As an employee one would value every minute of off time from their duty hours. Like, the weekend was the most sought-after time in yesteryears, the current crop of employees has almost come to the point of accepting job offers based on the duration of PTO at the offer.
What Does PTO Mean?
Paid Time Off is the company’s policy, which lays down a fixed pool of off days for employees to avail themselves in the year. An effective PTO solution is that which combines personal time, sick time, and vacation time into one bucket of off days for the employees to avail themselves. During these days off, the employee is remunerated despite being on leave. That is why it is referred to as paid off. Several reasons like sickness, wedding, maternity, vacation, death of close relatives, or recovery post-vaccination are considered while deciding the quantum of PTO.
A good time off policy is essential as it would enable the employees to recharge mentally and emotionally and perform better in discharging their duties. Normally, organizations consider the relevant laws of the land while deciding the PTO policy.
Essentially, PTO is a win-win situation for both the employed as well as the employer. It relieves the management and HR department from the burden of maintaining details of leaves availed by each employee under various categories of leaves like sick, personal leave, earned leave, optional leave, etc. As for the employees, the PTO policy gives a feeling of being trusted by the management and is prone to use their time offs judiciously.
Let us delve deeper into the nitty-gritty of a typical PTO solution to understand it better and to comprehend why it is a better alternative than the traditional à la carte system of leaves/offs.
10 Benefits Of PTO (Paid Time Off)
A system or a procedure that has more pros than cons is the one that will be implemented for the overall benefit of both the stakeholders to the policy. The same holds good too with PTO. The corporate world has seen through the ease and felicity of offering PTO to their workforce and has heavily been investing in the idea of late. The prominent benefits of PTO can be summed up as
PTO- A GREAT USP: At the very entry-level, an attractive PTO is a great selling point in recruiting top drawer talent for the organization. Job offers are evaluated on the basis of employee benefits like PTO which can prove to be unique selling propositions for organizations.
TRUST: Employees feel more responsible as they firmly believe that the company trusts them with their choices in using their PTO. It allows them to plan their personal lives and ensure their professional duties do not adversely impact work-life balance. A happy human resource is a shining asset for the organization.
IMPROVES EMPLOYEE RETENTION: Enhanced levels of mutual trust not only led to qualitative improvement in interpersonal relations but have a positive bearing on employee performance. Additionally, the organization would be saving on high employee turnover and incidence of retrenchment.
ENHANCES PRODUCTIVITY: Several studies have reiterated that employees who were offered PTO were found to be working at their best instead of those under the traditional leave policies. They were found to be more productive and active at work and in life.
REDUCES STRESS PERCEPTIONS: Research reveals that employees availing of PTO policies are less likely to find their workplace stressful. A properly designed PTO solution irons out stress factors at work and facilitates a pressure-less work environment for the employees.
BRINGS IN BETTER BONHOMIE: PTO enables better inter and intra team communication and collaboration within the organization. Team members can plan their off days without disturbing the flow of work. Being on the same page and wavelength, team members can decide their specific schedules without hurting the cause of the project. A spirit of accommodation and adjustment gets weaved into the fabric of the organization.
REDUCES COSTS: PTO empowers employers to gain control over unscheduled absenteeism and thus helps in saving big on cost and time overruns. This is more so in time-specific projects which levy stiff penalties in case of time defaults.
LOWERS ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS: The traditional leave policy forces the human resources department to spend more time monitoring the leave record of individual employees under different buckets. Precious time is lost in validating day-offs. With PTO, it is suffice to ascertain whether a particular employee was in the office on that day or not. The reason for absence need not be mulled into.
SLASHES DOWN PAYOUTS: PTO enables employers to save on paying out money for unused PTO when an employee quits work. It cuts down on the possibility of calculation errors and is a great time saver for the hard-pressed HR department.
ALLOWS DIVERSITY: PTO can draw a diverse workforce. It allows for diversity and pools talent from different cultural backgrounds as employees can avail themselves of time off for holidays to celebrate their ethnic and cultural festivals freely.
With so much going in favor of PTO, it is natural that most organizations opt for it. Sustained inquiries into the system have revealed that offering paid time off, or a well-drafted PTO solution, instead of specific days allotted for vacation or illness, can benefit companies. It enables a decisive competitive edge for the organization, lowers its administrative overheads, makes life easy for its human resource department, and above all empowers employees by way of higher levels of morale, loyalty, bonhomie, and bonding.
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