rest between shifts.

When the employer discovered the issue, they acted to prevent a breach of the Working Time Regulations by suspending one of her roles and eventually ending it. The employee brought a claim for unfair dismissal, but the tribunal sided with the employer.

The key takeaway? The tribunal accepted that the company had acted reasonably and lawfully. Continuing to let the employee work those hours would have broken the law, and the employer was right to step in.

For business owners, the message is clear: if you know (or even suspect) that an employee is working excessive hours, whether with you or elsewhere, you must take steps to address it.

How employers can stay compliant this Christmas

So, what does good time-tracking look like in practice? It doesn’t have to be complicated or costly. The goal is to make sure you have visibility over who’s working, when, and for how long.

Start by reviewing your current system. Are timesheets accurate and up to date? Are managers keeping an eye on rest periods between shifts? If someone is regularly working long days or double shifts, it’s worth checking in to make sure they’re not overdoing it, especially if they’ve mentioned a second job.

It’s also sensible to have a policy on secondary employment. This gives you the right to ask employees to declare if they work elsewhere, and to consider whether their total working hours are safe and compliant. It’s not about controlling what people do outside of work, it’s about safeguarding their health and protecting your business from risk.

And if you ever do discover that an employee’s combined hours are breaching the rules, handle it fairly and sensitively. Have an open conversation first. See if their hours can be adjusted before taking formal action. A fair, documented process is always your best defence.

Beyond compliance: looking after your people

Complying with the Working Time Regulations isn’t just a legal necessity, it’s good business practice. Overworked employees are more likely to make mistakes, take sick leave, or suffer from burnout. By keeping a close eye on working hours and ensuring proper rest, you’re helping your team stay healthy, productive, and engaged.

Remember, fatigue doesn’t just affect performance, it affects safety, especially in roles involving machinery, driving, or customer-facing work.

So, as you plan your festive rotas, make sure your systems for tracking hours and monitoring workloads are working as hard as your people are.

HR:4UK can help you stay compliant and confident

If you’re unsure whether your business is meeting its obligations under the Working Time Regulations, or you simply want peace of mind before the Christmas rush, now’s the time to review your approach.

At HR:4UK, we work with SMEs every day to set up practical, compliant systems for tracking working time and managing second jobs. We know what works in the real world, not just on paper.

If you’d like a quick review of your current arrangements, or some tailored HR advice on festive working hours, get in touch with us today. We’ll help you stay compliant, protect your people, and keep your business running smoothly all season long.