Helping them pay for a nice long leave

Do you worry about high-skill employees burning out? Would you like to reward such folks with a nice big chunk of leave every few years?

If you said “yes,” consider what IT consultant Accenture offers its people: a sabbatical partly funded by their own payroll deductions.

Employees with three years of unbroken service can take up to four months off by combining paid, FMLA and self-funded unpaid leave. Deductions let them amass funds to provide a “paycheck” during the latter period. Accenture says about 200 employees a year have used the program in its first two years.

You might ask your best and brightest whether some form of partly self-funded long leave would help them “sharpen the saw.”

photo credit: Vinay Shivakumar