13 Types of Leaves in an Organization

Employee leave policy plays an important role in the functioning of an organization. Besides salary, perks, work location, and organizational culture leave policy is the most critical deciding factor for candidates. While the number of leaves may vary from company to company the types of leave available to the employee are pretty much the same. Let’s discuss the various types of leave policies and how many leaves should be ideally given in an organization.

What is a Leave Policy?

Leave Policies are official documents issued by the organization to its employees that states the rules and regulations for different types of leaves available in the organization and how any employees can avail of them. This document contains:

• Number of paid and unpaid leaves available to the employees
• Maximum and minimum length of days employees can take leaves
• Employees eligible for the leaves
• Guidelines for granting leaves, and availing of the leaves.
• Rules for encashing the number of leaves not availed during the year

Importance of a good leave policy:

Having a leave policy in place helps set up an expectation and clarity among employees regarding the functioning of the organization. These help employees have the option to prepare for any unexpected situation where they might need to take emergency leaves or plan their work in case of any upcoming events in the future or any planned vacation. A good leave policy helps:

• Increase employee productivity: A proper leave policy helps employees plan their work schedule ahead of time to not let any pending tasks be carried out during their leaves. When colleagues know about each other leaves they also focus on clearing out any dependency to avoid delays in launching or completing a project.
• Increase employee engagement: A good leave policy helps employees manage their paid leaves which helps them avoid any unnecessary stress and reduce unscheduled tasks.
• Reduce Absenteeism: Good leave policy allows the employee to take time off from work to take care of their mental as well as physical health, these not only increase work-life balance but reduce unnecessary absenteeism.

Types of leave policy in the organization:

Here are 13 types of leaves you need to accommodate within your leave policy:

1: Sick Leave:

Sick leave is a medical leave provided by employers to help employees recover from an illness or injury. An employee is entitled to sick leave after completing a set period in the organization. Sick leave is mandatory in the organization as stated in the labor laws. As per the law, a company provides up to 15 days of sick leave in the year but some companies provide more than 15. Since sick leave is due to unforeseen circumstances, employees often take the leave on the same day of injury compared to any planned leaves, and if the employee is out of the office for quite a few days, a medical certificate is needed to be submitted to the HR and the manager testifying the employee’s health problems. Most companies allow employees to carry forward any extra sick leave to the next year.

2: Casual Leave:

Casual Leaves are leaves provided by the organization to accommodate any personal requirements. Employees often used these leaves to go on a vacation, take a rest from work and go to family events. These types of leaves allow employees to focus on their private life and encourage them to spend time with their families. Casual leaves promote work-life balance and promote employee engagement. Companies provide 1 to 2 days of casual leaves to employees per month and some companies provide around 8 to 15 days of casual leaves in a year. These leaves cannot be clubbed together with other leaves and are not allowed to be cashed nor carried forward to next year if you have any leaves pending.

3: Maternity Leave:

Maternity leaves are included in every leave policy, this leave is provided to women employees to take care of their newborns and also spend some time recovering from the delivery process. Depending on the country, the tenure of maternity leaves varies, for example in India women have the right to take 6 months of leave during and after the delivery process. Women can also take maternity leaves in case of miscarriage or abortion and can extend their maternity leaves up to 16 months without termination. This is a paid leave wherein women are paid the full amount of their salary during the period of absence from work.

4: Paternity Leave:

Paternity leaves are the same as maternity leaves but for male employees, but this leave is given to male employees who are soon going to be a father. The idea behind this leave is to allow the new father to take care of the newborn and act as a caregiver and support his wife during the early stages of motherhood.

These types of leaves are usually provided by all companies but are not as common in Indian private companies. The number of leaves given to the father varies from company to company so it is better to check with the organization beforehand.

5: Compensatory Off (or Comp-Offs):

Compensatory leaves are leaves provided to employees who work more than the usual business hours, for example, employees working on weekends to complete their tasks. These leave are provided to employees as an appreciation for their hard work and contribution to the company for going the extra mile.

6: Religious holidays:

Holidays provided to an employee on occasions like Christmas, Eid, Diwali, or any other religious festivals are known as religious holidays. Religious holidays play an important role in an employee’s life as this is one occasion where employees get the chance to spend time with their family and celebrate the festivals together. Every organization adds these holidays to its policy.

7: Sabbatical Leave:

Sabbatical leaves are extended leaves where employees can take a break to pursue their interests like volunteering work, traveling, pursuing any course, etc while still being employed at the company without having to do their routine job. These types of leaves are common in the educational sector where a professor takes leaves to teach people at another university as a guest lecturer or spend time on their research. This leave gives a fresh new opportunity to hone their skills and experience before returning to work. This type of leave is not approved easily so an employee has to plan when and for how long they want to take the leave. Depending on the company, sabbatical leave can be paid or unpaid but they are mostly unpaid.

8: Bereavement Leave:

These leaves are provided to employees in case of the demise of a family member. While there are no rules and regulations by law to provide, most companies provide these leaves out of compassion for human life. These leaves provide an opportunity for employees to recover from the loss of their loved one and also shoulder any responsibilities, last rites, and family situations that may arise. Most of the time, bereavement leaves are paid, and HR provides three to seven days of leaves.

9: Earned Leave:

Earned leaves also known as privilege leaves are earned by the employee for serving more than 240 days in a year. Employees are usually entitled to 18 days of earned leave where they can take leave from the company to take a break from their job. These leaves can be carried forward to the next year if not all the leaves are utilized, however, only a specific number of leaves can be carried forward to the next year. Employees can also enhance these leaves if the number of leaves exceeds the limit or when they are leaving the company.

10: Marriage Leave:

As the name indicates these are the leaves provided to employees who are getting married or anyone in their family. This is a common type of leave in an organization and is regulated by law to be provided to employees without having their salary deducted from the month. Depending on the condition marriage leaves can be anywhere between 2 to 15 days while most companies offer 2-4 days as marriage leaves.

11: Leave without pay:

For any leaves outside the leave policy index, the number of allotted leaves are unpaid leaves. These leaves are unpaid as they don’t fall into any leave category and are mostly taken for personal reasons. The leaves are approved by the employer on the employee’s request and the employee’s pay is deducted from the salary for that day.

12: Half-day leave:

As the name suggests these leaves are taken for half part of the working days either in the morning half or the second half. These leaves are mostly taken when employees have to do personal work like going to the bank, catching a flight, or going to the doctor. These leaves are best for maintaining a work-life balance to take out half a day from the busy schedule to attend to personal responsibilities.

13: Menstruation Leave:

As companies are progressing so are their leave policies. Women who experience physical or mental discomfort during menstruation can take these leaves. These leaves can either be paid or unpaid depending upon the organization. Not many organizations have these leaves but some South Asian countries like Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia offer menstruation leave to their employees.

Conclusion:

It is essential to have a clear and comprehensive leave policy in place to empower your employees. It helps them take the necessary time off from work and focus on their personal lives. A good leave policy also reduces the risk of burnout in employees and gives them regular breathers between work. This helps them not only focus better but perform better as well.