While most of us enjoy approximately 14 days of annual leave, this company is offering its employees up to 12 weeks of annual leave which they call the “life leave”. Wow, that’s 3 months!
According to Business Insider, an Australian company figured that it’s best to adapt to their employees’ demands for a flexible working time by granting them six to 12 weeks of “life leave” per year.
Employees of the accountancy firm, Ernst & Young, can reportedly use their “life leave” to either travel, work part-time or just relax. Having said that, this leave is self-funded, which means they won’t pay the workers when they utilise the life leave.
EY Oceania’s people partner Kate Hillman was quoted as saying,
“Flexible work policies like this are necessary because of increased competition for talent.”
Source: The Independent
Besides that, the company will also be executing two other initiatives which are term-time working and temporary part-time. These exciting policies will take effect on 1 April 2019, which is less than two weeks from now. When the policies are implemented, it will also allow the workers to choose the part-time arrangement.
FYI, the part-time arrangement enables the employees to work full-time during school term and enjoy a work break during school holidays. Or, they could also opt for a “part-time work arrangement for up to three months”.
Moving on, Kate said that the new policies were created in order to address the general demand for a flexible work environment and not only for working parents. EY reckoned that flexibility increases the employees’ engagement by 11 per cent.
Kate further explained that EY is being innovative so that they don’t lose their employees when they decide to pursue their passion outside of the workplace, like volunteering overseas or taking part in extended training programmes.
Source: BTI Consulting
Other than that, EY has also taken the effort to come up with these new policies because of the influx of millennial employees. This is because many millennials make flexibility their top priority when looking for a job. Kate shared,
“Millennials are also driving demand for flexibility as their preference for diverse and stimulating career experiences overrides traditional workplace structures and timelines.”
“By next year, 80 per cent of EY’s workforce across the globe will be millennials, so this is a particularly significant consideration for us.”
Sounds like a great initiative IMO since it will give employees so much freedom to explore and pursue their passion outside the office!
Do you think Malaysian companies should introduce something similar to this “life leave” too? Tell us in the comments!
Also read: Malaysians Can Soon Apply For Working Holiday in France For Up to 2 Years
