Additional time off boosted employee performance, study says

Want to get more production out of your staff? You could try giving them more time away from work.  

You know there are personal benefits to getting rest and relaxation — like less stress and fatigue. Now here’s some compelling proof there are also measurable business benefits to getting your employees to take some R&R time. 

It comes by way of Stay Metrics and the trucking industry. The business management consultancy that serves the industry collected data on 682 drivers employed by one of its clients.

Stay Metrics looked at the time-off requests that were met for those drivers and analyzed down time’s effects on three driver performance metrics:

• bonus rate
• miles driven, and
• total bonus pay.

What did the analysis find? Measurables in all three areas improved when employees time-off requests were honored, reported FleetOwner.

Example: The analysis found that for each time-off request honored, a driver’s bonus rate increased nearly 3% the following month (up from 3.5 cents per mile). Bonuses are calculated based on drivers’ scores in four categories — compliance, vehicle care, fuel and production.

In addition, the analysis showed that for each time-off request granted, drivers traveled an additional 218 miles the following month. Stay Metrics estimated those added miles resulted in a little more than $500 in additional revenue, per request.

And finally, drivers who took time off earned approximately $17.85 more in bonus pay per month — which is a product of drivers’ bonus rate and miles driven — than those who didn’t take time off.