Sabbaticals – Why it should be offered to long-term employees

The concept of a sabbatical may call up an image of an academic taking a long break from lecturing to  conduct research or write a book, but sabbaticals aren’t unheard of in the business world, either. Whether it’s a few weeks or as much as a year, sabbaticals are valued for giving employees a chance to recharge their batteries while holding their jobs until they come back.

In the Society for Human Resources 2011 Employee Benefits research report, only 4 percent of the companies surveyed offered paid sabbaticals to employees. However, 15 percent offered an unpaid sabbatical program.

Sabbaticals help attract, refresh and retain employees

“Sabbaticals have many purposes,” says Catherine Allen, co-author of Reboot Your Life: Energizing Your Career and Life By Taking A Break. “Refresh and renew after burnout; education; caring for family; health; travel and learning; exploring new career options; following a passion or hobby.”

“For anyone who has worked on overload for a period of years, it is a way to clear the mind,” says Nancy Bearg, Allen’s co-author. “While on the sabbatical, the employee has an opportunity to rediscover old interests and friends, explore new ideas, travel, get fit, do retirement pre-planning or a special project, take care of family needs, and much more. It broadens perspective and makes personal and professional priorities clearer.”

Employers benefit from offering sabbaticals because these rare, extended periods of time off help attract and retain valued people, creating employee loyalty and engagement, and energizing the workforce, Allen says. “The millennials are very interested in sabbaticals, and it is a way to attract and keep them motivated,” for example.

Sabbaticals can also help strengthen the company through employees who are left behind, Bearg says. “While the employee is away, management and employees must step in, cross train, fill in, and find new ways to cooperate,” she says. “All of this builds greater depth and experience and flexibility.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Why companies offer sabbaticals to long-term employees – MonsterThinking.

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