Imagine that your organization could improve productivity by 31% and sales by 37% by simply encouraging employees to take more vacation time. It’s a fact — paid time off can positively impact an organization’s competitiveness in the market.
Written by Nadine von Moltke Reviewed by Catherine Scott 8 minutes read
Vacation request forms are the simplest way for employees to request leave under an organization’s vacation and leave policy. HR can design and implement vacation request forms that are fair, transparent, and support employees taking their vacation days — proven to increase productivity, employee engagement and the operational effectiveness of businesses.
We’ve designed a simple to use, free employee vacation request form (Word doc) to download:
According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 62% of workers say it’s personally essential to them to have a job that offers paid time off(PTO) for vacations, routine doctor’s visits, or to deal with minor illnesses. This is far larger than workers wanting employer-paid health insurance (51%), a retirement program or employer-sponsored 401(k) (44%) or paid family, parental, or medical leave over and above their other paid time off (43%).
Even though paid time off is important, workers often take less time off than their employers offer. The reasons for this vary, from 52% saying they don’t need to take more time off to 49% worrying they will fall behind if they do. Some employees (43%) don’t want their co-workers to carry their workloads, and 19% worry it will hurt their chances of advancement.
The problem is that while it may seem like employees are team players when they don’t use their vacation days, not taking time off can do more harm than good – for employees and their employers. In fact, according to the Mayo Clinic, employees can suffer from burnout because they don’t take time to rest and recover from work.
The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) also reveals how important employee vacation is to the individual, family, and organization, resulting in fewer sick days and employee churn. SHRM’s surveys also show that vacations reduce stress, help with sleep and improve productivity.
For HR and management, being able to view all vacation requests in a centralized manner helps manage human resources more effectively. Knowing who will be out and when assists in balancing team workloads and can inform hiring or scheduling decisions.
In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor, reveals how a brain thinking positively can improve productivity by 31% and increase sales by 37%. Creativity and revenues can also triple. What stimulates the brain to think positively? You guessed it—vacation time spent with loved ones and fun activities.
HR professionals cannot force employees (but you can encourage them!) to take their paid or vacation days off. However, you can create an employee vacation request process and culture, and vacation days request forms that streamline the entire process.
This will simplify the process of requesting time off, and create transparency so that employees feel more comfortable requesting vacation time and that their colleagues will not be under undue burdens while they are away. A small amount of planning and process can go a long way.
The ADA, applicable to employers with 15 or more employees, aims to protect workers with disabilities from discrimination in the workplace and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations, including potentially modifying work schedules or duties. While not a leave law per se, the ADA may entitle an employee with a disability to leave as a form of reasonable accommodation.
The FMLA, on the other hand, provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year for specified family and medical reasons, including personal or family illness, pregnancy, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. This law covers all public agencies and private sector employers with 50 or more employees working within 75 miles of the employee’s worksite.
The FMLA ensures the continuation of health insurance benefits during the leave period and guarantees the same or an equivalent job upon the employee’s return. To qualify, employees must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and logged at least 1,250 hours of service in the 12 months prior to the start of the leave.
The FMLA is a federal law whose goal is to help workers balance job and family responsibilities. However, no other federal law requires employers to provide workers with either paid or unpaid vacation leave. Both the Department of Labor and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) have left the matter of vacation leave to individual states.
HR professionals should work with their legal and compliance departments to ensure all federal and state laws are adhered to in vacation policies.
As we’ve highlighted earlier in this guide, taking advantage of paid vacations is one way for employees to maintain a healthy work–life balance, which has significant benefits on the organization as well.
European-based employees typically take between 20 and 30 paid vacation days per year. In the US, although 76% of American workers have access to paid vacation days, many only take between five and 10 days a year. This access also varies across industries, with leisure and hospitality being among the lowest in the US, with only 43% of workers having access to paid vacation days, versus 90% in the information sector and 95% in both manufacturing and finance.
This presents an ideal opportunity for HR professionals to:
As an HR professional, you have a unique opportunity to create a vacation leave request form that supports the entire process for employees to take vacation days. This will have multiple positive impacts for the business and employees alike.
Here are the most important components to gather all necessary information and streamline the approval process:
