August 4, 2016- ISSN# 1545-2646
Summertime Escape
The final dog days of summer are upon us who live in the northern part of the country. Labor Day weekend or the informal close of summer is rapidly closing in. Kids will head back to school. Parents will refocus on their jobs. The ever present media is filling the airwaves with election hype.
We NEED an escape!
This topic of vacation time has always been an interesting challenge for employers. To offer time off, regardless of whether it is paid time off or non paid time off impacts the available resources in a business to deliver the goods and services of the organization. During this time when staff is not being directly productive, others must pick up the workload. This is especially true in small and medium sized business where staff count is already at their lowest levels.
The counter challenge is what is the impact on moral and productivity when people are not given the opportunity to unplug from the office and recharge the personal internal batteries.
Many studies have been and will continue to try to get some hard data on this topic but most articles are fairly broad ranged in their claims. There are many factors which contribute to either good or weak moral. To tie a vacation directly to a performance increase or decrease would require some hard baseline numbers and metrics to measure a series of cycles of time while keeping the group in consistent formation. That is very hard to manage and control for longer cycles of time.
A few things are fairly solid in these dissertations on the topic. People who have an opportunity to break away for some short gap from their daily routine tend to have a refocused energy when they return. The amount of time to separate to gain this energy is as unique as the people taking vacations. How long the energy and focus remains would need another study.
The taking of vacations does contribute to the turning of dollars and thus contributes to the economy of those areas where people tend to visit. It can also contribute to the economy because employees have to maintain a percentage excess staff to support other employees time away from the office which put additional dollars into the economy.
This week, what ever your view is of time off and vacations, don’t rule them out as most employees expect some time away from their desk. Your benefits package may need some tweaking up to attract and keep the best people at your business and vacation time is just one more element to consider in your overall employee package.
Wondering what your vacation offer should look like? Call JKL Associates at (313) 527-7945 to cause some questions to be asked.
Questions or comments – email us at partners@jklassociates.com or call our Office at (313) 527-7945
Copyright – JKL Associates 2016
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JKL Associates
18530 Mack Ave #242
Grosse Pointe Farms MI 48236
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