Annual leave is something we all cherish. It’s a chance to step away from work and do the things you love: go on holiday, enjoy family time, finish odd jobs or simply relax.
However, most employees in the UK are limited in the amount of annual leave they can take (usually 28 days, including bank holidays). These means workers often find themselves running out of leave or having to tactically plan when to take it.
We wanted to prevent this happening to our staff and give them greater freedom. So, in 2022, we introduced unlimited annual leave as a policy, removing any limits on how many days our staff can take each year. This is how it has impacted our business and people.
Why did we introduce unlimited annual leave?
The concept for unlimited annual leave first came to our CEO and CFO from the book ‘No Rules Rules’. This book documents Netflix’s culture, and one of their core policies is unlimited annual leave. It brought significant benefits to them, which made us curious about how it might effect our business.
Alongside this inspiration, we wanted to give our staff more flexibility. We all deal with unexpected events we might need time off for, such as ill relatives, children’s sports days, house moves and so on. We wanted to give people the ability to take time for these life events, without having to worry about exhausting their leave.
Finally, we knew unlimited annual leave would tie perfectly into our values, including:
- Be empathetic by giving people more flexibility to navigate their busy lives and juggle priorities
- Empowering creativity, by giving people freedom and experiences outside of work to drive what they bring into their roles
- Boost confidence, by showing our staff we trust them to work autonomously while continuing to positively impact the business
Spurred on by these factors, the decision to implement annual leave across our organisation was something we knew we need to try.
What’s been the impact?
There was some uncertainty when we first introduced unlimited annual leave. People struggled to change habits after years of working to strict annual leave policies.
At first, this led to some people taking less annual leave as there wasn’t a ‘baseline’ they had to take. This meant managers had to intervene to ensure they were taking enough time off.
To address these issues, we introduced more guidelines during the second year of the policy. This included ensuring people took a minimum of 20 days a year (not including bank holidays or considering country specific variations) to comply with legal guidelines and protect employee wellbeing.
With added guidelines and staff becoming more comfortable with the policy, people have now started to embrace it and experience the positive benefits.
As people feel more trusted, they have a greater autonomy in their work which enables them to be more productive. They feel valued by the business, so they’re more likely to bring their best performance to their daily roles.
It also reduces burnout, allowing our staff to navigate life’s obstacles without having to stress about work.
Louise Otton, Head of Talent Development and Culture explains: “We all have those curveball days where we need a day off that traditional annual leave policies can’t always cover. Our policy allows people to have that flexibility to accommodate their lives outside of work and maintain all their priorities”.
Unlimited leave enables our people to feel rested and satisfied in their work-life balance, which further drives their motivation and quality of work. This means they deliver an improved service to our clients and bring better ideas to the table.
Our unlimited leave is also a core benefit we offer as an employer, helping us to attract stronger talent. We see this as crucial to standing out in the market and ensuring we can hire and retain the best possible people to support our clients.
On top of this, the policy reduces admin for everyone. HR and finance no longer must work out days taken and factor this into their calculation. And other staff don’t need to keep tally of how many days they’ve taken and plan it through the rest of the year. Instead, it’s a more efficient process where everyone has more freedom.
Our top tips for businesses considering introducing unlimited annual leave_
While we love our unlimited annual leave policy, we know it isn’t for every business. If you are curious about implementing it within your organisation, here are five things we recommend doing first:
1. Talk to your staff
First, find out how your staff feel about unlimited leave. While it sounds like an ideal situation, some people may be happy with their annual leave as it is. This is also a great chance to understand people’s concerns, so you can set guidelines that address it.
Consider holding a consultation meeting to discuss the idea, ideally with a small set of employees who represent the wider business.
2. Run a small test
If you would like to pursue the idea further, we recommend running a small pilot first. This gives you a chance to monitor the impact before you roll it out across the entire organisation.
Aim to select a test group who represent the business. They should be spread across departments, lifestyles and seniority levels so you can understand how different people respond.
While this group will have unlimited leave first, aim to keep this fair on non-test group staff by monitoring how much leave is being taken. Depending on how the trial goes, you can then look to roll it out more widely.
3. Introduce guidelines
When we first introduced unlimited leave without guidelines, there was uncertainty around it. However, implementing basic rules helped people embrace it more.
A good first guideline is to set a minimum number of days that must be taken every year. These should comply with workplace regulations and be enough to allow your staff to rest.
Other guidelines include things like how much notice is required, how long people can be off for continuously and what happens when multiple team members book leave over the same time.
With robust guidelines, you can still give people freedom while keeping things fair and managing the workforce.
4. Monitor the impact
When you introduce unlimited annual leave, whether it is among a small group or the whole business, it’s crucial to monitor the impact. Key things you might want to track include:
- How much leave is taken per employee
- If the leave taken is balanced across team members
- The impact on productivity (e.g. deadlines being met, turnaround times etc)
- Any impact on business-wide communication and collaboration
- Employee turnover rates
- Employment offer acceptance rates
- Staff satisfaction measures
Of course, you should choose to measure KPIs that matter most to your business. Qualitative feedback from your staff will also be crucial, so remember to ask them for their feedback on the policy.
If you see any negative impact, it’s a sign the policy might not work for your organisation, or you need to set new guidelines.
5. Empower managers to intervene
When managing unlimited annual leave on a more granular level, it’s crucial that team managers feel empowered to guide their reports.
Managers should encourage their teams to take off enough holiday throughout the year so that they are getting the benefits of the policy and feeling rested.
Manager should also be able to intervene if annual leave is causing issues. This may include if someone is taking too much time and it’s affecting their work. They should also seek to bring equality across the team so certain members aren’t taking much more time off than others.
More about Infinity Group_
Infinity Group are a leading managed services provider and Microsoft Partner who aren’t afraid to do things differently – from giving our staff unlimited leave or coming up with innovative approaches to support clients.
We leverage leading technologies to help our clients be more creative, efficient and productive. Our consultants will deliver exceptional service and expert guidance to help you drive performance and streamline effort across your organisation, using the likes of AI and automation.
Get in touch to find out how we can help your business improve processes and reduce staff burn-out.
