Member Article

Unlimited holiday: gimmick or a good idea?

With tech companies like LinkedIn and Netflix offering their employees an endless allowance of annual leave, tech companies are seeing an influx of demand for positions that allow for a stronger work-life balance through flexible working. Unlimited holiday allowance would seem to take this one step further, enabling employees to take much leave as they want, when they want as long as it doesn’t negatively affect the business in any way. However, is it just a gimmick to attract millennials and headlines or is it a good idea?

In 2018, EY conducted a survey that found a fifth of millennials ranked flexibility as their main career concern and while they may be put off by the traditional idea of working nine to five, the ability to take a holiday whenever they like can encourage their continued loyalty and retention. Companies that offer the option to take an unlimited amount of leave could be highly attractive to prospective employees, especially millennials, and may also encourage talented individuals to the company that may not have been interested before.

Although management are not able to stop employees taking the leave, they can set targets for employees to meet in order to encourage the necessary amount of work gets done. For example, it may be that an employee needs to work a certain number of hours in one month but are able to make up for any lost time in the following month. This means that any issues caused by an employee being on leave, such as a failure to meet a deadline, will instead reflect on their overall performance.

One risk that offering unlimited annual leave can be that employees may be less inclined to take leave if they feel that there is never a situation in the office where they will not be needed. They may also be concerned that taking that three week backpacking holiday to ‘find yourself’ in South East Asia, will not be well received by management and may impact on a potential promotion on the horizon. Stress, employee burnout and increased levels of sickness can all come from employees not taking enough breaks, so it’s in the employer’s interest to ensure all staff take sufficient breaks.

Employers should bear in mind that it is not a legal requirement to offer unlimited holiday to their workforce. It should also be remembered that, within UK law, all workers are legally entitled to at least 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday per year. If employers are not able to offer a higher level of contractual annual leave, they may be able to explore alternatives to achieve a better work-life balance, including flexible working or more advantageous family friendly entitlements.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Alastair Brown .