It’s no secret that benefits play an important role in attracting and retaining talent. One of our clients—the largest asset manager in the world—learned this firsthand with the recent launch of a groundbreaking new global flexible time-off (FTO) policy. Although this firm is a financial services powerhouse, it recognizes that it competes for top talent with some of the best-known companies in the world, including those in industries outside of finance. Plus, feedback from a 2017 global benefits survey indicated that many employees, especially junior staff, were dissatisfied with the company’s time-off model, which was based on tenure. This feedback mirrored the company’s own benchmarking studies, which suggested that its time-off policy was below the market standard for junior-level roles.
The company was not only concerned about employee burnout and performance, but it also wanted its time-off policy to better reflect its guiding principles: trust, accountability to each other, fairness, sharing success, and bringing one’s best, engaged self to work.