In Mexico there is no data that allows us to locate the relationship between vacations and the benefits they generate in productivity and in the well-being of people, but it is proven that there is a connection.
According to a study by the United States Travel Association and the Time Off project, which involved knowing the opinion of more than 5,000 employees, those who took less than 10 of their vacation days per year had a 34.6% chance of receiving a raise or bonus over a three-year period, while those who took more than 10 days had a 65.4% chance.
For its part, the World Health Organization maintains that working 55 hours or more a week is associated with a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease, than a work week of 35 to 40 hours.
Are we facing a cost or an opportunity to have better human capital?
Seen this way, we must eliminate those strange springs that make us deny the vacation period. The HR areas should welcome this adjustment, not thinking about costs, but about the maintenance that human capital requires to perform better. The bosses, for their part, check if they are the ones who do not promote the holidays and eliminate their toxicity in this regard.
“The employee is now a customer of experiences. Today, employees consider that the company has to give them satisfactory experiences from recruitment, compensation, dealing with the boss, inclusion, freedom and psychological security; when the experience is bad, they obviously become discouraged, disengage and leave. You have to treat the employee as a client”, says Rogelio Salcedo, partner and general manager of the Olivia consultancy.
The focus should be on productivity, not on controlling the time and working hours. We must forget about micromanagement, trust more, measure by results, promote better work habits. Leadership, after the pandemic, should not lose its approach of humility and humanity; stay connected to emotionality and focused on social skills and not on techniques. Better communicate the purpose and not be dragging the team. It is managing by purpose, not managing by force.