How do I get my employees to take their Paid Time Off?

That’s a common question we’ve been getting over the past year. 

It’s crazy when you think about it. Three years ago, employees left over 700 million days of unused PTO on the table.

Here are some of my suggestions on how to get employees to take their PTO.

(Hint – it starts with you).

 Take Your Damn PTO! (Eric’s Leadership Blog)

The image below is a screen grab I took a couple of years ago. It’s the pay of every employee at buffer.com. It’s available on their website. When I show this to most C-suiters, they freak out. In fact, most executives don’t even want to post the salary range of open positions (“what if our existing employees see that?”)

I concede that pay transparency requires a culture change; it’s not easy.

But it’s on its way. Colorado has already enacted a law requiring the disclosure of salary ranges; New York’s law starts on May 1, and now word is that California is considering a similar law.

Whether you like it or not, here comes pay transparency. Get ready.

Pay Transparency Laws Begin (Axios) 

Lots of people (including me at times) point to tech as the new wave of leadership. 

Silicon Valley as a whole is great at innovation – including innovating an HR industry that desperately needs it. 

But people who can actually manage are in short supply (in Silicon Valley, and everywhere else).

I’ve said this before but it bears repeating: the skills needed to lead people are not those which get people promoted. People get promoted into leadership because they sell the most widgets, or work the hardest, or are the smartest, or because they kiss the most ass.

But none of those abilities translates into the ability to effectively lead people. 

The Truth About Management in Silicon Valley (TechCrunch)