More workers get combo vacation-sick time

PTO (Paid Time Off) is gaining popularity with companies and personnel alike. Five years ago less than 6% of employers offered PTO, up from 2% in 1995. In 2003 year over 13% of all employers in the US offered a PTO plan, this could reach 50% of the workforce in a few years.

The reasons are clear, paid-time-off banks are especially widespread in the health care industry where personnel are allowed to manage their own time off. This practice appeals to professional and skilled workers looking for more than just a job. Many smaller companies are adopting this practice too, greatly simplifying the complex accounting that goes into tracking separate sick and vacation time without a computer time management system as TimeLegal and others. Moving to PTO banks gives workers greater flexibility in choosing time off and business gets a bonus too by being better able to manage absenteeism.

PTO works by combining sick and vacation days into a decimal that is calculated by the minute at period close in most software programs. The practice has winners and losers, a organization that allows10 vacation and 10 sick days before converting to PTO do not just give employees 20 days off. Instead most take the average number of sick days that employees use (typically 5) and add those to the 10 vacation days for a total of 15. So under the new system employees would receive 15 days total off per year plus holidays.

Workers who use most of their sick days under the old system, either to take care of themselves or young kids, end up with fewer total paid days off and less actual vacation time. But those who are healthy or have fewer care giving duties find they have more leave days at their disposal.

There is another benefit to employers, they don't have to worry about employees calling in sick when they just wanted time off. This is a significant concern at many workplaces. In a 2004 survey by CareerBuilder.com of 1600 workers they found that 35% called in sick at least once in a year when they could have gone to work. Ten percent said they called in sick  more than 3 times per year. "We used to have a lot of people all of a sudden sick on Fridays and Mondays", said a Citrus Heights California-based electric company. "This new plan has alleviated a lot of last-minute calling in sick and the associated scheduling headaches."

Many companies allow PTO to roll over to the next year, this reduces the sick and vacations days at the end of the period, allowing the employee and the company more flexibility in scheduling high value time off. Blue Shield Health Insurance of California which introduced PTO over three years ago, allows managers to veto PTO requests if too many people plan to be absent on the same day. Also, the company does not have to get into the trick business of determining what qualifies as vacation time, said the director of human resources. This company also allows employees to donate PTO to co-workers who are facing unexpected absences like a death in the family, employees are also allowed to apply up to three days of their time toward their health care costs, an option 10% of the workforce now takes.

Give PTO some thought, TimeLegal makes management of this time easy with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Push F1 with TimeLegal running for information on setup of PTO benefits in your Personnel "Pay Data" form.