Many bosses have pleaded with employees for months to use their vacation time. Now some are adding incentives to coax workers into using their bedrock benefit.
With time off piling up for many employees in the pandemic, companies are getting creative in their efforts to persuade people to disconnect. Some employers, like Google, are offering a bonus vacation day for those who book time off now. Others are adding all-company holidays to the schedule. Even more unconventional is the approach of accounting and consulting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers: It will pay people to sign off.
PwC will begin offering U.S. staffers $250 for every full week of vacation booked, up to $1,000 a year. The plan could cost the firm millions, but the company has exhausted other attempts to get employees to disconnect, says Tim Ryan, PwC’s U.S. chairman.
“We want to show people we’re serious,” Mr. Ryan says. “Economic incentives do have a way of helping.”
The new corporate experiments reflect genuine concern among managers that burned-out employees have had few breaks over the past year, as many have worked almost continuously at home. Then there are the financial implications: Unused vacation time is considered a liability for most companies, something employers generally pay if employees leave an organization.
