Would you pay employees to take a month off? How sabbaticals boost productivity and retention

If you want employees to work harder, the best way to do it may be to ask them to work less.

In an effort to improve retention and help employees manage burnout, extended time off — or a sabbatical — is gaining steam among top employers. While just 5% currently offer fully-paid time away, according to the Society of Human Resource Management, the investment pays off with more committed and refreshed employees.

“It’s really hard after just a week of vacation to get truly relaxed and really disconnect from work,” says Kira Meinzer, chief people officer at HR software platform Envoy Global. “From our perspective, to help the whole office means to dedicate a month to just refreshing and taking a step away from work. Someone has been committed to the business, and this is our way to pay it back to them.”

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At Envoy Global, employees who have worked for the company for seven years are eligible for a month of fully-paid time off, in addition to their regular PTO. The sabbatical must be taken for the full month within two years of becoming eligible. Every seven years, the employee receives their additional month. Envoy's policy has been in place for five years, and so far, just four employees have taken advantage, highlighting the need for retention strategies that reward long-term workers, Meinzer says.

But the policy doesn't just benefit the employee taking the time off, but the entire team, who often need to step up and learn new skills. These gaps give lower-level employees new experiences and opportunities that they may not have had otherwise.

“It forces people to understand what that person on sabbatical is doing, and in many cases, someone in the department would have to step up in more of a leadership role to take on some of their responsibilities,” Meinzer says. “It’s almost like a parenting perspective, where we eventually have to let go of our children’s hands so they can walk on their own. This helps employees get their feet wet.”

For the employees who do take a sabbatical, it could be a time to travel or volunteer. One employee plans to extend their honeymoon with the time off, Meinzer says. For others, it can reveal that their career may not be a good fit anymore, an experience that Meinzer wants employees to have before bringing their uncertainty back into the office.

“It's obviously a good time for everyone to kind of reevaluate where they're at, where they want to be in terms of their life and career,” she says. “And some people say they don't want to come back to work. I'd rather them figure that out then be unhappy and unproductive in their current job.”

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While the sabbatical is a perk for just a few employees, the culture around taking time to tend to your needs out of the office has trickled down to all employees, Meinzer says. Employees are more productive and more invested in staying at the organization, saving Envoy the cost of hiring and training new hires.

Boosting productivity with time off has become even more pertinent during COVID, with companies including Nike, Goldman Sachs and LinkedIn offering PTO boosts. Having a dedicated program like a sabbatical shows employees that they have the space they need to rest, reset and reflect.

“We need to humanize the workplace a little bit more and think that employees are people before employees,” she says. “Sometimes we are short-sighted about that. So I think it’s more important than ever to have less scheduled time and time to just breathe and step away and slow down.”