VTO Guide to Employers

7 of December, 2022

VTO is an acronym that refers to very different leave categories identified variously as voluntary time off or volunteer time off. When developing HR leave policies, the distinction between them is crucial.

The attraction of socially responsible companies has been rising with generational change. Even more for companies who use time off to manage workflows or to stave off ruin present very different issues.

But both VTO’s wind up in HR to manage. They both present challenges and have drawbacks as well as advantages. Both are trending in the coming years. Let’s dive into how to handle time off management in your company.

What is VTO

The acronym VTO can stand for two different leave practices in the workplace.

Voluntary time off

Voluntary time off is a leave that is taken either to balance staffing requirements or because business is bad. The driver of the time off is the constantly shifting workloads or the uncertain profit margins.

It is a way to increase efficiency and reduce costs. By spreading labor cost reductions across the entire workforce, organizations may avoid the worst-case scenario of laying off multiple workers.

Voluntary time off in an era of cutbacks has become formalized as continuing management and government policy. Thus, becoming a structural feature of future work practices requires an especially orderly unrolling. 

Volunteer time off

Volunteer time off is charity work, such as for a food bank or Dress for Success affiliate, for example. It is part of a corporate program and takes place outside of the office and during normal working hours. It is distinct from PTO for other purposes such as vacation or illness.

To attract new, fresh, talent in a tight marketplace, companies have designed volunteer policies. Especially among zoomers and millennials acutely sensitive to social issues and to corporations with aims at social and environment consciousness branding.

There is also a growing strategic focus on corporate responsibility programs (CRP). It has metrics that assess brand perceptions, market share, and employee satisfaction as a return on investment (ROI).

Is VTO paid?

• Voluntary time off is unpaid, though the position is kept open and the pension and benefits remain as they were at the appointed return.
• Volunteer time off is paid leave. Employees receive the usual pay for hours spent in service to an approved charitable or community organization.

Benefits of offering VTO to employees

Voluntary time off helps reduce unproductive hours in warehouses and call centers. Shipments can arrive late, and delivery times vary. Retail stores need constantly to readjust staffing levels according to the weather, holidays or just unexpected events.

In theory, voluntary time offs are not only beneficial to companies, but should also give employees the opportunity to take time off without repercussions.

Voluntary time off for work-life integration or for other purposes may be a benefit to company profitability. It offers the employees a chance to get benefits while pursuing other interests, which may of course involve supportive job-seeking.

While volunteer time off for charitable and community promoting projects as an employee benefit is a great way for an organization to stand out and show they are socially responsible.

Both employees and consumers expect companies to operate responsibly and address social and environmental issues to earn employee loyalty and customer trust. Multiple studies have shown that VTO has the power to impact both retention and overall employee work performance.

Many companies file Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports as a corporate branding campaign. This benefits showing demonstrable engagement on issues of global concern.

Drawbacks to VTO

Drawbacks of voluntary time off

Voluntary time off can create a serious mismatch between-staffing levels and projected workloads. That can work in favour of the company which lowered costs and maintained production at lower costs. But there is also the not inconsiderable drawback of perception among employees.

The peception that saving money is more important than the efforts they make to be available for a shift. The inevitable result is a toxic work atmosphere and huge HR headache in its endless talent search and difficulty in retaining staff.

Also, Zoomers are not quiet in their complaints. It is common to see networks buzz with trashing about employment practices of the kind pioneered at Amazon.

It is also a sign in government agencies that it is time to look for other opportunities, with the veteran employees first out the door taking with them irreplaceable value in knowledge assets.

Drawbacks of volunteer time off

Volunteer time off is a win-win situation between employer and employee. But actually, it is a huge challenge for HR departments. Human resources have to have a process in place for handling the collection of this information efficiently and securely. 

Dangers ahead, first of all, are the possibility that the policy may be abused if a skilled employee receives some form of compensation for charity work. Or even if he insists on the right to count a questionable organization as one that was, in fact, following company policy. 

That in turn requires a clearly written policy that can help avoid abuse. Also such policies need be especially well-framed and carefully monitored for unexpected requirements.

Managing VTO the right way

Many nonprofits will require qualifying documentation, like licenses and waivers, for example. And not just that, emails and complaints galore, which is where a sophisticated HR platform will gather, sort –and resolve.

Sesame’s time-off management tool navigates with visual aid requests and scheduled absences in one click, while keeping you constantly updated of incidents, and maintaining documentation as required for an employee program outside the government’s framing of work relationships.

There are a bunch of other powerful features you can discover while using Sesame HR, so we encourage you to try it right now for free. It is time to modernize the HR management of your company.