India is not ready for unlimited holidays

Experts feel Indians not yet ready for such concept

New Delhi, Oct. 19: As companies across the world experiment with concepts like “unlimited holidays”, human resource experts in India believe the country is not ready for such agile HR policy and people here would rather appreciate benefits like leave encashment and sabbaticals.

Last month, Richard Branson, Founder and CEO of Virgin group said he would offer his employees unlimited holidays. “Flexible working has revolutionised how, where and when we all do our jobs. So, if working nine to five no longer applies, then why should strict annual leave ( vacation) policies?,” questioned Mr Branson. The sole premise on which Sir Richard Branson announced the ‘ unlimited holidays’ policy was that one should focus on what work has been done, and not on how many hours or days a person has worked.

Virgin is not the first one to introduce this concept, as reportedly other companies like Netflix, Zynga, Groupon, Glassdoor, Evernote are some who offer such benefits.

Such a policy may seem benevolent but in industries where human talent is critical for a competi- tive advantage, it could be a game changer for attracting and retaining talent and for creating favourable corporate branding, experts said.

“Companies that offer unlimited vacation time tend to invest in hiring motivated, responsible employees who balance taking time off with getting their work done. Such a policy is great in attracting and retaining talent,” Thomas Cook ( India) COO and head HR Mona Cheriyan said.

Sharing similar views Kempinski Ambience Hotel GM Puneet Singh said “having the freedom to work, whenever one wants, for however long one wants, boosts morale, creativity, productivity, quality of life. ... however, it is limited to companies, that work on project based or time bound sector, or where creativity is at the core”.

Unlimited holidays is an interesting approach but it can be applied partly and in limited situations in India as our work ethics, corporate culture is not ready for this, experts say.