Benefits From Employee Paid Vacation Time

Benefits From Employee Paid Vacation TimeBenefits From Employee Paid Vacation TimeWhen employees take a paid vacation, both the employer and the employee benefit from employees using their paid vacation time. Americans receive (on average) less vacation time than European countries. For instance, Austria has between 25 days of mandatory vacation (which jumps to 30 if youve been there 25 years), plus, 13 holidays. All paid. Estonia has 20 vacation days, plus 11 paid holidays, for a total of 31. And what about our linguistic parent, the United Kingdom? 28 days of vacation time, no paid holidays required. And, the United States? Zero. By law, your employer doesnt have to give you any paid time off- not for Christmas, not for a beach trip, not for anything. Most companies do, however, and the average worker took 16 days of vacation in 2013. So while the US isnt reaching European levels, paid vacation time is available. Just how should you use it? You can use your vacation in any way that you want, but some ideas are better than others- for the employee and for the business. Here are ideas about how to use paid vacation time. Employers Benefit The employer experiences several significant benefits when employees take extended vacation time. It is your opportunity to take a look at how the employee is performing on the job through the eyes and access you provide to another employee. The US government strongly encourages (although it does not legally require) bank employees to take vacations. Why? To prevent fraud. Former criminal and current security consultant, Frank Abagnale, explains why in his book, The Art of the Steal How to Protect Yourself and Your Business from Fraud, Americas 1 Crime. Make people take vacations, especially the ones who handle your money and transactions records. Every employee has to be out of the office and without control over transactions for at least one week a year. Large embezzlement schemes, as I have already pointed out, often mu st be maintained daily, and key figures in the scheme will resist being away. If key employees never take a vacation, find out why. Dan Lewis, at Now I Know, shared this advice and the story of Toshihidi Iguchi, whose behavior caused a $1.1 billion dollar loss. Iguchi hadnt taken an extended vacation in 11 years. Its not that taking a vacation keeps you from becoming a thief its that it makes it harder to run a scam when youre not there to take care of it- all of the time. While many jobs dont involve handhabung money directly, every job has the potential for errors to build up. Having each employee out of the office for a week (or more) without the ability to handle emails or log into their computer means that another employee has to handle it. That allows management to find out about performance problems and other issues before they grow too large. Thats why when employees take a whole week or more of vacation every business can benefit. (At a minimum, employee vacation timeforces you to cross-trainemployees and ensures that you have a backup plan for when employees quit their job.) At maximum, what benefits the employees who use their paid vacation time also benefits you. Employees Benefit You can see how the employer benefits when employees take extended vacation time but can a week or two away from the office benefit employees, too? Of course. Clinical psychologist Deborah Mulhern shared with ABC news that not only are vacations good now but if you dont take them, youll lose the ability to relax. She said Without time and opportunity to do this, the neural connections that produce feelings of calm and peacefulness become weaker, making it actually more difficult to shift into less-stressed modes, Mulhern said. What neuroscience is showing is that we require downtime in order for our bodies to go through the process of restoration. It is only when we are stahlkammer from external stresses that our bodies can relax enough to activate restoration. Are Long Vacations the Only Way? No, long paid vacations are not important. What is important is the break. The Wall Street Journal says that whats important is the recharging Psychologists and researchers have been studying how to create an ideal vacation that boosts our well-being, relieves stress that can impact our health, and helps us recharge for returning to work. Some conclusions Longer vacations arent necessarily better than shorter ones. Engage in activities you havent done before, even if youre at home on a staycation. And end a trip on a high note. A short vacation can recharge you, as long as you arent just cleaning out your basement or helping your parents move into a nursing home. Thats a break from work, but not abreak from stress and thats what you need. You need that downtime to recharge and focus on your job. How Employers Can Encourage Employees to Take Paid Time Off As an employer, you have ways that you can use to assist your employees in taking advantage of their paid vacation time, including floating holidays. It behooves you, because of the above noted positive effects that employers and employees experience when employees use their paid vacation time, to make use of ansicht ideas. Some companies (and many government jobs) allow employees to bank an unlimited amount of vacation time. When you quit, you get all of that accumulated vacation time paid out in cash. While lots of people love this idea, its not healthy in the long run. Employees need to get regular vacation time off. Rather than offering employees vacation time accumulation, companies should do two things Limit vacation accumulation and rollovers. While it isnt always practical for every person to use their allotted vacation time every year by December 31, you need to encourage employees to use paid vacation time and not reward them by allowing them to hoard it. Limit the number of days that will roll over into the next year.Provide paid disability leaves. One of the reaso ns people hoard vacation time is so that they can afford to take time for a baby, or surgery, or an unexpected problem. Companies should think about how best to meet their employees needsfor these events without having them burn out when they never get a reasonable break from work. Employee Dos and Donts Employees should not do the following when using paid vacation time. Work. It is tempting to call into that meeting and respond to all emails, so you dont get behind, but then youre not on vacation,youre just working from somewhere else.Go into debt. You dont need a fancy trip to Disney World or the Caribbean to have time off count as a vacation. If you go into debt for your vacation, youre added stress back into your workday. Its better to do a staycation and go to the park than it is to accumulate debt in your attempt to relax.Use all vacation days for other obligations. Youre a good child, so you want to help out your aging parents, or move your child into their new dorm roo m at college. These activities are great- and essential components of every persons life. But, if you use all of your paidvacationtime to do other work (including cleaning your own basement), youll never get that chance you desperately need to relax. Employees should do the following when taking paid vacation time. Something fun. Its not relaxing if youre not having fun. What that fun is, varies from person to person. You may love hiking while another person may see that as a fate worse than death. Whats important is that you break your routine.Use your allotted vacation time. Its parte of your compensation. Youd never voluntarily give up a chunk of your salary, but thats precisely what you are doing when you work for free- which is what employees who have use it or lose it vacation days do.Encourage your coworkers/employees to take their vacations. If you want a great vacation, then cover for your coworkers when they are out of the office. This makes it easier for everyone to take great vacation time when you have a supportive team. Vacation is actually a critical part of a good work-life balance. Make sure that you take your paid vacation time. Turn off your phone and have a good time. - Suzanne Lucas is a freelance journalist specializing in Human Resources. Suzannes work has been featured on notes publications including Forbes, CBS, Business Insider and Yahoo.