HR Magazine – Work hard, play hard: perfecting paid time off

Encouraging employees to take paid time off (PTO) is far from a simple task. As such, the past decade has seen a greater focus on alternative approaches to time off work, as conversations around benefits, wellbeing and work/life balance have taken centre stage.

But these new methods don’t solve issues like employee burnout or untaken leave, and they aren’t the ready-made answer to what the perfect type of leave, or number of days off, to offer staff is. Does a perfect solution exist?

Traditional paid time off

Since 2009, statutory paid annual leave has been set at 28 days in the UK. Many firms offer additional mental health days, bereavement leave and fertility leave, too.

Increasingly, government is mandating boosted time-off benefits. Since last year, workers can carry over unused holiday pay (enabling future time off). At the time of writing, the Employment Rights Bill includes provision for statutory bereavement leave.

But despite expanded time-off provision, 2024 data from HR software firm Breathe found that 65% of UK workers don’t take their full annual leave entitlement. This is despite working longer hours on average than their French and German counterparts, and one in five needing time off work due to poor mental health, as 2025 YouGov data highlighted.

Alternative approaches

Over the last decade, alternative approaches to PTO – such as paid sabbaticals for long service (as offered by the tech firm Meta) or unlimited parental leave in a child’s first year (reportedly offered by Netflix at one point) – have expanded. LinkedIn, Goldman Sachs and the taxi firm Bolt have all experimented with unlimited PTO, the theory being that it would attract the best employees by signalling a culture of trust and autonomy that would drive better wellbeing, and worker and company outcomes.

A 2022 Glassdoor study found that positive employee reviews of unlimited PTO were up 75% from before the pandemic. Between 2021 and 2023, the number of US companies offering unlimited PTO doubled from 4% (Brightmine data) to 8% (SHRM data).

But the reality is that unlimited PTO, and other leftfield options, have not been a total solution. Ripping up the PTO rulebook does not seem to have solved the time off issue.

According to 2018 figures from software firm Namely, employees at companies offering unlimited PTO take 13 days off compared with the 15 that employees at firms with a more typical PTO policy take. BBC reporting in 2022 also cited that workers with unlimited time off were not taking as much leave because they worried about being perceived as lazy, or that their organisations were not set up to cover their work. Even more recently, a study published by consultancy Korn Ferry this year found that managers viewed staff who took time off as less committed and less promotable, even if they were high performers.

Bolt reneged on its unlimited PTO policy and mandated minimum leave instead: employees should have to take four weeks off annually, its leaders stated. Is this the way forward?

Remove the barriers

When trying to get staff to take adequate downtime, focus less on the perfect number of days and more on understanding how work cultures and structures might inhibit taking time off (and working to change them), advises Samantha Gee, director at reward consultancy Verditer. She says that blockers can include blurred boundaries between work and personal space while working from home, employees not being aware of leave entitlement, and workaholic cultures invisibly inhibiting time off. “Some managers believe that ‘unplugging’ shows a lack of commitment and can damage career prospects,” she adds.

Read more: Full annual leave unclaimed by 65% of employees

According to Chris Britton, people experience director at employee engagement software provider Reward Gateway, hiring issues, resulting in a lack of cover, and pay packages linked to overtime or performance bonuses can inhibit time off, and HR needs to work to change this. A strategic approach that balances all stakeholder needs is savvy, he explains. “A good PTO strategy balances employee wellbeing, operational continuity and fairness,” he continues.

Nebel Crowhurst, fractional chief people officer at consultancy People and Transformational HR, clarifies that poor communication and leadership modelling can also undermine proper employee rest. She highlights: “It is counterintuitive to create a culture of little to no rest. In the long run, the future success of the business will be negatively impacted.”

Strategic time off

Crowhurst believes that a multi-step time-off strategy is needed, based first on understanding the rest/productivity link, and how this interplays with wellbeing. This understanding should be linked into a considered, flexible reward and people strategy that is mindful of business needs i.e. the sensitivity of the work and necessary cover. 

Leaders must consider people’s needs alongside business, and understand how PTO forms part of the organisation’s wider employer value proposition, to not just benefit current staff but attract new talent, Crowhurst adds. “PTO should not be looked at in isolation to other benefits. The workforce demographic and the nature of the work should help decide on what the blend should look like.”

