Does a suggestion to boost productivity with time off sound counterintuitive? Research has shown that giving workers – and perhaps yourself, as a business owner – time off to recuperate from work demands can be energizing. Here are three ways your business can benefit.
- Health and customer service benefits. When combined with a sick leave policy, paid time off can help persuade employees with contagious illnesses to stay home. What’s more, if your workers have a high level of contact with the public, paid time off can be a marketing tool to help assure your customer base that your company takes safety and health issues seriously.
- Attract higher quality workers. In studies, paid time off ranks high on the wish-list of potential job candidates, especially young parents. One preference is for combining separate benefits, such as vacation, sick time, and personal days, into a single “bank” of benefits. Without a time off policy, you may be at a disadvantage when competing with larger firms for employees.
- Fraud detection. Do you rely on a small cadre of trusted workers performing critical tasks to keep your business going? Over time, these employees might end up working long hours with little oversight. This scenario is ripe for fraud, and one of the best antidotes is to require workers to take a vacation – at least five consecutive days – to allow someone else to perform those duties. Making paid vacation a requirement and not just a benefit is a good internal control, and might save your company from a disastrous theft.
Downtime is not wasted time if it is part of a thoughtful plan. Contact our office for more suggestions on employee benefit issues.