One decision companies can take to boost morale, improve productivity, and promote wellness

As a leader / manager have you ever heard any of these comments -or something similar- in your workplace?

"We have a lot of people with a huge bank of unused vacation time"

"I can't take time off, it is just too busy"

"After taking time off, I've spent hours and hours just catching up with email after my holidays"

"I missed so many meetings!"

"On vacation, instead of relaxing, I worried all the time about people needing my feedback so I worked anyway. My family was quite upset"

Throughout my career, I have consistently heard these comments. Team members feeling that taking time off would betray their coworkers, or thinking they just can't be away for more than a couple of days. Then your Finance team shows you the huge liability you carry due to unused vacation time, creating a drag in your budget, especially non-profits. And your HR / Talent department area worrying about stress leaves or people just burning out.

This is a lose-lose-lose scenario. In my current role, we have two distinct very busy seasons (from September to Christmas, and from February to June), requiring long hours, travel, and managing multiple time-sensitive and critical deadlines. Students need their scholarships. Donors expect our reports. And we need to fund-raise and meet existing and prospective donors.

You can accept that people will burn out, perhaps leave the organization after a few years, and have vacation accrual to balloon until it needs to be paid out, or you can make a bold move: close shop for a week.

What do I mean? What I wrote: everyone is on vacation at the same time. We give donors, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders ample notice. But yes, we all are away at the same time, on paid vacation, without these days affecting regular vacation accrual. We do this one week in the summer, and we do it again between Christmas and New Year's.

Crazy? Waste of money? I do not think so!

Having a company-wide break could achieve at least six goals:

1. There are a lot less emails coming your way. Most of the emails you deal with are internal or from suppliers (check it out!), so if everyone is away at the same time, email volume won't stress people out as much.
2. There is a sense of communal effort to recharge. Everyone works very hard, so there is no guilt to take time off when everyone else is doing exactly the same.
3. You show in deeds that taking time off is okay. You can plan a few days before or after the shutdown, you can also plan to take other days off knowing that it is feasible. Closing down incentivizes the need to take our hard-earned vacation time.
4. It boosts productivity. You can show up at work (or work remotely) exhausted, which leads to errors and poor decisions, or you can have a team that can sprint when needed, knowing there will be time for all of us to rest and get ready for the next big wave of work. Burnout is a real threat and shutting down one week can help alleviate it.
5. It improves morale. Several team members in the days leading up to our closure came to my office or sent me messages/emails saying that they sincerely appreciate the care we show for the entire group, and how much more then can enjoy their vacation knowing everyone else is doing the same. That helps make your workplace better, thus reducing attrition rates.
6. It may save you money. Less burnout, higher morale, better productivity, no need to reschedule meetings, less sick days... They are all money-savers. Don't take my word for it, here's Ernst and Young's list of advantages.

That sounds great, Javier but it will never work in my organization: we are an essential service/ factory / retailer!

Of course, a company-wide vacation week works for organizations without front-line workers or which do not provide essential services. There are creative ways to encourage or help teams take vacation without causing an internal rift:

• Consider vacation week for areas of the organization which may not deal with the public, while hiring temporary staff to support front-line areas so more staff can take time off concurrently.
• Switch to a 4-day workweek in the summer and adjust shifts so everyone gets to enjoy at least one extra weekend day.
• Celebrate your staff bringing food vendors or other fun activities people can do while on shift.

While not as powerful as a company-wide vacation policy, all these gestures will go a long way towards building a sustainable and energized team.

What about "no limit vacation"? Isn't that better?

Another approach that has been used mostly in the technology sector is to remove the set vacation day accruals and let people take all the time they want, known as "Unlimited Personal Time Off" (PTO). Studies around these models suggest that on average people do not take more time off, and you are still faced with the reality that others are working, so the end result is "work from a holiday spot" instead of actually disconnecting from work.

Not convinced? Try it once!

Making a permanent policy change around vacation, or closing your company for a week is a big decision. Our approach was to test it one year as an "experiment", collect feedback from staff, donors and other key stakeholders, look at the ROI and see what the reaction and consequences were. Given the unqualified success, we continue to offer it.

Unionized environments pose the challenge of having collective agreements, but a pilot project is usually negotiable and then instead of a permanent benefit it can be a 3 or 4 year expanded program so you can collect more data over time before making any determination at the bargaining table.

That's all for today. Feel free to comment or message me with your feedback.

Thank you for reading, and enjoy the second half of our northern hemisphere summer!

Javier