Whether for just a day of PTO or a weeklong vacation , people need time off from work. This isn’t lost on most organizations, given 82% of employees earn PTO, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Like health insurance or retirement plans, regular PTO is a significant piece of holistic wellness.
Unfortunately, people aren’t making the most of it. In fact, 46% of U.S. workers don’t use all of their PTO, according to the online job board Zippia. That could account for why Gallup finds global engagement levels hovering at just 23%, and why 6 in 10 workers practice quiet quitting.
Simply offering PTO isn’t enough. To get ahead of burnout and turnover, employers should promote and encourage time off.
What are the benefits of taking PTO?
Research shows employees who actively use their vacation feel happier, less fatigued and, ultimately, more committed to their organizations. In fact, this infographic explores how embracing PTO boosts performance and gives people a higher chance of advancing in their roles.
Businesses reap the reward of PTO, too. We examine how mitigating employee stress with time off helps improve retention, lower costs and more. But if the idea of championing PTO daunts HR and leadership, they could be missing just one vital piece: a tool to effectively manage time-off requests.
Why does HR need tools to simplify PTO management?
Manually processing PTO requests through a paper-based system creates an administrative burden for HR and could harm employees with:
- late or missed approvals
- unentered time off
- favoritism or bias
With a convoluted, error-prone system for submitting PTO, no wonder employees would use less of it. Plus, even if the manual process somehow avoids mistakes, it still carries a steep cost.
When an employee submits a time-off request outside self-service HR software, Ernst & Young found it costs the business an average of $11.71. If that weren’t enough, it costs roughly $11.22 for a manager to review that same request. Our infographic reveals how these individual costs compound into a significant profit leak.
Luckily, employers don’t have to accept manual time-off management. In fact, it’s possible to automate the process — including the decisions made around time off. And a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Paycom reveals how a composite organization of interviewed clients benefited from such tech.
Beyond receiving a projected three-year ROI of up to 821%, the organization also annually saved:
- each manager nearly a workweek of unproductive hours*
- HR, finance and admin staff nearly 200 hours
- up to 240 hours in avoidable overtime
And not every benefit was clearly quantifiable. For example, the organization found automated time-off tech made it significantly easier for managers to incorporate and enforce changes to their time-off policies. Plus, employees enjoyed a better experience overall, since their time-off requests were quickly and clearly answered.
*Refers to up to 30 hours out of a traditional 40-hour workweek.
A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Paycom (October 2024). Results are for a composite organization based on interviewed clients with a three-year projected ROI of 102%-821% and include annual savings of up to 192 hours for HR, finance and admin teams.