Why You Should Give Your Employees Unlimited PTO

In today’s day and age where companies are battling to offer the best perks and compensation plans imaginable, paid time off (PTO) is definitely a hot topic.  When you think about it, offering employees unlimited time off sounds crazy. The idea that anyone, at any given time, can take time off, can be scary. However, Power Digital has offered this perk since we started the company and it has been a huge advantage, not just for the employees but for the company as a whole.

Some advantages that we have seen:

No Rush To Use All Vacation And Sick Days

When companies offer a set number of PTO days, employees feel forced to use every single day, even when they don’t have to. This often becomes the case at the end of the year, when PTO days have accrued, employees take days off just because they don’t want to lose them.

Supporting Employee Lives And Families

Promoting work-life balance is a key ingredient in growing any company.  It is important to acknowledge that employees have demands and interests beyond work that can’t always be scheduled in advance. Letting them know they have the support of their organization allows them to live a much more fulfilling life.

Promotes Accountability

Just because you have unlimited time off, does not mean you are not accountable for getting your work done. Unlimited PTO promotes accountability across an organization. The rationale is that employees will manage their own time well because it is in the best interest of their careers to do so.

This does not mean people can just come and go in the organization without letting people know. Everyone has to get it approved by his or her manager and ensure all work is completed. Now everyone on the team is rowing in the same direction and playing for the same team.

Builds Trust

This is a huge perk and a great way to build loyalty in the organization. Team members are responsible for making sure their tasks and projects still get done regardless of the time they take away from the office.

When an employee takes a sick day or takes a vacation day on non-unlimited PTO, most of the time this is “their” time and they do not want to think about work at all.

However, when people have unlimited PTO, they make sure they get their work done and get it done well. Not only does this help the company thrive, but it ensures that your customers are supported.

What The Data Shows

After looking at the data (tracking the days employees take off) it ends up being close to the same number of vacation days that most companies offer. Yes, you have the top percentage that take more than what would normally be offered, but you also have the bottom percentage that don’t take nearly the time off that they should. It ends up balancing itself out.

PTO and unlimited PTO each averaged about three weeks per year, plus 10 paid holidays, making for a total of five paid weeks off. (Both the average number of days off taken under the unlimited policy was 14 days per employee).

Closing Thoughts

Based on our experience, unlimited PTO has been a positive across the board. Companies that are also doing this are Netflix, Google, and Virgin to name a few. Gone are the days of the traditional 9 – 5 workday. So why not apply the same mindset to PTO?