15 Different Types of Leave for Your Leave Policy
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Sometimes you decide to take some time off, and sometimes it’s life that decides for you!
Either way, (un)predictable life situations should not be a reason for anyone to fear for their compensation or jobs. That’s why it is not rare that employees choose companies with better leave benefits packages over those with higher salaries.
Types of leave vary depending on the country’s leave laws. However, nothing prevents companies from including other leave benefits in their leave policies.
In this article, we covered 15 different types of leave to inspire you to make your employees feel appreciated and safe while working at your company.
Sick Leave
Sick leave is one of the types of leave meant to allow an employee to stay home or in a facility for treatment to recuperate from illness. This way, employees can take care of their health without fear of losing compensation or a job.
Maternity Leave
Maternity leave is provided for new mothers. It varies on the leave laws of the country in question. Maternity leave allows mothers to recover from the delivery and take care of the newborn in the first months or years of the baby’s life.
Paternity Leave
Paternity leave is one of the types of leave granted to new fathers or partners of a pregnant woman, surrogate parent, or someone who adopted a child (see also: adoption leave). It is meant to help the father or partner adjust to the newborn and their new family and help with whatever it takes.
Annual leave
Annual or vacation leave is meant to provide employees with paid time off to rest, recharge, and spend time with the people they love. It is usually granted as unlimited time off, annual allocation of a specific number of days per year, or as accruals on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Military Leave
Military leave is a leave of absence from work for those called to actively or actively serve the armed forces, national guard, and similar of their country. There are different types of military service, and in some countries, it is compulsory.
Public & Religious Holidays Leave
Usually, the government designates a country’s public and religious holidays. All institutions registered in that country must obey them independently of their origin and religious beliefs. It is something to be particularly considered by companies that hire global talent.
Bereavement Leave
Bereavement leave is one of the types of leave meant to allow an employee to take some time off after the loss of a loved one to attend the funeral and recuperate from the immediate shock and sadness. Despite not being required by law in all countries, many companies have it as part of their leave policy.
Study Leave
Study leave allows employees to gain new knowledge and skills by attending university or learning. It is typically offered on a case-by-case basis at the employer’s discretion. Study leave is more likely to be approved if the advancement is relevant to the company’s growth.
Voting Leave
Voting leave implies time off during the official election days to allow everyone an equal voting chance. It usually covers an hour or more during the day, depending on the company leave policy, and it should be strictly used to fulfill this civic duty.
Compensatory Leave
Compensatory leave is one type of leave for employees who exceed their work hours. It applies to those who worked additional hours or have gone to work on days when they were off. Employees should be averted in advance if they have earned extra hours or days for leave.
Privilege Leave
Privilege leave is granted to employees based on the time they’ve been with the company. Depending on the company’s leave policies or internal agreement, it can be used for vacation, rest time, medical emergencies, or any other type of leave.
Jury duty leave
Jury duty leave majorly depends on the country’s juridical system; obviously, it doesn’t exist or is not mandatory in all countries. However, it allows employees invited to be part of the trial’s jury to do their juridical duty and still get paid regularly at work.
Religious observance leave
Religious observance leave is meant for employees who participate in religious festivals, customs, or festivities that are not recognized as official religious holidays by the country’s government. Usually, this type of leave must be authorized, requiring employees to provide additional documentation to prove their beliefs.
Sabbatical Leave
Sabbatical leave is one of the types of leave usually connected to educational institutions, which implies academics are stepping away from teaching to do research. However, sabbatical leave simply means time off during which employees can pursue hobbies or take time off simply because they feel they need it.
Casual Leave
Casual leave implies time off due to unexpected circumstances, and it often happens last minute. Namely, the employee cannot report to work for a series of reasons, some of which can also be needing some days off for personal or mental health reasons.
Use Vacation Tracker
Vacation Tracker is a time-off management tool that can help you stay organized and up-to-date regarding different types of leave. Namely, it allows you to request, approve, and get notified about your employees’ time off in just a few clicks.
Furthermore, it easily adjusts to different companies’ structures and work models by allowing you to customize your leave policies so that they obey the leave laws of each of your employees’ countries.
Vacation Tracker integrates with Slack or Microsoft Team so that you can do all this and more without leaving your company chat!
Summary
As you may see, keeping track of different types of leave required by law and those that are not, but you still wish to make them part of your leave policy doesn’t have to be messy and time-consuming.
However, time off is important because it makes your employees feel appreciated and cared for, even in unpredictable life situations.
And just like companies want to know that they can rely on their employees, it should be the other way around too.
Jelena Cerovic
Jelena turned her love for storytelling and the written word into a full-time job as a B2B content writer and copywriter in the SaaS industry. She reads, dances, and explores new places in her hometown and beyond in her spare time.
