Although vacation days may seem like a time of laziness and relaxation for employees, they're one of the most important factors to long term success. Vacation days are critical to the mental health of employees and allow them to spend time away from the office with their friends and family. They continuously spur employee motivation and employee productivity. A recent Forbes article discusses the importance of taking time away from the office. According to the article, businesses should make sure that employees are using their vacation days instead of constantly working in order to ensure the mental health of their employees:

 “Taking vacations, going to seminars, meeting with peers – all are ways to recharge. Most importantly, recharging is a great way to model healthy behavior. If your employees are continually leaving vacation days on the table at year end you’re not doing it right. Ask HR to run a report of what percentage of employees didn’t use their allocated vacation.”

Recharging is an important step in preserving employee motivation. Businesses cannot expect employees to work throughout the year at a high level of performance, since everyone needs to take a break at times. In fact, the one problem of vacation days is that employees are not given enough of them, and therefore don't have enough time to recharge. Employee travel incentives are now growing in popularity as businesses understand the needs of employees more and more. It's another way to motivate employees while allowing them more time to recharge away from the office. In addition, employee travel incentives can be effective for the company. Consider sending a marketing team on a trip in which they spend half of the time relaxing and the other half of the time in training seminars. Travel incentives can further the development of employees while they're away from the office. If you would like more information about employee travel incentives, contact us.