Uncapped Holidays – a vacation from reality?

I was recently surprised to hear that my friend’s company has introduced uncapped vacation days. She works for a start-up focused on bringing job opportunities to graduates and university students, spreading the word about companies’ schemes and vacancies through social media and direct mail. The offices for this start up are located above a bar in a redbrick building in Manchester’s young and hip Northern Quarter. The office has the trappings of any company started and run by twenty-somethings specialising in SEO and social media – a meeting room full of bean bags, iMacs for PCs and of course, a ping pong room. She can come and go as she pleases, can work remotely (though she lives a 3 minute walk from the office) and recently won the office talent show. It’s a world away from Accenture.

So hearing that her company had introduced uncapped holidays was an addition to the list of ‘things Katie’s company does that I’m jealous of’. But far beyond a tempting offer for potential employees, uncapped holidays actually make business sense in small companies.

At Accenture we benefit from an environment which encourages employees to care for their health and wellbeing. Regular emails reminding us to move more, the Global Corporate Challenge encourages employees to take their 10,000 steps a day. I hope the team I operate in, with colleagues who support each other in making healthy, balanced choices, is a reflection of all the teams in Accenture. Taking holidays is a crucial part of managing our health and wellbeing, and makes us more productive team players.

Having a limited number of days to take, though, can make us nervous of using the days too pre-emptively. There’s a worry that taking too much holiday at the start of the FY might scupper us later in the year. This worry can lead us to store up our holidays, only to get to July / August and suddenly have to take 4 weeks off in a short space of time, or else lose the days. How empty is your office during these months? How unproductive is the work when the decision makers are all out at once?

So what if people didn’t worry about saving holidays? What if they could just head off, whenever they wanted? Would they ever show up? Well, companies who have introduced the scheme have reported happier employees, with productivity and creativity up, as employees work when they are 100% able to work, and take enough breaks to ensure they stay at 100%. Employees still have to be productive and contribute to their teams and company or else their careers don’t progress. Some companies even report employees taking fewer holidays on average.

In start-ups, and increasingly big corporates, it’s crucial to stay agile, flexible and innovative. Uncapped holidays is a brilliant way to give employees flexibility and the time they need to be innovative and productive.