More and more companies in the UK (http://news.sky.com/story/1048375/tech-firms-offering-unlimited-paid-holidays) are abandoning set holidays and adopted the principle of unlimited vacation time. So should you follow suit?
Netflix moved to unlimited vacation time in 2004 and more than a decade later the policy remains(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/7945719/Netflix-lets-its-staff-take-as-much-holiday-as-they-want-whenever-they-want-and-it-works.html). The theory was simple: employees put in so much time on their evenings and weekends that it was unreasonable to apply such rigid thinking to their holidays. Netflix went further – it stopped monitoring the time employees spent on anything and simply focused on the one thing that mattered: results.
Virgin Management, the investment arm of Sir Richard Branson’s, has also adopted unlimited holidays, following in the footsteps of initiatives that have been used in the United States for a long time (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29356627). Branson recognised that his employees often went above and beyond in terms of what they offered, working weekends and evenings to get projects finished.
So with employees giving so much more, the company felt it was simply inappropriate to enforce a limit on the time they take off.
Unlimited vacations are perhaps a way to foster a relationship built on trust instead of rules, and to boost employee engagement within the organisation. Flexible working hours, opportunities to work from home and more are all welcome, but offering unlimited vacation is another step towards showing your employees that you value their wellness and want them to take as much time as they need to recharge their batteries.
It is especially useful in businesses or departments that focus on intense projects that can require long working days, followed by lulls where the business tails off. These are the times when the business as a whole won’t lose by the employee taking time off, but if they come back with a full head of steam ready to tackle the next project then everybody benefits.
Offering total flexibility shows a level of faith in your employees, but it’s more complicated to implement this kind of initiative than you might think. Virgin spent more than a year, with a small pilot scheme to iron out the kinks, before it felt confident enough to roll out the scheme across the company. (http://theconversation.com/branson-unlimited-holiday-plan-for-virgin-blazes-trail-others-should-follow-32180).
For a start, they had to ensure that the employees could and would take full advantage of the offer. It is quite common for employees to actually take less holiday at first as they struggle with the concept of total freedom. Some companies even stand accused of adopting the policy to reduce the vacation time employees take, while simultaneously wiping out compensation for any time taken. (http://time.com/money/4070275/unlimited-vacation-policy/)
You have to make sure the policy is implemented fairly, too. If there are certain staff members you just cannot live without then get used to the idea of bringing in temporary staff, at a higher rate, to cover their absence. Of course an employee must get their work done, but if there is one member of staff you need constantly, then you’ll need cover if you want to employ Unlimited Vacation.
So you have to make sure you get it right and you also have to make sure that your business suits unlimited vacation time. A steady, plodding business that never demands anything more than a 9-5 might not be right for the programme. If, however, you need your staff to burn the midnight oil and work weekends to hit a mission critical deadline, then your business and unlimited vacations might be a perfect fit.