What is a sabbatical leave?

Employees often use sabbatical leave to accomplish activities that they could not do while having the commitment to their regular work schedules. Here are some examples:

• Long-term traveling (three to four weeks or months), especially traveling internationally

• Completing volunteer work for non-profits, or special volunteer projects normally occur away from their work location, and can also be international

• Researching specific subjects pertaining to interests or those that have a direct correlation to their career

• Attending long-form professional development opportunities

If you are thinking about implementing a sabbatical leave policy at your company, you first need to determine a few things. Here are some common items employers go over before instituting a sabbatical leave policy:

• Years of employment to qualify for sabbatical leave

  You need to first determine how long employees have to work for your company in order to have sabbatical leave policy benefits. Most companies reward sabbatical leave to senior and veteran employees that have had many years of loyalty and service to the company. The standard time frame for qualified sabbatical leave is having worked five or more years.

• Limits on a time frame for sabbatical leave

  You should also determine a cap for sabbatical leave time for your employees. This is very important, and if it is not specified, it can lead to a misunderstanding between the employer and the employee. You can make your time frames apply to years of service, or deal with each employee on a case-by-case basis. Just make sure you have a structure in this area.

• Reasons for sabbatical leave

  Many companies allow certain employees to take sabbatical leave for any purpose, while others impose guidelines for the reasons a sabbatical leave can be taken. This is up to your organization to determine. Just make sure you clearly state your company's guidelines in this policy.

• Paid sabbatical leave and unpaid sabbatical leave

  This is also a facet you should determine before implementing the policy. You need to decide if you are going to offer sabbatical leave as a paid or unpaid option to employees. You can also consider paying your employees a reduced wage or salary during a sabbatical leave.

• The time frame for required notice for sabbatical leave

  You should also outline a time frame for required notice, in other words, how far in advance your employee must state that they would like to take sabbatical leave. Two to three months in advance is the common time frame for many companies.