For Alice Burks, director of people success for HR software provider Deel, this means worrying less about the perfect number of days, and instead considering an employee offering of benefits and rest that works for both individual employees and the business.

She says: “For some organisations, four-to-five weeks of annual leave might be the sweet spot. Others might benefit from more flexible options like trading bank holidays, accruing leave through overtime, unlimited PTO, or offering tailored PTO for parents or caregivers.”

Rather than having unlimited days or glamorous offers of extended leave, flexibility might be considered the panacea, adds Britton. “It’s more beneficial to be flexible, letting people take time off when they request it. Arguably, not allowing people time off is worse for business,” he says.

Read more: SMEs to give employees extra time off in December

Strategy in action

But PTO shouldn’t be a free-for-all; it requires smart administration and an understanding of employee equity, as well as interplay with other employee offerings. This kind of approach is needed to make PTO work best, says Liz Sebag-Monteflore, CEO at HR consultancy 10Eighty. “PTO needs to be built into a broader reward strategy alongside pay, flexible working, professional development, and wellbeing initiatives,” she explains.

From this baseline understanding, an organisation’s PTO offering can be used to signal improved equity or a sense of fairness at work, Gee adds, pointing to firms that no longer simply offer extended leave to senior staff. “Traditionally, PTO increased with seniority and/or service, but, like many benefits, we’re seeing a more equitable approach developing,” she says.

This doesn’t mean the most equitable strategy is to offer the same PTO to all staff, says Burks. Different staff have different needs (parents, caregivers, etc) and bigger corporations interact with different kinds of legislation, she highlights, so a minimum-level approach might be best.

“This strategy helps ensure that team members can take reliable and consistent time away from work, no matter where they’re based. It creates an aligned global culture while allowing for local nuance,” states Burks.

However, businesses should be wary about positioning a baseline PTO as a special benefit, warns Britton. “If an organisation is going to promote PTO as a ‘reward’ then there should be something different about it compared to the norm,” he says.

The PTO panacea

Implement a strategic approach to PTO to get the right uptick, advises Burks. “Employees who are happy with the benefits they get from work are 1.6 times more productive,” she says, quoting data published this year by the insurer Metlife.

For Sebag-Monteflore, optimal PTO strategy means being clear about minimum leave requirements, actively communicating the need to take time off, and building a pro-leave culture. “Encourage early booking, run wellbeing campaigns and promote proper handovers so that employees can disconnect fully,” she suggests.

There’s a training and leadership element to this too, explains Gee: HR should cross-train employees to enable cover, get leaders to model healthy work-life balance, and celebrate leave. “Some organisations even offer incentives to employees who take their full holiday allowance, such as additional benefits or bonuses,” says Gee.

Read more: Unlimited holiday is ‘click-bait HR policy’

Of course, PTO is only one consideration in a broader people strategy that works to get the best out of human capital while considering their needs. Don’t get bogged down in trying to find a silver-bullet single figure of holiday to offer staff, says Sebag-Monteflore. Be more interested in good communication, manager support and business operations, so that everyone wins.

“The right PTO strategy reduces burnout and turnover, boosts engagement, creativity and productivity, and strengthens the employer brand,” she says. Simple, right?

Two top tips

1. HR must set the tone, according to fractional chief people officer Nebel Crowhurst. “In partnership with HR, the role of leadership is to foster a cultural environment that encourages people to take rest,” she says.

2. Take a multi-step approach, advises Samantha Gee, director of reward consultancy Verditer. Get leaders to normalise taking time off; communicate PTO policies; schedule digital reminders to take leave, and use technology that makes booking easy. “Track PTO balances and send reminders to employees about their remaining days,” Gee adds. “This can prompt people to plan and take time off before it expires.”

AI and PTO

Like PTO, AI has caused ongoing consternation. For Gee, it will result in a boost in productivity, with repetitive tasks likely being undertaken by AI agents. “Companies may decide to share [this time] with employees,” she says, by offering them more PTO. This could take the form of vacation time, flexible hours or short weeks for the same pay.

This article was published in the September/October 2025 edition of HR magazine.

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