Human Resources Manager Stan Gomez finds that he is spending a lot of time talking with supervisors about employee absences. Stan, is the Human Resource Manager works for Custom Call Services, a contract customer service-call center that provides year-round online and telephone service to the customers of a wide variety of clients. Staffing levels are essential to meet the demanding level of calls and inquiries the center receives each day. The company offers paid time off options to its employees to allow them to balance work and non-work interests. A goal of the time-off program is to keep unscheduled absences to a minimum in order to keep productivity and service quality high. Unscheduled absences create a problem, as the company has to cover the workload of the absent employee with little advance notice. Custom Call Center offers a generous paid time-off program to allow employees to have time off to rest and relax, to meet personal obligations, and to manage unexpected illnesses. Currently, employees receive 10 vacation days, 3 personal days and 5 sick days per year. Due to the nature of the business and the need to provide service to clients every day, the company does not close on any holidays. Thus, in addition to other time-off benefits, the company provides seven floating holidays and encourages employees to take these on or near traditional holidays.

The time-off program currently creates some challenges for the company. While the company uses an automated system to track employees’ time off, supervisors still need to record and properly allocate time off as it is taken. This requires the supervisors to know the reasons for each absence and the scheduling policy for each type of absence. For example, employees must schedule vacation and floating holidays in advance. They are encouraged to schedule personal days in advance, but personal days may be taken without advance notice if necessary. Finally, sick days do not require advance notice, but they may require a doctor’s note if an employee uses a few days in a row, or if the supervisor questions the need for the absence.

The sick days create the most challenges for supervisors, as sick days are typically taken without advance notice. Many supervisors suspect that not all last-minute call-offs are necessary. Some employees have admitted that they use sick days even if they are not sick when they have exhausted all of their other time-off options. Essentially, they plan to take a day off, but because the policy does not allow them to schedule sick days in advance, they call off shortly before they are scheduled to work. As a result, supervisors must quickly arrange to cover those shifts.

To overcome these challenges, Stan is considering transitioning the company to an integrated paid-time off (PTO) policy in which all time off is grouped into one bank. Instead of the current time-off allotments, the company would offer 25 PTO days each year. Under this policy, employees could still call off on the same day due to illness, but they would be encouraged to schedule most of their time off in advance. Further, supervisors would not need to know the reasons for the absences; they only would need to track the number of days taken off by employees. Stan thinks that the PTO bank would eliminate many unscheduled absences and ease the administrative burden of the company’s current time-off policies.

1. Should Custom Call Services switch to a PTO policy? What are the pros and cons of doing so?

2. If Custom Call Services does transition to a PTO policy, what are some things that Stan should consider including in the policy to address concerns about absenteeism?