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I work for a European company, with a branch office in RTP. I don't have my employee handbook in front of me, but to the best of my knowledge, we are given:
3 weeks paid vacation per year to start. We are not given this all on January 1, but instead earn a few hours each paycheck. This increases as your years of service with the company increases, possibly to a max of 5 weeks, but I forget. Note that up to one year's worth of vacation can be carried over to the next year if it is not used in the current year.
2 weeks of paid sick leave per year. They further break it up into 1 week for yourself and 1 week for caring for sick family members, but really that doesn't matter too much.
8 days (I think) of paid holidays (New Years Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving (2 days), and Christmas Day.
4 days "floating" holidays. Days off to use at your discression for holidays observed by your nationality, religion, etc.
4 "personal business" days for running errands, etc.
We are also given time off for military training, charity work, bereavement, and a few other specialty items, but I never have used those, so I don't remember the details.
WOW! The benefits offered by RTP companies may not be quite as good as those offered in Europe, but they sound awfully darn good just the same!
I agree with the PTO, combination sick/vacation time so that people who are healthy don't feel the need to call in "sick" so as not to lose the days off. The bare-bones vacation time most US companies start you with is one week, and let's say one sick day a month, so that's 17 PTO days, not counting holidays. But, that is pretty skimpy if you ask me, especially if someone has kids who also get sick or ailing parents to take care of (I am very healthy, but I was out for almost a week once when my dad had open-heart surgery). So I'd bump it to 20, but 24 is better, not counting holidays, of which anywhere from 7-11 is standard. Vacation time almost always increases with years of service, usually at 5, 10, 15 years. Sick time typically does NOT increase with service, if they are separate.
You also need to have policies on bereavement leave, jury duty, military leave, and a fairly big one for NC, inclement weather. Since it doesn't snow much here, we don't have a lot of equipment to clear the roads and 3" of snow can keep people from getting out of their neighborhood. A policy on what to do about "snow days"--do they have to be made up? A certain number of days/hours [many folks come in late on snow days] a year? Policy based on the school system, etc? That can be a pretty important issue, whenever we start getting any snow to speak of in the winters again.
It will also depend on what industry you're in; see if you can find out from industry publications what the typical benefits are in this regard. I've also heard of some places that allow employees to BUY time off, e.g. you can buy back a week of vacation and have your salary docked by one week's worth of pay. Many people would jump on that.
12 days PTO (combination of vacation & sick time)
Various public holidays - we've already defined these and it is 9 per annum
I think 12 days PTO especially as a combo of vacation and sick time is very, very, very low. Most companies in the area do offer 3 weeks vacation to start off and a certain number of paid sick days, typically 5. I think you will find that what you suggested is not at all attractive to a new employee.
I think 12 days PTO is terrible. That's effectively 2 weeks vacation, which is completely standard, and a meager 2 sick days.
welcome to my job...no sick days, only 2 weeks vacation and 2 personal days (per year)...AND that is for all employees no matter how long you have been there
At my last job, new employees had 26 days of PTO during the first year (earned 8 hours per pay period) increasing to 31 at three years and 36 at eight years. Management had 5 days more, so I actually had 41. Ours was a business that never closed, so we didn't have any holidays without using that PTO. We could carry over something like 200 hours from year to year and we could get paid out at the end of each year for 80 hours. However, this was an organization that rarely gave me the chance to use all this TO!
At my current job, I have 10 paid holidays and employees start with 23 days of PTO (sick + vacation) in their first year, earned at about 7 hours each pay period. This organization is much more interested in happy employees and encourages employees to use their PTO! I also have more flexible work hours and it's interesting, this company actually gets far more done.
welcome to my job...no sick days, only 2 weeks vacation and 2 personal days (per year)...AND that is for all employees no matter how long you have been there
The Job I used to work for had no sick days, no vacation days, and no holidays and that was working full time (40-hours a week). FUN They did offer some basic health insurance though.
We are able to roll much of ours over. I worked for the state and they have a very liberal leave policy, I don't think the private sector is generally quite as liberal with time off, but again some of it is realted to how long you have worked there.
I think when you get down to it, it is based company by company, industry by industry and level by level. I think it's great you asked here to try to get some feedback, but in the end, it's up to you and your colleagues, as well as what type of business you are in and how many employees you have. We've also been involved with very small companies that couldn't afford to have the same type of policies in place that working for the government or another huge employer has.
On another note, did you ever find your straight iron?
Lol - yup. Cant remember what make it was (it wasnt the GHD) - its all a bit of a blur during the first couple of weeks of getting here. We ended up getting it in Crabtree Mall - funny how different people have different priorities!
It sounds to me like it'd do you good to consult with an HR director with more experience working in the states. Certainly there's a consulting firm out there that can help you write up a basic HR policy.
Yep - will more than likely do that once I have come up with a "fair" starrting point...
Just to throw in what some of us working for the public sector get, here is what the Federal Government offers employees (and I happen to think it's one of the best deals around).
All earned leave can be used in 15 minute increments.
All (full-time) employees earn 4 hours of Sick Leave each bi-weekly pay period for the duration of their career (13 days per year). There is no ceiling for sick leave, you could have 5,000 hours or more of it by the time you retire if you never have to use it. Women who have children are at liberty to exhaust all of their sick leave and annual leave (see below) before enacting the FMLA act to receive leave without pay beyond that. At that point, they may be eligible to apply to the leave donation program, which employees with excess annual leave can donate unused leave to people with medical issues and have exhausted their leave.
Annual leave is accrued each pay period. This can be used for vacation, personal time, sick leave if you run out of sick leave, etc. Accrue to a max of 30 days per year which can be carried over year to year, excess of which is "use or lose" by the end of the year.
First three years of service: 4 hours of Annual Leave earned each pay period (13 days per year).
Three to 15 years of service: 6 hours of Annual Leave earned each pay period (20 days per year).
Fifteen or more years of service: 8 hours per pay period (26 days per year).
We also get about 11 Federal Holidays.
We are allowed to use Annual leave for religious purposes. Sick leave may be used for medical appointments, bereavement and the care of family members.
We are also allowed to earn Credit Leave when we voluntarily work extra hours. This can be used the same as Annual Leave. Mandatory extra hours worked are earned as Compensatory Time in lieu of Overtime pay.
The best thing about this system is that once you are at your "use or lose" ceiling, supervisors are required to let you take your time off that you would lose at the end of the year, so you are basically guaranteed some vacation time. And credit leave is a great way for new employees to build up to "use or lose" status if they can use credit leave instead of the annual.
I personally think it's a great deal (in addition to our other benefits), and that's why it is worth it to me to work for the government and earn ever so slightly less that I would in private industry.
There is nothing more ridiculous to me than a business giving employees 3 sick days! My friend's husband was bed-ridden for a week with pneumonia and his employer was threatening him to come in because he was sick beyond his 3 days.
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The benefits offered by RTP companies may not be quite as good as those offered in Europe, but they sound awfully darn good just the same!
Ugh
They did offer some basic health insurance though.
