England Win the World Cup? Here’s What Employers Should Be Thinking About Now

England’s World Cup run has already made itself felt in workplaces up and down the country. Late-night matches, groggy mornings, last-minute annual leave requests, sudden conversations about flexible working – HR teams have been dealing with all of it, and none of it has much to do with the day job.

Now there’s a bigger question on the horizon. The Prime Minister has hinted that a one-off bank holiday could be announced if England wins the World Cup, with Friday 24 July being the date most people are talking about.

Whether it happens or not, it’s worth thinking through now. The organisations that plan ahead will have a much easier time than those left scrambling after an announcement.

For most businesses, an extra day off isn’t the real issue. The real issue is how quickly you’d need to respond.

An announcement could land with very little warning. By that point, employees may already have plans, managers could be fielding competing leave requests, and operations teams will be trying to work out how to keep things running.

Get ahead of it now, and you’ll avoid making decisions under pressure later.

This is where a lot of confusion tends to creep in.

It’s easy to assume that a new bank holiday means everyone automatically gets the day off. Whether that’s true depends entirely on the wording of your contracts.

If contracts entitle staff to “all bank holidays”, you may need to honour an additional one. If they specify a fixed number of leave days or list the existing bank holidays by name, the position is likely different.

Worth checking your holiday wording now, and making sure managers know where the business stands, before anyone starts asking.

Even without a bank holiday, a World Cup final and the celebrations that follow it will almost certainly bring a wave of leave requests.

Some sectors will absorb this without much difficulty. Others – hospitality, retail, leisure, anything customer-facing – could see demand for time off peak exactly when they need people most.

Consistency is what matters here. Staff generally accept that business needs come first, but they notice quickly if decisions seem inconsistent or unfair. If you’re expecting a spike in requests, now’s a good time to remind managers of the approval process and make sure everyone’s applying it the same way.

If closing up or granting extra leave isn’t realistic for your business, look at what else might work. A later start the morning after a night match. Remote working for teams that can do it. Time off in lieu for anyone who works through an additional bank holiday.

None of this needs to be complicated. Most employees don’t expect an employer to solve everything, they just want to feel their situation has been considered.

Don’t forget the childcare knock-on effect

If a bank holiday does materialise, most employers will think first about staffing levels. Fewer think about what it means for parents.

By 24th July, schools will already be off for the summer, so this isn’t about sudden closures. But it does mean many working parents will already be juggling childcare arrangements, and an extra day off with no notice can still throw those plans out. Some may welcome the day; others may need to rearrange care at short notice if they’d planned to work through it.

Think ahead about what you could offer — homeworking, adjusted hours, annual leave, or some other short-term arrangement. Having options ready before the requests start coming in will save your managers a lot of hassle.

Employees tend to judge a decision less on the outcome and more on how it’s handled.

If you decide not to grant extra leave, say why. If some teams need to work while others don’t, explain the operational reasoning. If you’re offering flexibility instead of a day off, make sure people know exactly what’s on the table.

Clear, timely communication keeps expectations realistic and stops the rumour mill from filling in the gaps.

It’s easy to see this purely as a logistical problem, but there’s an upside too.

Major sporting events create a shared buzz that cuts across teams, departments and job titles. Employers who lean into that tend to see the benefit well beyond the tournament itself – not by forcing enthusiasm, but by giving people room to enjoy the moment.

If England do make history, plenty of employees will remember it. How their employer handled it will likely stick too.

No bank holiday has been confirmed yet. But the conversation is already happening, and it costs nothing to prepare now rather than react later. The practical priorities are straightforward: check your contracts, think through operational cover, plan for a rise in leave requests, and have your communication ready to go.

If football does come home, the businesses that handle it best won’t be the ones with the most generous policy – they’ll be the ones who thought it through before they needed to.