How do employee vacation trackers work in tandem with trending organizational processes?

The newest and greatest push in the world of human resources and executive management is unlimited vacation days. Of course it sounds amazing, but does it actually work? What does unlimited time off mean for productivity, employee satisfaction and wellbeing, and overall success of the organization?

Decreased Time Off

You might think that giving unlimited vacation days will lead to the collapse of your company—no one in the office, no one working, nothing getting done. And although that’s the first reaction, it turns out it is completely the opposite.

In fact, unlimited business days often lead to a completely empty employee vacation tracker. What do we mean by this? We mean that the more freedom people have to take off, the less they actually do. There is no need for a leave management system because there is no one taking leave.

Employees tend to feel “uncomfortable” with open-ended vacation structures, as they’re unsure of how much time they should be taking off or not. They feel that they may be perceived negatively for taking time off, even though they are granted that time.  They often look to leaders for advice on when and how much vacation should be taken, but the leaders too tend not to take vacations themselves for fear what the rest of the company might thinks.

This leaves employee vacation tracker systems completely empty and desk spaces completely full. And while this sounds great for business in theory, in practice this becomes a major issue for companies.

Lowered Motivation and Productivity

Although this “unlimited vacation” time may actually keep people in the office more often, it tends to decrease their engagement, motivation, and overall productivity while raising stress levels and turnover rates.

When employees don’t take time off, they become overworked and stressed. This can pile up to cause health problems, loss of engagement, and even a final result of quitting their position. This can lead to incredible turnover rates where workers come in, do a few years of unproductive, exhaustive work, and then leave just to start the process all over again.

This all stems from your employee vacation tracker sitting empty, as the employees feel stigmatized and discouraged from taking their proper leave.

Overcoming Resistance

So how can you offer more or unstructured vacation time without all of that backlash?

1. If your company has a loosely structured vacation system, encourage people to take time off. Leaders should fill up the days on their employee vacation tracker. They should make their vacation days available to the rest of the employees to demonstrate the appropriate amount of time to take vacation.

2. Set a minimum on employee vacation trackers, which can then automatically notify employees if they are not taking enough days off. While most companies have maximum days of vacation take, there should also be a set minimum. Maybe this minimum is one personal day every six months or one week every two months. Whatever it is, you can program this “unstructured structure” directly into your leave management or employee vacation tracker to ensure people are taking their due days.

Overall, make taking time off a part of the culture. It should not be something to be ashamed about. Time off allows employees to rejuvenate and come back to work more productive and innovative; this drastically boosts the company in the long term. It doesn’t matter how empty the office is, it matters how empty the employee vacation tracker calendar is.

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