British billionaire and owner of the Virgin brand - which includes hundreds of companies, including the recording company Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways - announced that his employees in the UK and USA can now take vacation as often and for as long they want. He expects that this step will increase employee morale, creativity and productivity. If the unlimited vacation policy is successful, it will be extended to other countries.
“There is no need to ask for prior approval and neither the employees themselves nor their managers are asked or expected to keep track of their days away from the office," Richard Branson was quoted in the British newspaper The Telegraph. Furthermore, Branson said: “It is left to the employee alone to decide if and when he or she feels like taking a few hours, a day, a week or a month off, the assumption being that they are only going to do it when they feel a hundred per cent comfortable that they and their team are up to date on every project and that their absence will not in any way damage the business – or, for that matter, their careers!”
Do not measure time, but productivity
Richard Branson's inspiration for this step was the same strategy introduced by the Netflix company in 2010. The flexible approach to work has helped the company to become a worldwide leader in streaming video content on the Internet.
According to Branson, the traditional system of vacation entitlement has been mostly surpassed by modern technology enabling remote work. It is more important how much work employees do than how many hours they spend at work. The 64-year-old entrepreneur perceives the current vacation policy in the USA and UK as "particularly draconian." He likes smart and simple solutions that enable the best innovations. Personal comments by Richard Branson about this policy are available for you to read on the Virgin blog here.
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