SHRM survey: Majority of employers offer paid leave

A recent survey of over 2,000 employers conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) reveals that workers today are placing increased importance on flexible scheduling and greater autonomy in managing their time away from the office.

According to SHRM, HR professionals are responding to this trend, with 52% saying that their organization offers paid-time-off (PTO) plans for their full-time workers. PTO plans include vacation, sick, and personal time under one umbrella. HR professionals developing new leave plans at their organization or updating current plans are increasingly considering the PTO option.

SHRM’s survey of predominantly private employers with 500 or fewer employees provided valuable insight into the rapidly expanding benefit of paid leave. The survey responses came from all business sectors—the top three being manufacturing (19%); professional, scientific, and technical services (19%); and healthcare and social assistance (17%).

Responses to survey questions showed the following results:

What types of paid leave do organizations offer to their full-time employees?

Overall, 52% of the organizations offer PTO plans to their full-time employees. Two-fifths (41%) of organizations offer paid vacations plans, roughly one-third (34%) offer paid sick leave plans, and 22% offer paid personal leave to their full-time employees.

Do organizations provide employees with a set number or an unlimited number of paid leave days per year?

The vast majority of the organizations provide employees with a set number of PTO (94%), paid vacation (98%), paid sick leave (88%), and paid personal (95%) days per year.

How does paid leave accrue?

Methods of leave accrual vary by types of paid leave and among organizations. However, across various types of paid leave, the most frequent methods of leave accrual are by calendar year and pay period.

Is the paid leave provided to employees based on their length of service?

The majority of the organizations offer PTO plans (88%) and paid vacation plans (92%) to employees based on their length of service at the organization. However, an employee’s length of service has no impact on paid sick leave and personal leave plans. The majority of the organizations offer a set number of paid sick leave (86%) and personal leave (89%) plans to their employees, regardless of their length of service with the organization.

How many paid leave days per year are offered based on years of service?

Among organizations offering paid leave based on employees’ length of service, paid leave days increase with employee tenure. For instance, the average days per year offered in PTO plans range from 14 days for employees with less than a year of service to 26 days for employees with 20 or more years of service.

IBI Survey: Increased absences = increased job changes for employers

When an employee goes on leave, the work still must get done. At first, helpful coworkers may pitch in to cover for the employee’s absence. But as time goes on, managers have to step in and delegate or use other means of ensuring that the employee’s work is completed and projects or production does not go undone.

According to a recent study by the Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI), managers are more likely to take no action if a worker’s absence is short (1 to 3 days), but as the duration of absence extends to 2 weeks or to 1 month, managers are increasingly willing to assign work to others, bring in substitute workers, increase the use of overtime, and even hire new employees.

“Managers may assume that, for a short-duration absence, the absent worker can make up the time or the impact of lost work will be relatively low. But as duration increases, the impact becomes hard to ignore and the manager responds,” says IBI Executive Vice President Kimberly Jinnett, PhD, author of the study.

According to the study findings, managers’ responses include the following actions:

One day: At 1 day of absence, 82% of managers are most likely to do nothing in response; 9.5% assign the work to other employees, and 9.5% use substitute workers.

Three days: When the absence increases to 3 days, only 50% of managers do nothing; 29% assign work to other employees, and 18% use substitute workers.

Two weeks: When the absence grows to 2 weeks, managers most frequently assign work to other employees (58%), find substitute workers (18%), and use overtime (17%). Less than 7% of managers do nothing in response.

One month: After a 1-month absence, employers assigning work to other employees diminishes slightly (49%), while the use of substitute workers increases (28%). There is also an increase in the hiring of new employees (4%) and other management responses (6%).

The report is the first in a series from IBI’s ongoing study, “The Impact of Health on Job Performance and Productivity.”

IBI is an independent nonprofit membership organization and a provider of health and productivity research, measurement, and benchmarking.

IBI provides members with data, research, and tools to make sound decisions in how they invest in the health of their workforces.

Additional information about IBI may be found at www.ibiweb.org.