Is unlimited PTO right for your organization?

One significant well-being benefit that gained more widespread use during the pandemic is unlimited paid time off, a concept that has been especially prevalent in the tech industry. As employees struggled to take time off and many lost vacation due to use-it-or-lose-it policies, some employers made adjustments to allow employees to keep vacation time.

In some cases, these were one-off policies, intended to help during the pandemic and set to expire, but with the Delta variant, they’re being evaluated again.

According to the Willis Towers Watson Global Benefit Attitudes (GBAS) survey, released earlier this year, generosity of PTO was employees’ highest priority in the area of work-life balance and flexibility. This, plus a renewed focus on time-off programs that align with diversity and inclusion initiatives and efforts to remove the significant financial liability associated with employees not taking time off are the reasons there’s been an increase in unlimited PTO programs, says Jackie Reinberg, senior director, North America leader, absence, disability management & life at Willis Towers Watson.