benefits
Bringing Life to Work
USING LONG-TERM LEAVES TO SUPPORT A GREAT WORKPLACE
It’s something we’ve all thought about: taking some serious time
off work to travel the world or make a real dent in some other
passion project.
We so rarely have the opportunity in our working lives to
have an extended period of time away from the office. Vacations
are one thing, but what about encouraging employees to take longterm
leaves or sabbaticals?
In July 2015, Caterina Sanders, then lead of strategic projects at
Habanero Consulting Group, did just that. Her family put their
lives on hold and left Vancouver for a yearlong trip to every corner
of the world. Sanders and her family traveled every continent
except Antarctica and North America. The adventure took 11
months, with one month spent at home after returning as buffer
time before returning to work.
Careful planning was critical in making this trip come to life,
and part of that careful planning included early discussions
with Sanders’ and her husband’s workplaces to see how or if
they could support the adventure. Here in Canada, employers
have already made the leap to accepting one-year leaves for maternity
or parental leave. Yet people are often unsure how to
bring up the idea of a leave of absence that’s not for family or
health reasons.
PREPARING YOUR ORGANIZATION FOR
LONG-TERM LEAVES
First, you have to look at your culture and decide if your company
is ready to truly support someone who wants to step back for a
while. As an employer, it should be more than just holding someone’s
job until they return; you have to decide if the organization
is genuinely supportive of a move like this or if it will be secretly
resented or considered career-limiting for any employees who apply
for the benefit.
Some employers view extended leaves as introducing greater
risk into the organization, since finding coverage for a person for
one year has its challenges and there’s no way to control if the employee
will come back and make all that effort worthwhile. Time
away can potentially cause a person to realize that they don’t want
to come back.
“That’s actually positive,” said Sanders. “You don’t want employees
who don’t want to be there.” A year off will likely quicken a
decision that they were beginning to wrestle with pre-leave.
“It’s much easier to keep going when someone doesn’t return
post-leave because you’ve already made arrangements to not have
this person there, and have had a long time to get used to their absence,”
said Sanders.
By Spencer Perry
Photos by Caterina Sanders/Habanero Group
Leaves
Part 1
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016 ❚ 29