How paying for staff vacations is building positive PTO cultures
Creating positive PTO cultures where staff feel they can take needed time off guilt-free remains a challenge for many employers. In fact, nearly 80% of workers said they do not take the maximum amount of time off they’re allowed, according to a survey by the Harris Poll conducted in April among over 1,000 employed U.S. adults. About half of workers said they feel guilty even just requesting time off, that survey found.
But some employers are using a somewhat novel benefit to let staff know they truly want them to take time away from work — by helping pay for those vacations. Vacation stipends are offered by a handful of companies, including those in the workforce solutions space, like Bamboo HR, an HR software company.
Bamboo HR gives employees $2,000 annually to pay for trips, and it’s one of the company’s most popular benefits. Out of about 1,500 employees, nearly 100% of staff participate, said Kimberly Stout, HR generalist and benefits manager at BambooHR.
This year it introduced a travel fund allocation scale to cover higher travel expenses for more tenured employees.
“It allows employees to enjoy their vacation without the burden of financial stress, and promotes mental, emotional and financial well being at the same time,” Stout said. “It emphasizes our dedication to not just work life balance, but to ensuring our employees just truly enjoy their lives, both inside and outside of work.”
To be sure, few companies today offer vacation stipends, and most that do are in the travel industry. Airbnb, for instance, gives staff quarterly travel credits to use toward booking stays at rental properties on the platform. Expedia provides staff with $250 to $750, depending on tenure, to use on personal travel each year. And TripAdvisor will reimburse staff up to $1,700, depending on tenure, for personal travel costs annually.
Vacation stipend benefits can be particularly appealing to job seekers, and ultimately reinforce an employer’s commitment to fostering a positive PTO culture and dedication to work life balance.
“In this competitive market offering a paid vacation stipend sticks out to recruits,” Stout said. “It’s a quick and easy way to prove that companies are not just giving lip service about the value and the culture with their benefits, they’re standing behind them.”
One key reason workers feel they can’t take time off is because their companies don’t have positive PTO cultures, leading staff to feel guilty or that they’ll return to a heavy backlog. One way employers (even those offering vacation stipends) can help remedy this is by creating more thorough pre-PTO protocols, workplace experts say.
Essentially, teams should have better systems in place for staff about to take time off to list their current projects and define what needs to be picked up by someone else and what can be tabled until they return. Another key component in fostering positive PTO cultures is ensuring leadership take needed time off and models that for staff.