Setting Up a Company Holiday Calendar: A Step-by-Step Guide

Maintaining a unified holiday schedule across an organization can be challenging, but implementing a centralized Company Holiday Calendar significantly improves transparency and team alignment. After extensive research, I've developed a reliable method using Outlook's shared mailbox functionality to create a universally accessible holiday calendar.

Solution Overview

This approach establishes a three-tier system:

1. A dedicated shared mailbox serving as the holiday calendar
2. Designated editors with full modification rights
3. Organization-wide view-only access for all other employees

Implementation Guide

1. Create the Shared Mailbox

The initial step involves creating a shared mailbox that will serve as the central Holiday Calendar. This calendar will be accessible to all relevant personnel. To begin, open PowerShell and establish a connection to Exchange Online PowerShell. Execute the following command:

New-Mailbox -Shared -Name "HolidayCalendar" -DisplayName "Holiday Calendar" -PrimarySmtpAddress "HolidayCalendar@yourdomain.com"

This command provisions a shared mailbox named "Holiday Calendar" with the specified primary SMTP address.

2. Assign Editor Permissions

Next, you need to grant editor permissions to the specific users who will be responsible for managing the calendar. These individuals will possess the ability to add, edit, and delete calendar events. Define the list of users who will have editor privileges:

$EditorUsers = @("user1@yourdomain.com", "user2@yourdomain.com", "user3@yourdomain.com")

Run the subsequent command to assign editor permissions to each user listed:

foreach ($EditorUser in $EditorUsers) {
   Add-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity "HolidayCalendar:\Calendar" -User $EditorUser -AccessRights Editor -SendNotificationToUser $true
}

This command assigns editor permissions to the specified users and sends them a notification regarding the permission change.

3. Assign Reviewer Permissions

Finally, you need to assign reviewer permissions to all other users in the organization. Users with reviewer permissions can view the details of the calendar events in their Outlook but cannot make changes. First, retrieve the email addresses of all user mailboxes:

$AllUserEmails = Get-Mailbox -RecipientTypeDetails UserMailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Select-Object -ExpandProperty PrimarySmtpAddress

Execute the following command to assign reviewer permissions to all users, explicitly excluding those who have been granted editor permissions:

foreach ($UserEmail in $AllUserEmails) {
   if ($EditorUsers -notcontains $UserEmail) {
       Add-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity "HolidayCalendar:\Calendar" -User $UserEmail -AccessRights Reviewer -SendNotificationToUser $true
   }
}

This command grants reviewer permissions to all users not designated as editors and sends them a notification.

Employee Access Instructions

By adhering to these steps, you will successfully establish a shared Company Holiday Calendar that allows designated users to manage it while enabling all other users to view its contents.

Upon receiving a notification in their inbox, users can accept the invitation to add the calendar to their Outlook. If a user accidentally removes the calendar from their Outlook, they can manually add it back by following these steps:

1. In your Calendar view, select Add.
2. Choose From Address Book.
3. Type in the name or email address of the shared mailbox ("HolidayCalendar").
4. Select the shared mailbox name from the results.
5. Select OK.

While this solution proves effective, it necessitates careful oversight and may require adjustments based on user feedback. Nevertheless, it offers a centralized and efficient method for managing company holidays, thereby enhancing communication and overall organizational efficiency.