In the Recur Now hot seat today: mandated vacation time. 

As ProfitWell's Patrick Campbell says, 

"I think that when you're an adult in a company that says they're going to treat you like an adult, you should take the time when you want to take the time."

Amid some companies mandating certain days off, we're making our case supporting unlimited paid time off (PTO).

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Mandated vs unlimited PTO

Here's the TLDR on why we’re talking vacation time—other than it being summertime and people wanting time to chill. A majority of us are still working remotely thanks to COVID-19. And the lack of separation from work and home can be mentally taxing.

To relieve employees of stress, companies like HubSpot have put forward a take-a-break initiative to encourage people to unplug. Drift also shut down the office one Friday a few weeks ago, in an effort to get employees to relax. 

While some may appreciate these efforts, our CEO, Patrick Campbell, and our Product Lead, Neel Desai, make a case for why companies shouldn’t mandate time off—instead create a culture where time is given when employees truly want or need it. 

We’re going to look at two major points supporting an unlimited paid time off structure: the first being mental health and the second, equal representation of holidays. We’ll also dive into how to communicate and encourage employees about time off.

Argument #1: Positive impact on mental health 

Unlimited paid time off allows employees to take time when they need it and is good for their mental health. If someone is feeling stressed or needs time, they can just have it—no questions asked. 

Here at ProfitWell, we’ve had instances where this unlimited paid time off really helped some of our teammates going through a stressful time.

PC says,

"We've had folks who were having mental breakdowns and we just go, 'Go. Go leave for as long as you need to.'"

While some may argue that employees can take medical leave or request sick time, unlimited paid time off allows people to take these mental releases without it being a big deal or stigmatized, and without worrying about a limited amount.

Argument #2: Equally represented holidays 

In a traditional PTO setting, it’s mostly Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter that are accounted for. But, with an unlimited policy and no specific days off enforced, all holidays and celebrations are represented. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, you don’t have to take that day off. 

As PC explains, with this structure, though, it’s up to leaders to remind employees of upcoming holidays and the freedom they have in deciding whether they want to take that day or not.  

PC says,

"We have Muslim folks working for us. We have Jewish folks working for us. Most of the federal holidays are Christian. So it's one of those things where if you don't have Veteran's Day or Martin Luther King Jr. Day, then you're not being offensive to XYZ."

Allowing employees to take mental health days and celebrate holidays they actually want to celebrate—those are the benefits we’ve seen here at ProfitWell.

Making unlimited PTO work

Now, you might agree with this but still could be wondering: what if people feel guilty or don’t want to take advantage of this time off structure?

Neel: Do you think from a culture perspective leadership has some responsibility to help influence folks and encourage them to take that time?

PC: I think we have definitely had some folks who have struggled with this, especially those who are older in their career and are coming from corporate. I think what we've done is we get ahead of it in our ProfitWell 101 training. We get ahead of it in People Operations and these types of things. It allows us to make sure that we're de-policying a lot of our people ops in these types of pieces.

The takeaway here: some people will have a hard time grasping the liberty of unlimited vacation time, so as long as leadership gets ahead of that and communicates this structure—it’ll work out okay. 

Overall, we’re seeing more and more companies adopt this unlimited paid time-off structure, especially in the tech space. 

As mentioned, two direct benefits we’ve seen at ProfitWell are centered around mental health and holidays. People can take time without the pressure of structured days off. That’s huge.

To listen to PC and Neel's full conversation on unlimited PTO → click here

How is the B2B SaaS market trending?

 

How are churn and new revenue trending over time?

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MRR GAIN +1.18% 

 

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MRR LOSS -0.6%

Today, the B2B SaaS index is valued at +1,620 points, with overall growth climbing up 0.84% over the last week.

For the first time in a few days, upgrades and new revenue represent an increase in growth. MRR gain has gone up by 1.18% over the last 24 hours, while MRR loss (churn in the market), has gone down 0.6% over the last 24 hours. 

Be sure to check your subscriber newsletter for regular updates to your index. 

You can also share the data with friends and fellow industry players that could use it right now. Send me their email address to grace.g@profitwell.com and I’ll get their name on the list. Or they can subscribe directly at index.profitwell.com.

Post-pandemic predictions

We’ve been in this pandemic state for a few months now—what will go-to-market strategies look like in a post-pandemic economy?

According to HubSpot research conducted during the pandemic, “consumers cite customer care as the single greatest influence on their sentiment towards a company.” This means, more and more companies are seeing the value of customer experience as the key to growth, leading them to abandon the funnel model in favor of the flywheel. 

The funnel focuses exclusively on acquiring customers, while the flywheel is built on building customer happiness throughout their entire journey. 

This goes hand-in-hand with our research, showing retention as one of the most powerful growth levers for your business. Honestly, we're pumped to see more and more companies focusing on retention and adopting the flywheel model. 

To read more of HubSpot's post-pandemic predictions → click here