Anyone implemented an Unlimited Time Off policy?

[codywooten]

Was just curious to see if anyone had this policy implemented at their company, and would love to know if it has helped increase employee engagement around social impact or not. 

[Mark_Reading]

I'm not aware of anyone having implemented an Unlimited Time Off volunteering policy.

The most generous policy I'm aware of is 1 day per month, implemented by Australian Pledge 1% member Wilson Asset Management. I'm not sure whether the WAM policy is indeed 1 day per month or 12 days per year (hopefully the latter). The WAM Pledge 1% announcement from 2016 included the following: "We have a program that allows our employees to spend one day each month working in the non-profit sector,"  

At Atlassian, we give everyone 5 days per year.

[InesGarcia]

Unlimited Time Off 

OR

Unlimited Time Off for Volunteering ?

[codywooten]

Sorry, I should have clarified better. 

We have implemented an unlimited time-off policy in hopes to encourage people to use their time to volunteer even more. Of course, this is in addition to the other benefits of having this policy. 

[Rayanne]

We don't have an unlimited time off policy, but I've done some research and my understanding is that it actually leads people to take LESS time off because they're afraid of looking like they're taking advantage of the policy. On the flip side, I believe I read that if senior management sets the example of taking plenty of time off, it tends to make other employees feel like they can take more time without negative repercussions. If you're trying to encourage volunteering, I think that communicating that is important, as well as the leadership team setting the example. Just some ideas...

[janelle]

We have an unlimited time off policy and we tried implementing a separate VTO (volunteer time off) policy of 8 hours across the org. It didn't have the best success and we've not seen a connection between unlimited time off and increased volunteering. The most success we've had with encouraging people to volunteer is regularly sharing ways that they can get involved --- something that'll inspire volunteering and highlight how important it is to the company. And, we had more people take part in VTO when we incentivized it with a raffle drawing for company swag. 

[Ingrid_IndexEng]

?? By unlimited time off, do you mean that this is paid time off? Paid time that has to be used for volunteer work in the community? Or do you mean that this is unlimited unpaid leave. Not sure how that relates specifically to the 1% pledge, unless you are paying people for doing volunteer work and making people accountable for this time  (e.g. providing proof that it is related to approved community volunteer work, not something like helping their mother move house, unless that is what was in your policy). I think unlimited unpaid time off, like people taking sabbaticals, would be tricky to manage, as the work still needs to be done, so this means planning on taking on less work or employing someone to cover this time etc.