Paid Time Off

At the beginning of this year the company implemented a new work shift policy to keep up with the growth of the organization. The policy requires that employee’s in the production group work 12 hour shifts with 4 days on then 4 days off in a rotating manner. This means that at times some employee’s will be working on a

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) was created to help assist employees deal with the difficulties of home, while creating an atmosphere of job security. The FMLA also helps cover employers from wrongful use of the FMLA by the employees. Although the document is extensive, there are three major provisions of the FMLA that apply to the given situation. The FMLA entitles covered employees to unpaid work leave, provides job and benefit restoration, and allows employers to require notice and certification for leave ("Family and medical leave act," 2007).

The organization that I have chosen is University Health Systems also known as Bexar County Hospital. University Health Systems is the leading trauma center for South Texas.. The medical benefits that are offered can only be used within the organization and the family medical offices. The University Health Systems is a large organization that is part of the medical school; as well it is the County Hospital where all the inmates go for treatment. They are expecting every employee to use or go though the county clinics to seek treatment, which is a challenge in itself as the clinics, are so busy on any given day or night. There are many reasons to rethink the compensation and benefits that this organization offers employees. They do offer a large PTO amount each payday; however that is used for everything such as, sick leave, holiday pay, and vacations. If one of the departments is closed for the holiday then you are forced to take PTO even if you do not want to. During the first year of employment, full-time staff accrues 28 days at the rate of 8.62 hours every two weeks. The accrual rate increases with each year of full-time service, up to a rate of 38 days per year (University Health Systems, 2015). Another benefit that is offered is a 457 account in which the company will match 25 cents on the dollar. That is not a very good retirement plan. When looking at the organization as a whole, there must be some way that the compensation & benefits can be re-evaluated and

Workers have the right to 11 hours rest between working days (eg if you finish work at 8pm, they shouldn’t start work again until 7am the next day).

PTO time will allow employees more flexibility when it comes to vacation time, emergencies, and even schedules events that require the individual to miss work. These twelve days will help the employee’s better plan his/ her vacation and other scheduled commitments and drastically reduce the number of unscheduled days off since all the days in one category instead of only allowing five sick days and seven vacation days. However, there will still be some days that the employees cannot request off in advance, but this policy would allow the employee a certain time period to tell the employer they cannot make it to work on a given day. By offering this type of time off structure, it will help the employer more time to plan and prepare for the staff shortage in a more efficient manner. Also, paid time off helps the employer and employee not have to differentiate what is acceptable and applicable to a holiday and sick day and it will help motivate the employees to not use a sick day unless he/ she is actually sick (Hulett, 2007). Therefore, if an employee is rarely sick, then that employee will have more vacation time to use

For example, legislating paid sick days opens the door to abuse by employees. Some employees may use these days as vacation without notifying their employer or a specific reason for their absence. This will often leave employers scrambling to find replacements for absent workers, which can put some small businesses in trouble. Abuse of these paid sick days translates into loss of money for businesses and higher costs for consumers.

What is Family and Medical leave Act (FMLA)? The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that was passed in 1993, is a national policy that grants workers up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave in four situations. These four situations are for pregnancy; to care for an infant, such as newborns, newly-placed foster children, and adoptions; to care for a relative with a serious health condition; or to allow an employee to recover and recuperate from a personal serious health condition. This paper will be discussing the impact of FMLA on employers and the protections provided by this law. (Vikesland, 2009)

Paid time off (PTO) is the employer pools sick days, vacation days, and personal days that allows the employees to utilize upon need. this policy pertains mainly in USA as such no legal requirement for minimum number of paid vacation days. the PTO works best in the culture and accountable employee’s environment existing. US companies determine the amount off the pay day off that will be allocated to each employee. In general way PTO system cover, everything from planned vacation to sick leaves .and are becoming more common in human resources management. unlike traditional more plans leave, PTO doesn’t distinguish employee’s absences from personal days or vacation days or sick days. per study conducted in 2010 by WorldatWork, 44% of 387 companies surveyed said they started using PTO bank-type plans prior to year 2000. (Wikipedia -paid of time).

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was passed with the idea of creating job protected leave when necessary, while also providing employees with the opportunity to balance work, health, and family responsibilities. FMLA is designed to avoid job loss when employees request additional time off in order to treat a critical medical condition or deal with serious family or personal matters. Due to the establishment of FMLA, workers can now maintain employment as they treat qualifying medical conditions, care for a close relative, bond with newborn, etc. In other words, the concept of FMLA was for employers to legally support their workers during life’s challenging circumstances. Although many positive outcomes are a result of this law, administering FMLA has turned into a challenging and complex task for employers. Passing this law triggered many unintended consequences that have tremendously affected the way organizations manage their leave of absence policies. Employee abuse of this privilege is a major issue employers are being faced with. The impact FMLA leave has on the entire company, including quality, performance, and productivity can be dramatic. These unplanned concerns that now exist due to FMLA provide tremendous amounts of stress for the employers to properly manage the law; FMLA has turned into a problem employers are defenseless against.

Paid time off (PTO) is the system employer use to accumulate all kind of leaves as sick days, vacation days, and personal days that allows the employees to use upon need. this policy works mostly in the USA as such no legal obligation for a minimum number of paid vacation days. the PTO works best in the culture and accountable employee’s environment existing. US company’s regulator the amount off the pay day off that will be allocated to each employee. a general way, PTO system cover, everything from planned vacation to sick leaves .and are becoming more common in human resources management. unlike traditional more plans leave, PTO doesn’t distinguish employee’s absences from personal days or vacation days or sick days. Studies show that majority of the companies start using PTO system prior to the year 2000.

Moreover, even benefits packages are creating new, creative ways to meet the demands of employees across all ages to participate in volunteer opportunities or programs. According to Fortune’s study highlighting the “100 Best Companies to Work For,” a majority of brands and companies currently on the list offer PTO days to their employees to participate in ways to help the local and global communities.

One advantage of having a PTO system is that it makes “employees feel valuable when they’re allowed time off with pay which contributes to employee engagement and retention” (Lotich, 2014, para. 8). Especially, when employees who feel valuable tends to won’t to work harder and is more motivated to accomplish his and her goals and the goals of the organization. Whereas, employees who

Therefore, PTO is a bank of days from which employees can draw for vacation, sick leave, doctor's appointments and personal days off from work. In contrast, customary leave programs allot a specified number of days for vacation and sick time. Hence, moving from a traditional leave program to a PTO system has many advantages, including reducing unscheduled absences, and the costs and productivity losses associated with them. Also, making an employer more attractive to current and potential employees, especially those who value discretionary time off; reducing administrative/compliance costs, as PTO use no longer requires validation in most instances; and empowering employees to make their own decisions regarding the amount of vacation and personal time spent away from work, which contrast with employer-controlled sick time and vacation programs (Warford, 2014).

Keeps employees from coming into the office sick. This reduces the possibility of other employees getting sick. The company no longer has to track sick leave so it saves resources.

Yes, I do believe all companies could benefit from Patagonia's practices. The value Patagonia instills in its employees has been a positive overall for its company. The work environments at every company are different in some form or another, but the creativity Patagonia has used to increase the employee motivation has been astounding. A flexible schedule format at most companies can work as long as the work is getting done in a timely manner. There will always be instances where overtime is needed to reduce the constant work flow, but the approach Patagonia has used to address such situations has made for a positive throughout the company. Walmart is a company that can learn from Patagonia, both of these companies are open seven days a week