Sometimes employers offer benefits that seem too good to be true, raising the question, “What’s the catch?” Unlimited PTO falls into this category, and in many cases, that’s for a good reason.
On paper, unlimited PTO indicates that an organization trusts its employees to create an effective work-life balance in which they still deliver quality work when given a high degree of freedom. Realistically, employees may be so weary of taking advantage of this that they take less time off than they would have within the confines of a set of limitations.
Are employers genuine in offering unlimited PTO, or are they leveraging uncertainty and undefined borders as a self-serving tactic? Tom Kelly, chief operating officer at Marcel Digital, understands the grievances and concerns that accompany unlimited PTO.
“Unlimited PTO can come with the challenge of ambiguity of what is “the right amount” of PTO to take, so we have actively worked on that to help clarify with people on what it means and what it does not mean,” Kelly explained, noting that employees are encouraged to take off at least 15 days annually.
Creating touchpoints for employee feedback and open communication are central to fostering a people-first culture at Marcel Digital – and unlimited PTO is only a small piece of the broader picture.
The company pursues individual growth for employees through management by objectives, a system in which employees and managers discuss personalized benchmarks for success and create a roadmap for tracking self-identified achievements.
Built In Chicago spoke with Kelly about why creating the best possible work environment for employees is a continuous process and what putting people first looks like in practice.
Marcel Digital is an award-winning website development and digital marketing company that leverages in-house development and performance marketing teams to provide clients with tailored solutions.
What steps has Marcel Digital taken to foster a people-first culture?
We have clearly defined goals for the company. Two of our three primary goals are focused on philanthropy and culture. We believe in working together to help those in our communities and the impact this has on creating deep bonds across our team. Coupled with our core values that include authenticity, integrity and accountability, all combine to create a real people-first culture.
One example of this in action is in how we help people develop in their careers. We use a system called Management by Objective (MBO), a process in which a manager and an employee agree on specific performance goals and then develop a plan to reach them. It is designed to align objectives throughout the organization and empower the team members to own their development. It helps each of us develop while avoiding any micromanagement.
We have also developed robust processes to manage workload and stress across the team, which helps in addressing the old agency challenge around work-life balance. We firmly believe in the value of accurately breaking down the work and carefully managing it so people are challenged, but not burned out or exhausted as they may have experienced in past roles.
We truly appreciate the value of time away from work and the benefit that brings to each of our team, and we empower people to own and manage that time.”
What perks, benefits or other offerings help support a people-first company culture?
This year a couple of perks that have benefited many at Marcel — myself included — would be unlimited PTO and parental leave.
We truly appreciate the value of time away from work and the benefit that brings to each of our team, and we empower people to own and manage that time. Additionally, we encourage a minimum of 15 days of PTO as a baseline to counter some of the potential pitfalls of unlimited PTO.
We also have introduced a broader parental leave policy that benefits both the birthing and non-birthing parent. We have had a number of Marcel babies this year, including our director of analytics having twins, and our flexible PTO coupled with parental leave has certainly helped us support them in this hugely significant moment in their life.
How do you gauge the effectiveness of these efforts and ensure employees feel valued and supported? And what are some ways you’ve adapted your strategy in response?
Regular points of feedback and open communication. We use a platform called TinyPulse to solicit regular feedback, which we then track closely against the wider industry and actively work to address — it doesn’t just disappear into the void.
We set benchmarks for ourselves to measure our improvement year over year and track what we do so we can keep people up to date on what we are doing and why. For example, and in relation to my above point, unlimited PTO can come with the challenge of ambiguity of what is “the right amount” of PTO to take, so we have actively worked on that to help clarify with people what it means and what it does not mean.
We don’t pretend to be perfect, but we do sincerely believe in doing the right thing and working our way through the challenges that that sometimes creates.
