So, your company is trying to stay hip and appealing to the younger workforce. One of the perks that you may have considered is an unlimited vacation policy. Many companies such as tech companies, and even more and more older companies in traditional industries are adopting this trend. Is it a good idea, or will your company suffer due to this lax policy?
This move to unlimited vacation can not only help your company attract better talent, it can also make your current employees happier. The policy will convey care to your employees and show that your company truly wants to promote wellness. It gives the employee the leniency of selecting days they want off and allowing them to not worry about going into the negative.
With the many benefits, it seems like the term “Unlimited Vacation” is more of a marketing tool for recruiting talent. This unlimited vacation can be spoiled if employees are underperforming in their work duties and the policy may need to be adjusted for those underperformers. For the well-performing individuals, statistics show they end up using at most roughly 3-6 weeks of vacation time due to work demands. Of course, your company can decide on how many days would be considered taking advantage of the policy.
I get it, you may be thinking your employees are never going to show up to work if we implement this policy. The opposite may in fact be true. It is often more of an issue with employees taking too little time off vs taking too much off. Some companies have been implementing mandatory use of vacation days and have required employees to take certain time away from work to relieve some of the stresses that work can present.
Although the flexibility of when employees can take time off is a great thing, it can cause challenges with understaffing or delays in projects if key employees are not available. Proper planning and tracking of employees will be a key implementation to your company to get the most out of this new policy. On the other hand, being able to take off at the employees’ discretion can resolve the issue of workers trying to save their vacation for the holidays and taking off in bulk during those months and weeks. Flexibility will help employees manage their time better and avoid this “saving strategy.”
Ultimately, an unlimited vacation policy is based on trust. Trust that employees will still perform their work duties exceptionally and trust that employees will take time off work for their own health. Tracking of PTO can be confusing and time consuming…unless you let Axiom handle that for you. This time saved can allow for you to focus on the most important factors of your business and not worry about those time-consuming tasks that you hate to do. Whether an unlimited policy is something you are considering or not, consider Axiom to help you handle those things you tend to focus least on, and let us allow you to focus on the tasks that you truly enjoy!