This week has seen the news that professional networking site LinkedIn will be introducing unlimited holiday for its US employees, from 1 November onwards. The social media organisation, which currently employs 8,700 full-time staff worldwide including more than 6,000 in the US, is changing its holiday policy in line with one of its core values: ‘Act like an owner’.
Its move to a new discretionary time off (DTO) model will mean that there employees will not be given a set maximum or minimum limit on the amount of annual leave they can take. Under the new system, employees will work with their manager to request time off. The recent change in approach follows the company’s decision to extend the Independence Day holiday, a federal holiday in the US, to the 5-8 July.
Pat Wadors, senior vice president of global talent organisation at LinkedIn, said: “We believe DTO, along with our new July Fourth holiday break, will give our employees the ability to better meet their personal needs, which will then allow them to bring their best self to work.
With the number one reason people in the UK leave their jobs being the need for a better work-life balance, perhaps it’s time companies in Britain started seriously considering adopting a DTO model.
