How important is a vacation? It can be summed up in one sentence: rested employees are more productive employees. Taking a vacation can reduce stress, help prevent burnout and promote work-life balance by allowing for more time to be spent with family, significant others, and close friends.

Yet most employees don't take vacations often enough and many don't use all of their allotted paid vacation time. Today HRavailable is talking about the importance of vacation for a perfect work-life balance.

Failure to Take Vacations Impacts Employee Health

Sixty percent of employees who don't feel they have an appropriate work-life balance are concerned about not having time to take care of themselves in terms of health, diet, and exercise, according to a survey. And there is cause for concern.

Consistently working long hours and not taking respite away from work can have a damaging effect on health and can negatively affect family life. A nine-year study reported in Psychosomatic Medicine found that vacations actually reduce the risk of heart disease. Men who did not take a vacation for several years were 30 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack than those who took a vacation at least one week a year.

The study also reported that skipping even one year's vacation time can be associated with an increased risk of heart disease. The highly-reputable Framingham Heart Study found vacation deprivation may be equally hazardous for women.

Women who took a vacation once every six years or less were almost eight times more likely to develop coronary heart disease or have a heart attack than those who took at least two vacations a year.

What Employers Can Do..?

Employers can help workers with work-life balance by instituting policies, procedures, actions and expectations that enable employees to easily pursue more balanced lives. The benefits of work-life balance to the employer include increased productivity; improved recruitment and retention; lower rates of absenteeism; reduced overhead; an improved customer experience; and a more motivated, satisfied workforce.

Work-life balance enables employees to feel as if they are paying attention to all the important aspects of their lives. Employees who can't afford to get away on vacation don't recharge both physically and mentally. Employers who encourage the use of time off and provide benefits that offer affordable ways to take vacations will improve employee morale and their company's bottom line at the same time.

What can employers do to promote increased use of paid time off?

Companies should encourage employees to take advantage of all of their benefits, especially paid time off. And since the cost is one of the key reasons employees aren't taking vacations, employers can help by offering an employee purchase program as a voluntary benefit that includes vacation options. Purchasing a vacation package through an employee purchase program is an affordable way for employees to take a vacation.

It offers a disciplined payment plan through payroll deduction that is a less expensive alternative to most credit cards or other financing options. Giving employees the opportunity to deduct budget-friendly payments directly from their paychecks provides an affordable way for employees to take an out-of-town vacation and offers an alternative to the added expense of high-interest credit cards.

A premier employee purchase program includes a variety of vacation options - hotels, cruises, destination resorts, and all-inclusive resorts - that appeal to workers across all demographics, especially when the cost can be deducted evenly from their paycheck through manageable payments over 12 months.

Every employee needs a vacation. Done right, it can lead to fresh perspectives, creative insights, and reduced stress levels. With stress-related healthcare costs in the hundreds of billions, there's a strong case to be made that taking this time to unplug is beneficial for mental and physical health.

Taking time off can make employees both more productive and more satisfied when they return to work, which translates into higher retention rates that can save a company thousands of dollars.

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