07 Aug What are the benefits and detriments to providing unlimited vacation time?
As workplace culture has taken a major turn after the spread of COVID-19 in 2020, employee standards for self-care and work-life balance have risen. Employers are expected to care more about the employees’ well-being and to consider providing unlimited vacation days, even though it has been seldom done in the past.
If you are an employer who has been debating whether to implement unlimited vacation days, assessing the pros and cons could be helpful to understand how it could impact your workplace.
What are the upsides?
Granting unlimited vacation days could provide an opportunity to employ the best workers. It may not attract many employees who are the best at what they do, because many other companies could offer the same amount of freedom.
Allowing unlimited vacation time could also increase employee’s devotion to the company. Employees could become grateful that happiness is valued over performance at their workplace, which is an atmosphere that many employees would want to continue in their career.
There is a chance it could build trust between the employer and employees. The amount of independence employees would gain could create a mutual respect in the employer-employee relationship.
Health and wellness would be prioritized and encouraged, which many employees are beginning to value more than ever. Because of this focus, employee efficiency could skyrocket because they have a healthy work-life balance that works best for each individual employee.
What are the potential downsides?
Trust is at the forefront of the decision. Trusting your staff could also be a downside because the employer must have the confidence that their employees can handle this level of responsibility and not abuse the luxury of creating their own schedule.
There is a possibility that employees could take advantage of the opportunity and choose to vacation too much. However, employees could also forget about vacation time and run themselves into the ground. This mentality could lead employees resenting work and accomplishing less than expected.
There could be vacation overlap. Some employees in the same role, or the highest performing employees in the company, could schedule vacation at the same time and hinder the company’s performance.
Lastly, an employer can no longer use vacation time as an incentive or bonus for loyalty and hard work. There is no discrepancy between the vacation times of new and long-standing employees. For example, there is a possibility that an employee who has worked for the company for over 15 years has less vacation time than an employee who has only worked for two.
If you are an employer who wants to establish a vacation policy or is looking for areas to maximize on health and wellness opportunities, please contact KCY at LAW by filling in an online consultation request or contact us by phone at 905-639-0999 to book your consultation today.