Take more time off!

We all love holidays. They are not only great fun but absolutely critical. These days we understand just how vital time off work is for our overall wellbeing and mental health. So imagine being able to take as much holiday as you like, without counting how many days of holiday entitlement you have left. Is this the stuff of dreams? Well, no- as it turns out increasing numbers of companies are adopting an 'unlimited holiday allowance' policy. Under this policy, employees are able to choose how many (paid) holiday days they take and when they take them without needing management approval. Often the only stipulation is that any time taken off must not adversely affect the running of the business.

But is this a risky strategy? Will you be left with an office bereft of employees come July and September? The research tells us that no, that is very unlikely to be the case. In fact, companies who have adopted this approached have reported a huge spike in productivity and loyalty and have also indicated that employees are largely very sensible and reasonable in determining how much time to take off and when. Overall I think this is a strategy that can really work for one very simple reason - trust. In my training sessions I talk a lot about trust - the importance of creating trust and nurturing good relationships in the workplace. If trust exists productivity, quality of work, retention rates, sickness absence rates, the workplace atmosphere and so on, will all be positively impacted. Telling your employees that they can take as much holiday as they wish and leaving the decision to them as to when to take it places a huge amount of trust in them. It sends a very clear message - 'we trust you and we value you' - which can have remarkable, measurable results for your business and for overall employee engagement. So maybe it is worth seriously considering - it's not as crazy as it might first seem!