Badenoch & Clark's research of 1,000 office workers has found three fifths (60%) of UK employers do not have formalised policy for leave agreed, down only 10% from November 2011.
Organisations are now facing increasing pressure to ensure they communicate official leave policy to employees who have tickets, or risk the potential of growing absenteeism over the 2012 Games.
For the few employers that have formalised and communicated their annual leave process for London 2012, 10% say it will be on a first come, first served basis, and a small percentage (7%) have been advised annual leave will not be allowed on certain key event dates.
Employers in Scotland (77%) are still the furthest behind in their leave policy planning according to employees, whereas employers in the East are the most organised, with less than half 49% of employees still in the dark about London 2012 absence plans.
In the last few months employers in London have put in place leave policy plans. In November 2011 almost two thirds (62%) of London employees were unaware of what their office guidelines were for leave, but this has now fallen by a fifth (20.4%) to only 41.9%.
Nicola Linkleter, MD, at Badenoch & Clark said: "The 2012 Games seem to have come round too quickly for many businesses and with only 100 days to go employers need to seriously start considering their official leave policy. Given the immense interest the 2012 Games will create across the country and with many employees planning to attend key events, poor business planning could lead to employee discontent, confusion or empty offices. If it transpires that lots of people have booked off the same period of annual leave or choose to take a 'sickie' due to uncertainty over leave, offices could be seriously understaffed.
"Our research back in July 2011 suggested that one in six (15.7%) employees would consider taking a 'sickie' to watch London 2012 due to a lack of clarity over leave policy. It is therefore important that employers firm up annual leave policies and contingency plans for possible staff shortfalls and communicate these policies to employees sooner rather than later."
