Vacation
VACATION POLICIES
Having ample paid vacation time is an essential benefit for your team. It helps to promote a great work-life balance and time to recharge for your team members. To maintain efficiency and productivity in the practice while your team are enjoying their time off, you need a clear vacation policy to define the benefits and limitations of vacation time. We generally see two types of vacation policies that work best for our clients but first let’s discuss the basics of a vacation policy.
What is a vacation policy?
Vacation policies are guidelines created by your practice to outline the requirements for using vacation time. A vacation policy should detail the important aspects of vacation time, including requirements for requesting time off, how many days are included in the vacation policy and how vacation hours are accrued.
Importance of having a vacation policy in place
Clear is Kind! A set vacation policy helps you clearly communicate the requirements for team members to follow when requesting time off for vacation. This eliminates confusion for both the team member and the practice. A clear policy and adherence to that policy will maintain practice efficiency by provide the team members with an understanding of how many days off they have and how far in advance they need to request their vacation time.
As the practice owner, you don’t have to worry about productivity being lost, as the policy typically outlines details about the arrangements team members must make for the vacation time. These arrangements can include locating another team member to temporarily handle their tasks (in smaller offices, it is vital to have team members that are cross-trained to provide coverage during vacation and sick days). The policy should also limit how many team members can take vacation time at the same time to avoid having too many people gone at once.
Overview of a vacation policy
A vacation policy is specifically designated as time off for rest and relaxation and technically different than a Paid Time Off (PTO) policy that encompasses vacation, sick and personal days. In general, your practice is not required to offer vacation time to your team, but it is an effective benefit in recruiting candidates looking for in an ideal workplace. Note that 80% of health care employees have access to paid time off. If you do offer a vacation policy, and especially if you offer as part of a PTO policy, you will need a clear vacation policy description with the following information: (Since many states have strict requirements for PTO/vacation time, check with your employment attorney to ensure your policy complies with current federal and state law.)
Vacation time eligibility - When creating your vacation policy, specify who is eligible. For instance, you might decide that full-time and part-time employees are eligible, while contract employees are not. You might require that employees work a certain number of days before receiving vacation time, also known as a probationary period. List all vacation time eligibility requirements in your employee handbook so team members are clear regarding if and when they’ll get this benefit.
Earning vacation time - Once you’ve explained which employees receive vacation time, your vacation policy should explain how they’ll earn it. One popular option is for team members to accrue vacation hours over time such as earn one hour of vacation time for every twenty hours worked. Another option is provide your team members with all their vacation time just once a year on the anniversary of their start date or at the beginning of the year. Since team members might earn more vacation time the longer they stay with your practice, you will need to document those milestones and include them in your policy.
Rolling over vacation time - Make sure to outline what happens with unused vacation time at the end of the year. If you decide to let team members roll over some or all of their vacation time to the next year, you need to document the details so team members can plan for using their time.
Payout upon leaving - The other issue that will come up and needs to be covered in your policy is what happens to unused vacation time when a team member leaves the practice. There are varying state regulations related to unused time so you’ll need to work with your HR attorney to ensure your policy is compliant.
Vacation time request process - The toughest part of any policy is making sure that it is enforced, so carefully consider how you plan to enforce requests that might negatively affect the practice when creating a request process. You will want to consider items like how far in advance they need to submit the request, how many days they can take at once, how many team members can be absent at once and any restricted times when vacation is not allowed. It helps to include step-by-step procedures for taking time off so employees know what to do when they’re planning vacation time. Note - For JNG Advisors clients, we can set up an online system for team members to request time off and for you to approve or deny.
Vacation policy recommendations
We have two distinct vacation policies that work for our clients. Which policy you choose will be dependent upon the style of practice that you run.
MULTI-WEEK CLOSURE PRACTICE
Many of our clients are past or present Blatchford Solution clients and have focused on a “work hard, play hard” schedule that involves office closures for between four to twelve weeks a year. In these practices, we generally do not see additional PTO or vacation time being offered, as the office closures are meant to be time for both the doctor and the team to rest and recharge. If you use a schedule like this, you will not need a formal vacation policy as outlined above. But it is important to outline the details of your office closure policy and plan your schedule out at least a year in advance so team members can make their schedules around the office closure dates.
50 WEEKS A YEAR PRACTICE
For more traditional practices that might schedule 50 to 52 weeks a year, there is a need to give team members time off for rest and relaxation. For a practice like this, we highly recommend a vacation policy as outlined above that will keep your team members charged up to give 100% when they are in the practice. In general, we recommend a vacation policy with these items:
full-time team members that have completed a 90 day prohibitionary period
vacation time accrued throughout the year based on hours worked
allowance for limited roll-over with a cap of 80 hours
unless required by state law, no payout at termination
vacation request being required six months in advance and no vacation overlap with other team members
Each practice is different, SO ENSURE THAT YOUR VACATION POLICY FITS THE PRACTICE YOU WANT TO BUILD. If you are struggling TO DETERMINE HOW MUCH TIME YOU CAN AFFORD TO TAKE OFF OR HOW MUCH VACATION TIME YOU CAN AFFORD TO GIVE TEAM MEMBERS, schedule a consultation with JNG Advisors today.
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