Workplace engagement the key to beating leave liability

Corporate Traveller General Manager Jess Anscombe

Australian employers are racking up significant risk to their balance sheets by not taking proactive measures against annual leave hoarding.

Statistics from Roy Morgan Research show Australians have accrued nearly 134 million days among the nation's 8.5 million-strong paid workforce with more than one third holding in excess of four weeks annual leave.

The disproportionately high percentage of workers holding that amount poses an especially high financial risk to employers, particularly in the SME sector.

Recent news of a Northern Territory public servant accumulating more than two years of annual leave, an estimated liability of almost $400,000, highlighted the financial risk of unchecked hoarding.

Corporate Traveller General Manager Jess Anscombe said the key to counteracting hoarding was increasing workplace engagement for taking leave and promoting the health and well-being benefits.

"Many of our customers have worked with us to parlay the business travel partnership into a parallel leisure solution that helps minimise leave balances," she said.

"Utilising the existing relationship helps keep the issue top of mind around the office and reduces the barrier for employees to make bookings by increasing the convenience factor."

Ms Anscombe said this leveraging approach had fast become a more popular option for businesses with Corporate Traveller's integrated leisure travel service, Travel Club, experiencing increases of 44 per cent in enquiry and 27 per cent in sales in the last financial year.

Many employers are also using incentive and rewards tactics to boost employee motivation to take leave.

"Professional travel managers can be used as a resource for annual leave enticements like travel vouchers, gift cards or holiday discounts," Ms Anscombe said.

"They can also assist in setting up a regular flow of alerts to employees for special industry deals or exclusive workplace promotions around Christmas, Easter and school holidays."


About Corporate Traveller

Corporate Traveller has been a leading supplier of business travel solutions for more than 20 years and services more than 6,500 clients throughout Australia.  As part of the Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Corporate Traveller is backed by the global network of one of the world's largest travel agencies.