Companies, mostly startups, are coming up with options for employees, like unlimited sick/casual/wellness leaves, uncapped offs and no-questions- askes policies. Experts believe that initiatives like these would encourage employees to have a better work-life balance, while building greater accountability, engagement and loyalty.
New Delhi: Recently, lifestyle technology brand Noise rolled out a 'no-questions asked' leave policy which allows employees to take up to four weeks of leave in a year without specifying a reason. This would help build a culture of trust and security and inspire employees to have faith in the company, just as it does in its staff, Economic Times reported citing Noise's statement.
Companies, mostly startups, are coming up with options for employees, like unlimited sick/casual/wellness leaves, uncapped offs and no-questions- askes policies. Experts believe that initiatives like these would encourage employees to have a better work-life balance, while building greater accountability, engagement and loyalty. The need to have a better work life balance became more prominent following the Covid-19 pandemic, when balancing careers and homes has become a top priority for workers.
Who's adopting new age leave policies
Meesho rolled out a wellness leave policy in June with up to 365 days of paid leave if an employee or their loved one is impacted by a critical illness.
Noise rolled out a no-questions asked leave policy which allows employees to take up to four weeks of leave in a year without specifying a reason.
Extramarks education rolled out policy where Grade G3 and higher-level professionals (general managers and above) have been able to avail of unlimited casual leaves no questions asked from January.
Neo-banking app Fi has a policy of unlimited wellness leaves.
Travel portal MakeMyTrip also have a flexible leave policy in place.
Edtech company Adda247 introduced an unlimited sick leaves policy in April, based on a pulse survey conducted internally
Investment bank Goldman Sachs put in place a new vacation policy offering unlimited time off to all partners and managing directors. Effective January 1, 2023, all employees in India are expected to take a minimum of 18 days off in a calendar year, of which five must be consecutive days off.
How it Helps
*Builds Culture of trust, responsibility, accountability.
*Gives flexibility to accommodate the transition from work from home.
*Gives employees more freedom, security, better work-life-balance
Responsibility and accountability
Companies which implemented such policies earlier, say employees have become more responsible about taking leaves. As per the ET report, the companies see a sense of security among employees that they can take time off for themselves when needed has resulted in an increased sense of accountability towards work.
After over four years, numbers indicate that the leave consumption pattern remains more or less the same if we benchmark these against prevalent policies of 2016-17. Such policies when aligned with the managers help in driving higher order accountability and ownership within team members and further results in higher productivity and integrity," the report quoted MakeMyTrip group chief human resources officer Yuvaraj Srivastava as saying.
We have noticed that our people take the responsibility to close ongoing projects or unblock pending tasks before going on leave without us having to enforce such behaviour," said Fi chief executive Sujith Narayanan.
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