Great Colleges Care about Employee Vacations and Time Off
As summer begins to settle in around us, there is one thing that defines our collective conscious: VACATION! Whether it’s a traditional trip to the beach or a more economical “stay-cation,” we all need a break from the everyday grind and summer is a great time to take it.
Every year we create a list of Chronicle Great Colleges to Work For program participants that far exceed the normal standards of employee engagement in both their policies (self-reported) and practices (as reported by their employees). This year’s Honor Roll of schools yielded a 4.43 average score on a scale of 0 to 5 in employee satisfaction with vacation/PTO, while the data for those participants not recognized at all presented only a 4.17. This distinction underlines the importance of cultivating employee loyalty and satisfaction, not only through policies that set parameters for an employee’s time in the office, but by also catering to that employee’s time out of the office.
This is not such an easy feat given the broadly accepted, characteristically American, perception that more work always leads to more productivity. According to No-Vacation Nation Revisited, published by the Center for Economic Policy Research about a year ago, “the United States is the only advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation.” Yikes. If employers need a compelling reason to foster breaks from the office, they need look no further than their bottom lines: An Assessment of Paid Time Off in the U.S., produced by Oxford Economics this February, states that the benefits of vacation to employers include “more productive, focused and dedicated employees” who most often report returning from their vacations “feeling renewed and refreshed, and ready to focus on work.”
Whatever scenic vista you’re gazing over, drink in hand, during your summer vacation, I hope work never crosses your mind. But if your employer is smart, he or she will be thinking about your work and your vacation, devising ways to further support and encourage your time out of the office. How’s that for refreshing?
Karen Kukulka completed her undergraduate degree in English with Honors, and her MBA with a specialization in Organizational Development, Effectiveness and Change, at the University of Delaware. Coming from a background in non-profit work, she has been with ModernThink for four years, serving as Survey Project Manager and now Director of Operations. She has volunteered with Odyssey of the Mind, an organization that inspires gifted students in creative problem solving, for more than 10 years and enjoys kayaking and traveling with her husband.