One of the pillars of the triple bottom line framework is social
sustainability and requires organizations to conduct business in a way
that is “good for people”. Minimal employee benefits with little PTO
or sick time are examples of business practices that are bad for
people. There is a large cost associated with extending employee
benefits. The example from our texts highlights the story of Tony
Hsieh’s mission to launch Zappos, and how he went without a profit
for years to maintain his high standard of employee benefits.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “In March 2020, 78
percent of civilian workers had access to paid sick leave benefits. The
average cost to employers was $0.45 per employee hour worked in
March 2020” (BLS, 2020). Many companies are so focused on profit
that they overlook the damage to their workforce by skimping on
taking care of their people.
b When employees are forced to choose between working and
taking time off, they are forgoing their personal health, a dependents
health, time away from work to rest, relax, reset, and make time for
enjoyment or personal growth. They suffer. What’s more,
researchers are finding that offering paid time off may not come at
such a high price in the grand scheme of operation,
“The attrition rate for women after childbirth was twice our average
attrition rate. . . . After making the change in leave, the difference in
attrition rates vanished. And moms told us that they were often using
the extra two months to transition slowly back to work, making them
more effective and happier when the leave ended. When we
eventually did the math, it turned out this program cost nothing. The
cost of having a mom out of the office for an extra couple of months
was more than offset by the value of retaining her expertise and
avoiding the cost of finding and training a new hire” (Gracia, 2019).
b On a personal note, I choose not to return to my job after the
birth of my child because I felt let down by my company. I called
SNHU out of anger because after I felt I was misled by my HR
manager. I decided I wanted to be the one in HR assisting new
parents and employees’ in transitioning back to work after a leave of
absence. Five minutes into my call with SNHU I was enrolled in
courses, and in August I will complete my program. It actually turned
into a happy story.
b Benefits associated with paid time off and sick time off affect
people, communities, economies, and businesses. People can’t
participate in extra activities within their community if they are
always at work and/or fatigued from their daily grind. They don’t
have the capacity to learn, teach, coach, tutor, mentor, parent, or
volunteer. When workers are on a break from their 9-5, they are
either filling their own personal tank OR spending money on things
like skiing, dining at a restaurant or pub, spending time at a hotel, a
spa, a yoga studio, or shopping. Injecting their hard-earned money
back into the economy.
b Employers can also obtain benefit such as competitive
advantage to attractive and retain top talent. Companies will see a
reduction in unplanned absenteeism. They can see the boost in
productivity, morale, and company loyalty. It is a win for both people
and companies, and takes they vision of management to see the
forest for the trees.
References
Gracia, A. (2019). The Changing Face of Paid Time Off. GPSolo, 36(5),
20–23.
Hsieh, T. (2020). Why I sold Zappos. In People, planet, and profit.
Soomo Learning. https://www.webtexts.com (Reprinted from “Why I
sold Zappos,” 2010, Inc.)
SHRM. (2014, August). SHRM - Total Financial Impact of Employee
Absences in the U.S. Retrieved January 11, 2022, from
https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-
magazine/Documents/kronos_us_executive_summary_final.pdf
