Employee Dis-Engagement: Sabbaticals Benefit Workers and Companies

Employee Dis-Engagement: Sabbaticals Benefit Workers and Companies

In the area of employee engagement, the current trend is to connect programs with a company’s core business. But there’s a new, opposite strategy as well: encouraging employees to take time away from work to explore personal goals.

The paid sabbatical is becoming a more common benefit throughout the business world. Not surprisingly, companies with innovative products are taking the lead in offering this perk. Among them is Clif Bar, which makes its employees eligible for a six-to-eight week paid sabbatical after seven years of employment, time off that can be used for any purpose, according to Business Insider. To date, more than one hundred employees of the energy bar company have signed up.

Clif Bar claims that its workers return refreshed and re-charged, and are more productive after extended time away from work. And they tend to stay around: the company’s workforce turnover rate is less than three percent. Other companies adopting this practice, according to Fortune, include Adobe, Autodesk, Boston Consulting Group, Genentech, General Mills, Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, REI, The Cheesecake Factory, and The Container Store.

I’m John Howell for 3BL Media.