Whenever a person applies for a job position in a company, then half of the candidates consider employee benefits schemes are an important part of the whole package. One of the most appreciated employee benefits schemes is paid time off policy. It is concluded that 53% of employees who get decent unlimited time off from their company, they won’t leave that company easily.
With ample time away from work employees can recharge their mind and can perform their personal duties at that time. Every employee requires some decent amount of time away from work for various reasons. However, diversity and inclusion efforts are two prominent reasons that drive companies to incorporate PTO in their company.
What Defines Ample Time Off?
Before understanding the impact of the ample paid time off on the diversity and inclusion efforts of employees, it’s important to define the ample time off. The measurement of ample time off policy depends on various factors like – location, industry, seniority level and various other related factors.
To construct a solid time off policy that can benefit both employees and employers, the HR department has to consider the compensation package offered by competitors and how their paid time off can fits into that. Traditionally, in full-time employment system, employees averagely get 11 days off in a year, 15 days in 5 years, 18 days in 10 years and so on.
But, nowadays numbers of companies have adopted the unlimited paid time off policy or they are using creative approaches like floating, holidays, sabbaticals, etc., Moreover, companies are offering flexible working and home-based work opportunities instead of extra time off. The ample time off policy has to be built around what works best for your company, your workforce and most importantly what works best for your employees.
How to Bring Diversity and Inclusion Efforts Using PTO
The factors like diversity and inclusion efforts are finally getting the attention of HR policymakers. It is noted that with the help of ample paid time off policy, the investment in this area has increased. The perfect implementation of ample time off policy will bring more inclusive feeling in the employees and improves the level of diversity in the work. These following points highlight the extent of diversity and inclusion efforts in a better way:
#1. Use Holidays as per Your will
Companies offer some standard holidays to their employees like Christmas, New Year, etc., But, not every employee celebrates Christmas. So, to those employees offering the facility of floating holidays is very useful as it will give them the opportunity to use their holidays whenever they want. This will bring diversity in the workplace as not many companies are working during the holidays.
#2. Give Ample Paid Time Off
To attract and retain employees from diverse cultures and religions, companies should give ample time off along with the floating holidays. In many religions, holidays based on religious beliefs fall in the middle of the week. When an employee has to travel far to celebrate certain religious holidays with his family, then this is highly beneficial for having ample time off. This practice is highly appreciated by the working parents who are looking for breaks according to their kid’s school time or to be their sick children.
#3. Give Opportunity to Remote Work
To bring diversity in the workplace, the concept of remote work is very appropriate. The remote work practice benefits lots of people. For example, physically disabled and retired professionals can work from home to avoid the complexities of workplace challenges. Moreover, working parents can also get benefits from this as they won’t have to travel a long distance and can stay with their children while working. Apart from employees, this practice is beneficial for companies as well. Like, they can create a diverse workforce by employing people from all over the globe and they can even save the cost of remuneration that they have to pay to full-time employees.
#4. Work Flexibility
When companies offer the opportunity to employees and set their own work schedule under the PTO policy, then they feel that their requirements are included and considered by the management team. For instance, working parents want to adjust their work schedule according to their kid’s school timings so they probably like to start work early in the morning, but end early. Similarly, old and disabled professionals like to align work hours according to their energy level. This small practice can retain good employees in the company and helps to bring diversity in the work culture.
#5. Professional Training
By including the professional training in paid time off policy contract, companies can hire potential candidates and develop their skills as per their requirements. For example, by organizing boot-camp classes for self-trained developers, organizations can teach them different programming languages. This will bring people from different economic and educational background to lead diversity in the thought of the company. The concept of diversity will bring positivity and productivity in the overall work environment.
Who Can Attain Benefits from Ample Paid Time Off?
Working Parents – Between long work hours, it became hectic for working parents to pick their kids from school, cater sick kid and spend quality time with them. So, parents can definitely get benefit from ample time off.
Remote Workers – When companies want diversification in the workflow, then hiring employees remotely from the other part of the globe is a great idea.
Older & Disabled Professionals – To retain older and disabled professionals, offering them flexible work schedule helps a lot.
Conclusion
The organizations that want to build a diverse work environment, they have to recruit talented professionals from around the globe to maintain an inclusive culture in the organization. This is beneficial for both the employees and employers. By offering incentives like generous paid time off policy, companies can show to candidates that they care for their outside work life as well.
