Everybody in a company benefits when the vacation time or PTO system is handled efficiently: employees requesting leave get what they want and their supervisors can easily approve this while the HR department tracks everything. If workers are confused about how the process of taking time off is supposed to work, it affects more than just them.
This is more than just a matter of work/life balance. Unused vacation days add up over time and don’t always transfer into the next year, which means employees could lose the benefits of this without being aware of it. It’s a real problem throughout the country now, when more than 40 percent of workers finished 2014 without taking any extra time off at all, as a survey from Skift reported.
Vacation can be seen as a crucial part of increasing productivity in the long term, but it can also be perceived as a threat to work. Katie Denis of the U.S. Travel Association told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the trend of “hoarding” vacation days over too long does more harm than good.
“That hoarder mentality — we’re really trying to break that down, because ultimately what you’re sacrificing in the process is so much more valuable than leaving 10 days in your leave bank,” she said. She added that the way many companies discard unused hours after a certain period of time can encourage workers to take advantage of it while it’s available.
One way to help employees have better access to their vacation time is to make sure your company’s platform is easy-to-use. By seeking out an accessible HR software solution, your business will avoid the hoarding problem and turn PTO requests into a simple, streamlined process. This could go a long way in promoting a healthy office culture while also relieving the strain on your HR department.