Neelin echoes the sentiment and actively promotes consecutive days off with his team. “I think people are less efficient at work if they are not taking vacations. I actively discourage single and double day vacations… I don’t think people are mentally leaving the work place with just a day or two away.” Walking the talk on vacation days and effectively implementing a robust and fair system for employees requires several key elements. The first step is to build a corporate culture and expectation around vacation days. “Our culture is an expectation that people will take vacation days and that there needs to be planning around it,” says Neelin. Ensuring that there is a person who can cover for an employee while on vacation is the second step. This approach to duplication builds diversity within the team. It also enables team members to negotiate directly with one another about when to book time off. “Ours is a functional approach to managing summer vacations. Usually, the team has talks amongst themselves, which is a good sign of a solid culture,” says Neelin. Due to the project-centric nature of the work at Starburst, Jennings lays out the companywide vacation calendar into two annual segments and expects employees to book time off (to the best of their ability) prior to the start of each six-month segment. “What we see happen is people take a couple of week-long breaks throughout the year and reserve some days for long weekends or personal events like weddings,” explains Jennings.
Embedding vacation days into the corporate culture is not a 100 per cent guarantee that there will be no conflict. Instead, it minimizes inter-personal disagreements while relying on clear guidelines that everyone on the team must adhere to. For Neelin, it comes down to ensuring that the outcomes of who gets the extra day before the long weekend off are seen to be fair throughout the company. “You need to be fair and consistent. Every year I get asked to bend the rules, but that doesn’t happen. In the end that means that everybody comes around.” Unused vacation time can also be a challenge for a company. It is a fiscal liability and team members who don’t take time off can see their productivity erode, along with a toll on interpersonal office relationships. “It can be a recurring issue,” says Jennings. “Some people need to be pushed to take their vacation. At our office, it is a requirement that you take your vacation by the end of the fiscal year.” The halcyon days of summer have arrived in Edmonton, but it is not too late to ensure your employees make the most of it. Leadership in small and medium size organizations can sit down with their company vacation calendars in front of them and start working on solutions that help employees make the most of their days off – when they aren’t thinking about work at all. The benefits will be seen when they return.
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www.businessinedmonton.com | Business In Edmonton Magazine | July 2015
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