Building trust with your employees means that you’re building morale amongst your team. Getting your workforce excited to come to work is one part of the battle, but how do you keep them there? With the job market growing all the more competitive you have to make sure you’re offering modern benefits to your employees, or they’ll start looking at your competitors.
Unlimited vacation or PTO is a growing trend — traditionally, most Americans could expect around two weeks of vacation time a year. Which can sound nice given national and federal holidays but you’re still looking at 261 working days in the year… minus 10-15 days of vacation to be used at you and your boss’s discretion. On top of that, the CEO can decide to not acknowledge all holidays in the calendar year, so your working days could actually be higher than the average.
The main issue this causes is employee burnout. Burnout will be one of the worst problems because it trickles down into so many other facets of employee satisfaction. I’ve said it once (or maybe more than that), but work-life balance and flexible hours are necessities now. Overworking your employees without any incentives aside from a paycheck is how you can end up with high turnover, which can cost your company thousands or millions of dollars.
It’s not like you’re going to have every employee that walks through your door at your company for life, but you want to have a positive impact on your team’s time at your business. Part of that positive work environment is the trust you build, not just within a single team, but within the entire company. And unlimited PTO is one way that businesses of all shapes and sizes are doing this.
Traditionally, companies would allot a certain number of days that would be tracked by some automated process or by each team’s manager. Unlimited vacation or PTO doesn’t have to be tracked, though. For human resource purposes, it’s good to keep track of what your employees are taking advantage of, but you’re no longer monitoring your teams behaviors. Now you’re building actual trust and that is unbeatable when it comes to producing a creative, high-functioning group of workers.
Another thing brought on by some traditional practices: stress. If you only have 15 days of PTO in one calendar year with no rollover, then you have to choose your time wisely. What if you get sick? What if you need to handle any personal issues? Well, you have to use those coveted days for that.
Remove that stress by offering unlimited PTO for your employees. Most employees actually end up taking less days off because they no longer feel shackled to the limited time off they’re awarded. Employees won’t have to worry about taking a sick day or asking to work from home when feeling a little under the weather, which helps maintain a healthier workforce!
You’re giving your employees one of the most valuable things back: time. Whether people choose to spend their time off making memories with their families, pursuing a passion, volunteering in their communities, or simply recharging and relaxing to come back to work with a fresh face, you’re giving them the ability to do this. Remember, you have to give a little to get a little, or in this case, you’re empowering your team with options and getting a lot in return.
