It's time to start investing in your people’s work-life balance
Companies implementing mandatory paid time off (PTO) for their staff are reaping great benefits, according to a new study from SkyNova. In an observation by managers after implementing mandatory PTO policies in their organisations, the following impacts have been reported:
- Happier employees (42.8%)
- Increased productivity (44.2%)
- Increased interest in working for our company (42%)
- Increased retention (38.7%)
- Additional time to manage (38.3%)
- Fewer workplace mistakes (38%)
- Lower rate of burnout (37.4%)
- Fewer scheduling challenges (35%)
- Ability for management to plan ahead (34.4%)
- Compliance with state or federal laws (34.4%)
- Consistent enforcement of PTO policies (32.3%)
- Fewer no call, no shows (30.7%)
For employees who were surveyed, on the other hand, more than two-thirds of those with mandatory PTO policy in their company rated their at-work happiness as good or excellent. They were also 10 percentage points more likely to experience good or excellent mental health, according to the report.
Despite these benefits, only 70.5% of the employees respondents said their company has mandatory PTO, and "relatively few companies" are actually enforcing them.
In addition, only 38.5% also said they increased their PTO in the past year, while 10.9% said they decreased it, while 35.3% did not make any changes to the policy.
Read more: PTO is the most common benefit employees look for in a job position
Employees, however, want changes. Eight of 10 employees in the study said their companies shouldhave mandatory PTO policies enforced. These policies should also cover the following:
- Sick days (65%)
- Mental health/personal days (56.6%)
- Vaccination appointments (54.9%)
- Maternity/paternity leave (56.2%)
- Vacation time (46.5%)
- Booster shot appointments (42.5%)
But along with these mandatory PTO policies imposed, managers should also ensure that they are used by their employees. The SkyNova study revealed full-time employees averaged 18 days of vacation days, which they want to hike by 56.25% on average.
According to the research, 32% of employees sometimes and 31.9% often times avoid the need to take time off because they are unable to.
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To encourage the use of PTO policies, managers are eyeing the following strategies:
- Managers/supervisors lead by example (48.5%)
- Encouraging everyone to take time off (46%)
- Normalising vacation time (44.9%)
- Planning vacation scheduling ahead of time (43.4%)
- Limiting vacation rollover (40.9%)
- Encouraging short respites (38.3%)
- Hiring additional help (36.5%)
- Lessening workloads (34.3%)
- Discouraging vacation shaming (33.9%)
- Using a first-come, first-served reservation system (14.2%)