Pay Your Employees To Go On Vacation
Employees and leaders are dealing with constant burnout. Incentivizing vacation time can alleviate the pressure
One of the defining words of the 2020s workplace is burnout.
In 2023, CNBC reported that over 40 percent of workers in six countries—including the United States—report feeling burned out. And while rank-and-file employees are often the subject of news coverage on burnout, Harvard Business Review found that 50 percent of leaders feel burned out as well.
Taking time off to recharge is probably the best way to alleviate burnout. For this reason, companies owe it to their employees to encourage real vacation time.
Several years ago, we started taking this concept to the next level at Acceleration Partners: We offered up to a $750 bonus to employees who take a week off and stay offline during that vacation. As a condition, employees needed to fully disengage from work; no calls, emails or Slack messages. Here’s why we started this program, and how you can too.
Why Paying To Disconnect Make Sense
It’s a simple fact that Americans take much less vacation than they can. Studies have found 52 percent of Americans don’t take their full number of vacation days. And employees who get open PTO take even less time off than employees with set limits.
Many employees avoid taking their full vacation because they worry about leaving their colleagues stranded. People fear that either their team will feel overwhelmed without them, or that crucial projects will go off track. But often these people underestimate the capacity of the people around them, or simply feel guilty about making time for themselves. In some cases, these people even create this inability to disconnect by designing too many processes that require their involvement.
People who refuse to take time off are hampering their companies and teams, for two key reasons:
Recharging Improves Performance: Data shows 75 percent of employees say vacation time improves their mental health, and 49 percent say it improves their physical health. Employees need to understand that if they never take time off—including an extensive vacation from time to time—they are sacrificing their wellbeing just to give their team a diminished version of themselves.
Vacation Creates Opportunities to Step Up: People who refused to take time often struggle with delegation. Delegating is a tough skill to learn, but doing so as part of a vacation creates a culture of trust and high expectations. And in the best-case scenario, you may discover untapped capacity in your colleagues that you didn’t notice before once someone steps up in a team member’s absence.
Higher vacation uptake is beneficial for employees and teams, but many employees think their company doesn’t want them to take their full vacation, worry their dedication will be questioned if they do, and believe they’ll have to stay fully accessible while they’re gone. Behavior always follows incentives, and a financial bonus will show your team you’re serious about wanting them to take more uninterrupted vacation time.
Implementing a vacation bonus
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