SABBATICALS: The new retention tool?

Daily routine work, deadlines, stiff competition, market forces, target, peer pressure, meetings, overloaded mailbox, stressed work-life!

What would you do if you had extra time off and a stack of cash to accomplish something on your bucket list?

Would you go for scuba-diving lesson at Maldives, work with an NGO for some social cause helping or simply relax and meditate.

Sabbaticals are the new retention tool that the organizations are using today. A sabbatical is a period away from work, agreed with your employer. The word is sometimes used interchangeably with 'career break' or 'adult gap year', but the specific feature about a sabbatical is that you will come back to the same job. It can be a paid one or an unpaid one. 

Organizations have understood that providing its employees time off while still being paid can be used as an excellent retention tool. "The people of an organization are one of the most important elements for that organization to succeed and it is inevitable that they feel motivated to perform at all times.

"The theory behind sabbaticals is that everyone wishes to do something perhaps radically different for some period of time," said J. Robert Carr, SHRM's chief professional development officer.

A sabbatical can sway a burned-out employee to stay, says Rita Foley, co-author of Reboot Your Life: Energize Your Career and Life by Taking a Break (Beaufort Books, 2011)

Who? When? How?
Most companies that offer sabbaticals tie participation to years of service, thereby improving retention, HR professionals say. The most common threshold is seven years of service, but a few companies reserve the benefit for those with 20 years or more.

One to two months is the normal length of sabbaticals, paid programs usually provide full pay and benefits.
Some companies offer sabbaticals to all employees, while others only provide them for upper-level executives. Some HR professionals note that companywide eligibility eliminates resentment among employees who are left behind. When every individual with enough years of service gets a turn, it makes workforce coverage easier and takes the heat off employees returning from sabbaticals.


Do paid sabbaticals increase productivity? Yes, it does. Employees return contented with more vigor and zeal, perform better, and thus increased productivity.  It also improves employer brand of the organization which in turn helps in attracting new talent and thus creating a great workforce.

A sabbatical if used rightly, could act as a propeller which would not only benefit the employee and the organization but also develop a beneficial mutual relationship between the employee and the employer.