HR expert Rob Wilson comments on how employers can avoid ending up with a skeleton crew this holiday season
With the COVID-19 pandemic, many people were forced to cancel their vacations, weddings, cruises, and other planned leisure activities. As a result, workers across the country have collected many days’ worth (or even weeks’ worth) of paid time off, which will need to be used by year’s end or could be potentially lost forever.
Rob Wilson, President of Employco USA and human resources expert, comments on this breaking topic below:
“The COVID-19 shutdown impeded workflow in many ways, but it also created a situation in which employees could no longer travel or engage in their planned vacations. As a result, we saw many employees simply forgo their time off, and instead work through 2020 without a designated break. But this has now led us to a serious HR quandary: All of these workers who didn’t use their PTO have an impending deadline of December 31st, by which they need to use their paid time off or possibly see it disappear.”
As a result, says Wilson, workplaces could be looking at many empty desks for the next few weeks, as employees shoehorn their PTO onto the holiday season.
“With so many employees taking time off, we could see a real impact on productivity. And for those who work in health-related fields like insurance, billing, and scheduling, a pandemic is a terrible time for us to see lots of empty cubicles.”
Adjustments are always a good alternative, advises the human resources expert.
“Rather than working with a skeleton staff for the next few weeks as employees start using their PTO, consider allowing your employees to roll their time over into the 2021 calendar year. While many companies don’t want their employees to accrue too much time off in this manner, allowing rollover days during this pandemic might be a very wise move. It doesn’t have to be a permanent choice for your company, but one that could be very beneficial right now, and you can amend the decision with an accrual cap so employees don’t collect too many days off.”
Wilson also says that you could allow employees to ‘cash out’ their PTO and make the world a better place at the same time.
“Some companies have plans in which they allow their employees to donate their PTO for those who might truly need it,” says Wilson. “For example, a young healthy employee without any children might donate their PTO to an employee with 3 kids and an elderly relative at home who needs constant care. Or maybe an employee might donate their PTO to someone who’s recovering from COVID or someone very concerned about COVID exposure in the workplace.”
Wilson says that PTO can also be cashed in and then used as a donation to an employee’s chosen charity.
“Giving workers the chance to do something meaningful with their PTO that they might not need right now is a wonderful way to lean into the meaning of the season,” he says.
The human resources expert also says that companies can consider allowing employees to cash out PTO and funnel the funds towards their student loans or education expenses.
“This is a win-win: Your employee uses their PTO and continues their commitment to higher learning or chipping away at their student loans,” says Wilson.
But the President of Employco USA says that the funds can also be used for more leisurely activities.
“This is vacation time, after all, and your employees earned their relaxation,” says Wilson. “Consider offering to exchange PTO for travel or accommodation costs in the future. Once this pandemic ends, employees will be excited to see the world and leave their COVID-bubble behind, so offering to transform PTO into use for travel costs will be a reassuring and positive thing for employees to look forward to.”
For more on this topic, please contact Rob Wilson at rwilson@thewilsoncompanies.com.