Which high profile employer is taking a page from the Netflix employee handbook in the hopes unlimited vacation time will engage and retain employees?
Virgin boss Richard Branson has taken the radical step of throwing out all the vacation rules for his employees.
Virgin staff will be able to take time off when and as often as they want under the new “policy-that-isn’t,” Branson said. No warning needs to be given, and managers won’t be asked or expected to keep track of days off.
"It is left to the employee alone to decide if and when he or she feels like taking a few hours, a day, a week or a month off, the assumption being that they are only going to do it when they feel a hundred percent comfortable that they and their team are up to date on every project and that their absence will not in any way damage the business – or, for that matter, their careers," Branson wrote on his blog.
He was inspired after reading about a similar strategy introduced by the video streaming giant Netflix, which had been a marked success.
"The Netflix initiative had been driven by a growing groundswell of employees asking about how their new technology-controlled time on the job (working at all kinds of hours at home and/or everywhere they receive a business text or email) could be reconciled with the company's old-fashioned time-off policy," he said.
"We should focus on what people get done, not on how many hours or days worked. Just as we don't have a nine-to-five policy, we don't need a vacation policy.”
Virgin staff will be able to take time off when and as often as they want under the new “policy-that-isn’t,” Branson said. No warning needs to be given, and managers won’t be asked or expected to keep track of days off.
"It is left to the employee alone to decide if and when he or she feels like taking a few hours, a day, a week or a month off, the assumption being that they are only going to do it when they feel a hundred percent comfortable that they and their team are up to date on every project and that their absence will not in any way damage the business – or, for that matter, their careers," Branson wrote on his blog.
He was inspired after reading about a similar strategy introduced by the video streaming giant Netflix, which had been a marked success.
"The Netflix initiative had been driven by a growing groundswell of employees asking about how their new technology-controlled time on the job (working at all kinds of hours at home and/or everywhere they receive a business text or email) could be reconciled with the company's old-fashioned time-off policy," he said.
"We should focus on what people get done, not on how many hours or days worked. Just as we don't have a nine-to-five policy, we don't need a vacation policy.”