A new report, The High Price of Silence: Analyzing the Business Implications of an Under-Vacationed Workforce, reveals the cost implications for businesses that ignore the power of vacation.
Report author Katie Denis noted that mixed signals by managers led to 658 million unused vacation days in 2015 and $272 billion in accumulated vacation time sitting on the balance sheets of US businesses.
Vacation time can be costly for companies that do not encourage it. That number is up 21 percent since 2015 when the vacation liability stood at $224 billion. The per employee liability is $2,226, up from $1,898 in 2015
Accordingly, 80 percent of Americans say they would be more likely to use their time if they felt encouraged by their boss.
"Beyond the red mark on balance sheets, not taking time off hurts employee engagement and productivity, affects talent retention, and expedites burnout—all of which hurt a company's bottom line." – Katie Denis
The study also found that:
Denis also suggests that senior leaders (below the C-suite level) who don't take vacation time can negatively influence company culture as they interact with non-manager employees more directly than C-suite executives do.
Learn how your organization can offer more ways to used accrued PTO.