{"id":6090,"date":"2024-01-17T10:45:25","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T10:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.linkup.com\/?p=6090"},"modified":"2024-01-25T10:08:12","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T10:08:12","slug":"employees-working-while-ill-maybe-its-the-pto-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/employees-working-while-ill-maybe-its-the-pto-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Employees working while ill? Maybe it’s the PTO policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog was originally posted on our sister site Getwork<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Flu season is far from over. Each year, between 5 and 20% of the US population gets flu, according to the CDC Foundation,<\/a> and even more will get colds, Covid-19, and other viruses that can render them unable to work.<\/p>\n

In most instances, employees can call in sick and most employers recognize that this is the right thing to do. Not only will the employee recover quicker but staying home will prevent the spread of illness to other employees. This ultimately helps to reduce backlogs and keep productivity as high as possible.<\/p>\n

One\u00a0great way to encourage employees to stay home when ill is to provide a paid time off benefit. There are three main ways companies approach sick time, and each has its pros and cons.<\/p>\n

Separate sick and vacation time<\/h2>\n

The traditional approach to managing Paid Time Off (PTO) involves the segregation of sick leave and vacation time, with designated days specifically allocated for sick periods. This structure aims to encourage employees to use sick days judiciously, reserving them for instances when they are genuinely unwell. However, this well-intentioned system can inadvertently lead to some employees taking advantage of the setup.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, healthy employees may opt to call in sick even when they are not experiencing illness, driven by a desire to utilize this benefit before it expires. This practice not only raises concerns about the integrity of PTO usage but also poses challenges for Human Resources (HR) departments tasked with tracking and managing employee leave.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lump sum PTO<\/h2>\n

As an increasing number of companies transition to the lump Paid Time Off (PTO) approach, employees are granted greater flexibility in utilizing their paid leave as they see fit, presenting itself as a notable perk. This shift allows individuals the freedom to allocate their PTO days without the constraints of categorization. However, while this approach offers advantages, it also brings forth certain drawbacks that merit consideration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One notable downside is the potential inclination of employees to reserve their PTO for leisure activities or vacations rather than for genuine illness. The desire to conserve these valuable days for enjoyable events may lead some individuals to opt for coming into the office even when they are unwell, reluctant to expend a precious PTO day on an illness. This behavior not only jeopardizes individual well-being but also poses a risk of illness spreading within the workplace, thereby impacting overall productivity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlimited sick time<\/h2>\n

Unlimited sick time is the holy grail from an employee’s perspective.\u00a0Being able to stay home when ill without concern about financial or workplace repercussions is a huge benefit that will draw the attention of incoming talent, all while boosting loyalty among current employees. But it takes a special company culture to make this work \u2014 one based on trust and the assumption that employees will\u00a0be responsible and reasonable about their choices.<\/p>\n

Ultimately what works for one company may not for another, so there’s no one-size-fits-all PTO strategy. Fortunately, if a program isn’t working, the start of the year is a great time to evaluate and make adjustments.<\/p>\n

Despite what a company chooses to offer, good communication about benefits and the importance of staying home when ill can be highly effective. What’s more, leadership must model desired behaviors; this means no sniffling, hacking, miserable-looking bosses working late hours. When members of leadership take care of themselves, employees will do the same when it’s time to go home and get some R&R (and maybe that flu shot).<\/p>\n

At Adzuna, we recognize that attracting and retaining the best talent should be your number one priority. Contact us<\/a>\u00a0today to learn more about how we can help you to use data-driven insights to inform your employee benefits<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

\"?\" Read more: <\/strong>Six reasons to diversify your recruitment advertising spend this year<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog was originally posted on our sister site Getwork. Flu season is far from over. Each year, between 5 and 20% of the US population gets flu, according to the CDC Foundation, and even more will get colds, Covid-19, and other viruses that can render them unable to work. In most instances, employees can Continued \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":10045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[591],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recruitment"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6090"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10289,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6090\/revisions\/10289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}