Unorthodox leave policy could save Finance time, headaches

How much time is your company spending on tracking and processing sick and vacation day requests? Some businesses are deciding to put that time to better use by trying out a new leave policy.

Most companies give their employees a certain allotment of vacation and sick days. When staffers want to use these days, there are often request forms to be processed and payroll adjustments to be made.

It can seem like a lot of time and work spent for just one employee.

Unlimited days

That’s one of the reasons some businesses are doing away with traditional paid time off (PTO) leave policies and instituting flexible time off (FTO) policies.

Companies with FTO policies allow their employees to take time off using the honor system: They have unlimited vacation and sick days, which they are allowed to use as long as they have their supervisors’ permission and make sure their work gets done.

If they meet both of those requirements, that’s it. There’s no additional work for Payroll or Finance. Without having to spend time on time-off requests, finance employees are able to focus on more important tasks.

Another benefit of FTO: Workers feel more comfortable taking sick days if they need them. Too often, genuinely sick employees come to work in order to “save” a sick day.

That can lead to other employees getting sick and your company losing productivity. It’s something to think about, with flu season on the way.

Trustworthy employees

But wouldn’t employees take advantage of having unlimited time off? In most cases, no. When companies using FTO policies were asked if they were concerned about employees taking too much leave, they claimed their employees have been responsible and not taken advantage of the policy.

Plus, if you do have staffers you think would game the system, they might not be such great employees anyway.