Paid sabbaticals

by Rick Joi Rick Joi is the founder of The Workiversary Group and author of the award‑winning book, Inspiring Work Anniversaries.

According to SHRM, 15% of employers offer paid sabbaticals.

You may not have thought about it this way before, but sabbaticals are inherently work anniversary gifts because organizations typically give them to employees for reaching a tenure milestone, often seven or ten years.

While extravagant in many industries, for knowledge workers at organizations where deep knowledge of your organization or industry especially valuable, sabbaticals can be a terrific option. They’re attention-getters. They’re easy to communicate in the hiring process. Nearly everyone values them. And, they can support once-in-a-lifetime experiences that make great stories.

Making your organization more resilient

A further, subtler benefit is that they force the organization to not be overly dependent on a single long-tenured employee, because other employees will need to figure out how to cover for them.

You can build this into the sabbatical process by having the employee document everything they do and submit it to the manager so they can create a coverage plan.

This benefits the employee taking the sabbatical, too. Less dependence on them means it’s easier for them to take time off after the sabbatical. It also benefits other employees, as it gives them a chance to do new things and potentially grow in their roles.

Renewal and a fresh start for the employee

Paid sabbaticals just make intuitive sense as a work anniversary gift.

After many years at an organization, getting time away will open new perspectives and make returning to work feel like a fresh start. To lean into the renewal aspect, you can do a job crafting inspired exercise before the employee leaves.

Job crafting is a process of working with an employee to identify what parts of their job they would like to be shifted to others, what parts they would like to put more time into, and what new tasks or responsibilities they want to take on. As part of the typical sabbatical process, the employee has already submitted the documentation of their responsibilities so you know what needs to be covered by others, you’re halfway through the job crafting process.

To implement the sabbatical-driven job crafting process, just schedule a meeting with the employee before they go on sabbatical to discuss which tasks they would like to remain permanently with whoever is covering them. Then discuss how that newly available time could be better spent by the employee.

Then, when the employee gets back from the sabbatical, it will be to a “new” job that they enjoy more and that makes better use of their full potential!

Getting started

Ready to look into starting a sabbatical program at your organization?

This article from BetterUp provides a great overview of sabbaticals, including really helpful guidance on developing a sabbatical leave policy.

Once you’ve got the high level questions from that article answered, this example paid sabbatical leave policy from SHRM (membership required) will speed up the writing of the final policy.

Your efforts to start a sabbatical program may well have big ripples.

Sabbaticals can be life-changing, which is saying a lot for a work anniversary gift. 🙂