Employee Paid Vacation – Expense or Investment?

Although the American average vacation time per year has gone down a bit over the years, time away from work is still extremely important to your typical employee. In this growing economy where business owners are squeezing every last drop of production out of their limited payroll dollars, it’s a great time to consider the pros and cons of paid vacation for your employees. Let’s explore!

Recharge the Batteries

A vacation gives workers a chance to recharge their mental batteries. Time off allows employees to recharge their batteries and get away from the daily grind of the alarm clock, traffic, emails, phones, meetings and the stress of deadlines. Extended vacations, unplugged and free from checking in on emails and voice mails, is important to everyone. Its been shown that employees that have a higher well being in their personal lives are far more productive at work. You can’t correct all their individual and personal stress, but as an employer, it’s important to do your part.

Extended Weekends vs a Week or More Off

Extended vacation means getting away for at least a week. An extended weekend break, the American favorite, actually adds to the stress. Quick weekend getaways are not as effective, as much of the vacation period is spent preparing or travelling to and from the desired destination and then rushing back to get to work on Monday or Tuesday. 

Can You Afford Vacation?

But how can I afford to let people off for a week or more? Can you afford not to? Employees that are personally stressed out, or not able to spend time with their families away from work because they feel they cannot get way, or cannot afford to, eventually burn out. The far greater impact on your business, is that they become unproductive in their daily work activities or lose their passion for their job. That’s an unquantifiable expense that often runs silent in your business, until its too late, and employees eventually leave or begin to cause significant problems. 

Nobody Noticed They Were Gone?

Not only is it good for employees to be away from their employer, but sometimes it’s good for the employer, to learn how to work without that employee for a week or two. You learn a lot about an employee’s value and contribution to the workplace when they’re not there, and that can be positive or negative.

Are you, as a business owner, prepared to fill in for a key position for a week or so? Maybe it’s good for you to get back into the weeds and understand that person’s job so you can perhaps discover the challenges and implement some new methods or work flows to improve their productivity.

The ROI

Bottom line, the cost of stress and burnout in the workplace can be far greater than the cost of the vacation you pay for. And remember, if you have a strategic time off policy, those employees have earned that benefit through their loyalty and longevity with you. Longer term employees should be your most productive workers, and why not reward them for their contributions to your business?

If you do not have a time off policy that rewards your workers for their longevity, contact the experts at Infinium HR, we can help you develop and implement a strategic tie off policy that will pay off tenfold in ways that will affect your bottom line. 

If you have a policy in place now, but feel it’s not reaping the return it should, might be time to review your culture and devise ways to improve your workplace environment, and find other ways to be sure employees are engaged with your business goals and success.