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Small Companies and Vacation policies
Benefits & Compensation
Small Companies and Vacation policies
Exchange ideas about health plans, retirement, work/life benefits, and employee assistance.
I apologize if this has been discussed recently, but I am new to the site, so am asking for some help! My company has less that 20 employees, has been around for 10+ years, and offers full medical ben
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Forums » Topic Forums » Benefits & Compensation » Small Companies and Vacation policies
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Small Companies and Vacation policies
posted at 1/28/2009 12:25 PM EST
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Posts: 4
First: 1/28/2009 Last: 4/24/2009 |
I apologize if this has been discussed recently, but I am new to the site, so am asking for some help! My company has less that 20 employees, has been around for 10+ years, and offers full medical benefits. But we still only offer 1 week vacation per year. Can anyone give me some good ammo for my proposal to up our accrual to 2 weeks per year?
thank you! |
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Small Companies and Vacation policies
posted at 1/28/2009 4:22 PM EST
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
Are you having problems with retention of good employees? Or could you sell it as part of a pay increase that would cost less than an actual increase?
1 week does seem very stingy. What kind of business is it? Can you afford employees to be off? You could also do some research on the benefits of time off. Coming back refreshed, with new ideas, etc. |
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Small Companies and Vacation policies
posted at 1/29/2009 7:48 AM EST
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Posts: 1047
First: 4/11/2002 Last: 9/14/2011 |
According to a relatively recent paid-time off survey by Mercer, the average length of time off by years of service are as follows:
1 YOS - 11 days 3 YOS - 11 days 5 YOS - 15 days 8 YOS - 15 days 10 YOS - 18 days 15 YOS - 20 days This is for a vacation only policy. Does your company have a sick policy too? It should be noted that all the employers in this survey appear to have at least 100 employees. Small businesses can't necessarily be as flexible as large employers, however, 1 week of vacation is stingy. And you may be competing for talent with large employers, so giving employees have the time off other companies do probably isn't the best when it comes to attraction and retention. |
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Small Companies and Vacation policies
posted at 1/29/2009 8:24 AM EST
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Posts: 4
First: 1/28/2009 Last: 4/24/2009 |
thanks for the feedback. I know 1 week is very stingy, but we also give full paid medical. My problem is convincing the owners that not giving vacation costs more money in sick days, bogus days, unmotivated employees. We tend to let people take "unpaid time off". In other words, if they don't have vacation days, they take them unpaid. Ever heard of that before? |
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Small Companies and Vacation policies
posted at 1/31/2009 10:35 AM EST
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Posts: 1047
First: 4/11/2002 Last: 9/14/2011 |
Why not just establish a PTO bank? That way, you don't have to deal with "bogus" days off, unless you don't provide any sick time.
And I'm not a big fan of paying 100% for medical insurance. If employees get it for free, they will not value it. Why not have them pay 10% or 15%, which is still neglegible on a pre-tax basis and put those funds into a different benefit? Another downfall to this approach is that companies will continue to degrade their medical plan to offset renewal increases so that they can continue to pay 100% of the premium. This typically is not what employees want. They would be more than happy to pay for a part of the premiums and have lower utilization copays and/or deductibles. |
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Small Companies and Vacation policies
posted at 1/31/2009 4:16 PM EST
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Posts: 3870
First: 2/12/2002 Last: 11/2/2009 |
mroberts is spot on. If it's 100% paid, employees will sign up for insurance even if they don't need it - after all, it's free! And you're out $100's a month.
Better to put the benefits dollars into paid time off IMO |
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