As an employer you want to ensure that you have a strong rapport with your employees and developing loyalty and trust. One of the best ways to foster this bond is to provide your employees with a much needed break every now and then. While the state does not obligate you to dish out Paid Time Off (PTO) to your workers, it is definitely in your best interests to provide everyone a breather.
Here are three issues you need to keep in mind before designing a PTO policy:
Sick leave
We all seem to suffer from a mild case of the ‘flue’ every once a year or so and need some ‘sick’ paid leaves off. Everyone is prone to a mild case of flue and when that happens they should be kept at bay from infecting the rest of the workforce. Some sick workers tend to not use their sick time off; instead, they wait for it to accrue with their vacation time so they could use it all at once.
Sick leave however is different than vacation time, and healthy employees are expected not to abuse this policy. It is therefore important to gauge whether your worker really is sick or just abusing your generous sick leave policy. It is also worth noticing that some states such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon and Arizona require employers to give paid sick leave off.
Vacation leave
Almost all employers (at least those who want to retain their work staff) give at least 10 days’ of paid time leave. It really doesn’t matter what the employee uses their vacation times off for; they could go to the Bahamas, take a religious break or just play video games all day—you shouldn’t be getting too nosy.
It is also a good idea to design a ranked system of PTO for different levels of your employees. For instance, when the seniors receive more paid leave, it adds to their loyalty while giving incentive to the juniors to stick around for a longer term.
Can the days accrue?
What about employees who refuse to take any breaks? Can they “collect” their unused vacation days over the course of their time with the company or should the unused paid time off just expire into thin air?
It is up to the employer whether the days should accrue or not. One of most often used policies for employers is to place a certain threshold to the amount of days collected. Usually this threshold is 1.5 times the usual number of days generally allotted per year. For instance, if the number of days off per year was 20 and the employee did not use up this time, the following year they can only avail 30 days.
Either way, a PTO policy depends on the nature of your work. It should be designed in such a way that your business does not get affected negatively. If you are finding it difficult to create one, you should consult with JS Benefits Group to help design a proper PTO policy which is in agreement with your local state laws.
