Leave sharing programs
Parabeagle
3,085 Posts
Any of you folks have any experience with leave sharing programs? I've been asked to look into such a scheme and would like some guidance on where to start. The one thing that jumps out at me immediately is the disparity between wage rates if a high-paid person contributes leave to a low-paid person, or vice-versa.
What other pitfalls should I be looking for?
What other pitfalls should I be looking for?
Comments
In simple terms, the way it works is that an employee alerts HR that they have a need for vacation donations. There is a form and the reasons have to be good. Examples: serious/terminal illness (if they stay employed even with vacation donations, they can retain health benefits til death); an employee whose son was kidnapped and needed time for search activities and coping; we also offer vacation donations to those returning from military service.
Re pitfalls to watch out for - we have had problems in the past with putting out too much information on serious physical conditions. With the change in the HIPAA law, that is out. We put a notice on our intranet home page that says employees have requested vacation donations if anyone would like to donate - no further info.
Re our procedure - simplified. An employee can donate time in 8-hour increments. (We have discussed making it 4-hr increments to address 8hr vs 12hr shifts.) It is used by the requester after all of their leave banks have been exhausted, and in the order the donations were made. The time is not transferred from the donor's bank until it is used, and if all the time donated is not used by the requester for the stated reason, the time remains in the leave banks of the donors. At no time does it become an extra "vacation" bank for the requesting employee. We also don't deal with wage rate disparity. The one who donates it loses it at their wage rate and the one who receives it receives it at their wage rate.
Additional information:
We do pro-rate for wage differential and only allow vacation time to be contributed.
We require a written request to the Exec Dir. It is up to the E.D.s dicretion to grant the time. This stops some of the more frivolous requests from hitting the HR desk (we had one lady ask for donations to cover her honeymoon - used up all of her available time on other vacations). Most of our requests center around a medically generated reason.
Do not allow the EEs making the request to directly solicit time donations from EEs. Lots of EEs are uncomfortable saying no directly to another EE. We have an innocuous email come out from the E.D. basically indicating an approved donation request and to contact HR if you wish to donate. Usually, the EE has gotten the word out and donations are not a problem.
It is difficult to keep this from looking like a popularity contest. This has the effect of the less popular EEs only receiving donations from direct supervisors, management and the HR department. Our EEs are generally very giving in this regard so this has not been a huge problem, but I can see the potential for discrimination issues in the event a Title VII protected EE does not receive donations.
Document the donations on a time sheet or memo so you have a record.
OK, enough for now. Good luck with this.
Again, thanks for all your help. You guys are great. x:-)
If you Google the words Leave Banks or Shared Leave Programs, you will get a plethora of established policies and ideas to consider. Most are from state governments and universties -- went through the same drill myself last year.
Geno, SPHR