Both company owners and their employees find it hard to believe there’s no federal law requiring a business to provide paid holidays, vacation, or sick leave. Although some state laws may apply, the modern workforce has come to expect an appropriate policy. But when it comes to nonprofits, a whole new world needs to be considered. Your business may operate with a smaller staff or some of your work might be tied directly to popular holidays. To keep your workers happy and healthy, it’s important to provide some leave time both for leisure and personal activities. Consider the following when creating your nonprofit’s vacation and sick leave policy.
Holidays
You’re not required to offer paid holidays, and your ability to do so might depend on your type of nonprofit work. Most companies do offer paid holidays, so know that without this benefit you may have trouble attracting the right talent. Typical paid holidays include the following:
- New Year’s Day
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Day
Other common days off or paid holidays include the day after Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and Presidents’ Day.
Vacation
Employees who work for corporate organizations generally expect two weeks of paid vacation per year. Your nonprofit may have different abilities and needs, but how your team can accrue vacation time is something you’ll want to think about. Some employers grant an employee’s entire vacation time immediately upon hiring. Others require their staff to work a set number of months before using any vacation time. And some organizations create an accrual formula such as 8.5 hours of vacation time for each month worked up to the total number of days you’re able to provide.
For some nonprofits, time off becomes a salary benefit. They may be unable to pay the high wages of their corporate counterparts, so additional time off can be given to entice talented professionals to consider a career in the nonprofit sector.
Sick Leave
Sick days are important for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is the likelihood of your staff coming into the office while sick and infecting everyone else. When illness spreads around an office, especially a small one, it can cripple the organization. It is common for employers to offer around five sick days per year. And the Family and Medical Leave Act requires that employees are offered up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for major medical diagnoses, family illnesses, or births.
Paid Time Off
Some employers choose to package all days off in one lump sum and call it paid time off (PTO). PTO gives your team the ability to use their time off for any reason. For a typical PTO policy, a sick day becomes a “personal day.”
Unpaid Time Off
Federal law does require employers to offer unpaid time off for jury duty, voting, and military service. If your nonprofit employees are willing to take unpaid time off, they must either (a) really have to tend to something, (b) really want to take a break, or (c) really be on top of their work and confident in their ability to miss time. In any case, you’re not paying them for this time away from your organization, so it shouldn’t be a major focus unless it severely disrupts your workflow or becomes a habit. But you may want to consider the impact of not paying employees for such essential positions as standard Army Reserve training or jury duty.
Free Time Off
Consider the following example of how you can build the culture of your nonprofit through your time-off policies. Greg Malloy, CEO of Bloomfire, started a “free time off” policy at his firm to put trust and freedom in the hands of his workers. Essentially, there’s unlimited time off, as long as you get your work done.
“When you treat people like mature, responsible adults, they act like mature, responsible adults,” he says. “Our employees love it, and they don’t abuse it. I don’t know how prevalent this is becoming among companies, but I would highly recommend it.”
An Ideal Policy
It takes quite a bit of time and thought to come up with a system you feel comfortable with for your nonprofit organization. Contact me today and I’ll help you weigh the benefits and drawbacks of any policies you may have in mind.
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