Paid Time Benefits

[Guest JERI MUCHA]

I am looking for companies that offer paid time benefits (i.e. vacation, sick, holiday pooled together). Pls. let me know if they accrue days or hours and how many hours/days per year.

Thanks,

Jeri Mucha

[Guest Gerald Hancock]

Companies that have adopted Paid Time Off programs are not plentiful. My company is looking into such a plan. I surveyed 11 major employers in Kansas City, and not one had a PTO leave policy. Through a hyperlink I ended up on the Employee Benefit News weeb site. They have a benefits discussion page where someone had asked a similar question to yous. There was one response I followed up on who sent me a survey of eight employers using PTO. That has been most helpful. I don't have the URL for EBN. The Corporate Leadership Council in DC has several studies of companies using PTO. I hope this is helpful.

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Gerald Hancock

[Guest Lori Senter]

There were some articles a couple of years ago in the SHRM newspaper (not the magazine) that talked about issues to be aware of in developing PTO banks. I haven't seen anything lately, but there seemed to be several articles in different Benefits publications around that time. If any of these have archives, that would help -- or maybe you can get back issues at a city or university library near you.

My company (an international professional services firm) uses a modified PTO bank. Holidays are NOT in the bank, but vacation and personal days are. We accrue 6.7 hours each two-week pay period from the beginning of employment. It works out to about 20 days per year. The longer you've been here, the more hours you accrue. Partners have their bank filled at the beginning of each year without accruing.

Hope this helps a little. Feel free to email me if you want to talk more -- I'm in the Benefits Link email directory.

[Guest gailc]

Paid Time Off

[Guest gailc]

We are in the process of redesigning our sick, personal, and medical appointment to a PTO benefit. We will have two categories PTO and vacation. We will also be redesigning from anniversary year to calendar year. Any thoughts on how to make the transition smooth and fair for current employees. We will also be adding pro-rated vacation after 6 months. The vacation benefit will read 6 months - pro-rated; 1 year but less than 2 years - 1 week; 2 years but less than 3 years - 2 weeks; 3 years and up - 3 weeks. We have not added any additional vacation after 3 years as we usually are given Christmas Vacation from 12:00 p.m. Christmas Eve to the first working day after January 1. We have been given more time if January 1 falls on a Friday, we to return to work Monday. Employees hired after the effective date of the new policy will be okay but current employees, well that may be a different story. HELP! Any suggestions or thoughts will be appreciated.

[Guest mfurnstahl]

the organization I work for is a recently merged outpatient clinic and hospital. The hospital utilizes Vac/Sick/Personal Days, the clinic has a PTO program. I am looking to combine into one program. Has anyone else taken on this task?

[This message has been edited by mfurnstahl (edited 05-05-99).]

[Guest Kevin Cronin]

We've had a PTO program for the last 4 years (a 44 physician group practice).

For non exempt staff, the breaks are at 5,10,15,20. The PTO includes the single time elements in our previous policy - personal days (3), sick time (we used 5 days as an average), and our old vacation accrual (10 days yrs 1-3).

When we started we placed the sick time in an extended bank. This can be used when an staff person is out 5+ consecutive days. Vacation time rolled over. We allow 150% accrual before time is lost.

An educational issue is making sure staff provide appropriate notice of time away - especially when ill.

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Kevin C. Cronin

[Guest LOWERY]

Is there a minimum percentaqe of someone's salary that is required to be paid under short term disability?

[Guest ronc]

We installed a full paid time off plan (PTO) in 1997 which includes vacation, sick, personal time and holidays all rolled together. As a 5,000 employee hospital Aurthority with an academic medical center, we have found the plan to be very popular because of the flexibility it offers.

For example, those employees who must work on holidays appreciate being able to take the time off later and use the same pool of time that everyone else used. Also, our employees who do not take much sick leave like having the additional time available for other types of leave.

In transferring to the PTO plan we set up several accounts: the PTO account, a Sick Time Bank and a Special Vacation Account. We also developed a scale for accrual rates, maximum carryover amounts and cash outs.

Our accrual rates go from 8.30 hr/pay period to 11.10 hr/pp based on years of service. I would be happy to provide more details to anyone who is interested. Pls email me at: rcroy@mcvh-vcu.edu.

[Guest Alissa Chapman]

I work for a small business. We have PPL (Paid Personal Leave). We are allocated 24 hours every quarter. Wherever you are hired you are allocated

the percentage of points for that quarter where you came in. After five years, the hours are increased by at least another 8 hours per quarter. This PPL time covers holidays, sick time, and vacation. If you have more than a certain number of hours (can't remember how many)left at the end of year, you are paid for the time. You can accrue hours from year to year and do not lose them. You either get the money or they are put into banks. This system has worked for the past seven years that I have been with the company.

[Guest Margaret]

Working for a health care facility, we utilize PTO to give staff the flexibility to use their time when they want. (Since a hospital cannot close on holidays)Our PTO is accrued hours per month, and it differs based on position and length of service. The minimum accural per month is 18.67 (or 28 days/yr), followed by 22.00 hrs (or 33 days a year), followed by 25.33 (or 38 days a year), with the maximum being 26.67 hrs (or 40 days a year). This time is put in a "bank" and employees can have up to 2x their annual accrual in their bank at any given time. To make it even better, we also allow employees to cash in time and use their PTO to pay for parking. (This is done via an annual election) Feel free to contact me should you like a copy of the policy to be sent/faxed

[This message has been edited by Margaret (edited 03-24-99).]