As part of the Employment Rights Act 2025 the rights of employees are changing, and new standards for companies to follow are being introduced, meaning companies now must manage and record the annual leave data of their employees. Among other parts of the bill, this will come into effect on the 6th of April.
Unfortunately, this change to annual leave recording did not get a dedicated announcement by the government. Because of this, many companies may find themselves in a hot water if they aren't aware of these new requirements.
Most (if not all) employers already track statutory leave entitlement in some form. These new changes now require a much more coherent and standardised process to accurately store and reliably recall employee annual leave information.
Employers must keep a record of at least the last 6 years of annual leave related pay. The records must be kept in line with UK GDPR rules, and they must show:
- Annual leave taken
- Annual leave carry-over
- Annual leave payments
- Any payments in lieu of annual leave
These are minimum requirements, but you should be prepared to incorporate more.
Even if you have a system that meets the requirements already, it's still a good time to evaluate and revise your current setup.
You should work out what your current process looks like from the employee making the request, through approvals, into your storage, and then recalled later. With this, you can now identify areas of concern: Does the approval process require more than one person? Can an employee easily see how much leave they have, or do they need to ask someone? Who oversees the data 6 years from now?
Tensor HR and SSVM combine to keep track of your time and leave records. With standardised and unified recording of time, absences, and leave accrued, manager approval workflows, transparent audit trails, and easy to view dashboards, you can consolidate your current processes into one place.
No more manual spreadsheets, verbal or paper reminders, or email chains. Just one simple and secure system.