Benefits and Compensation

Audio Conference to Help Solve Paid-Time-Off (PTO) Problems and Reduce Unscheduled Absences

Paid-time-off (PTO) expenses can be as high as healthcare costs. Let a special May 2nd audio conference tell you ways to manage them better.

What’s the biggest benefits cost you’ve got? Easy answer, right? It’s health care.

Easy but also wrong.

According to recent surveys, the costs of PTO, in the form of vacations, sick leave, holidays, and paid personal time, easily equal those of health care. They can total up to 14 percent of your total payroll. And especially if absences are unplanned, PTO can also play havoc with your productivity.

For these reasons, there’s a burgeoning movement to find ways to better control PTO, without having employees surround the building with pitchforks because you’ve executed a “takeaway” on their benefits.

That’s the reason BLR will be conducting a May 2nd special audio conference, titled Solving PTO Problems: How to Reduce Unscheduled Absences Without Alienating Employees.

The presenters will be two experienced employment law attorneys: Wade W. Herring II, a partner at Hunter Maclean in Savannah, Georgia, and Aliza F. Herzberg, a partner with the New York law firm of Olshan Grundman Froome Rosenzweig & Wolosky. Both are noted speakers in the field.


Control PTO costs better. A special BLR audio conference tells you how. Click here for information, to register, or to order a CD!


Among the topics to be covered:

–Why employees take sick leave? The obvious answer – because they’re sick – is often not the real answer. A 2005 survey found that two of every three sick days are actually taken to handle family or other personal business. But because workers need to buttress the fiction that they’ve suddenly taken ill, the absences are unscheduled. The annual hit on business of this practice? One estimate has it at $660 per employee. The audio conference speakers will discuss time-off policies proven effective in curbing these practices.

–PTO banks. Nearly a third of businesses have done away with separate quotas for vacation, holidays, sick, and personal time, and simply given their workforce a bank of days to use as they wish. Plusses include no longer having to deal with decisions on who’s really sick and who’s not, and possible reduced accrued liability for vacation days to be paid when a worker leaves. Minuses: workers who prematurely drain their bank for vacation and have no time left when they actually do become sick, and workers who are seldom ill taking time off just because they can.

–The law and PTO. Leave policies must be coordinated with the law. The presenters will discuss PTO policies in conjunction with the Family and Medical Leave Act and state law controlling the issue. They’ll also touch on how these policies coordinate with insurance benefits such as short-term disability.

–Carryover. If PTO isn’t used, what’s the best way to carry it over? And how should you handle PTO “owed” when a worker leaves the organization. There are issues of both fairness and legality involved, and both will be discussed.


Don’t let PTO costs drive you into taking sick days! Register for BLR’s special audio conference here. Or if you can’t attend, preorder the CD!


The 90-minute audio conference will be held on Wednesday, May 2nd, 1:30 to 3 p.m. ET. (Adjust these times for your time zone.) A Q&A will follow the formal presentations. Questions can be either e-mailed or phoned in.

As usual, one fee pays for as many of your staff as can fit around a conference phone, and your satisfaction is assured. If you can’t attend, we recommend preordering a CD of the session, to be shipped soon after its conclusion.

Click on one of the links on this page for more information, to register, or to preorder a CD.


Control the Benefits Cost That’s as Great as Health Care!
It’s paid-time-off (PTO), and it can account for up to 14 percent of your payroll. Let a special May 2nd BLR audio conference, Solving PTO Problems: How to Reduce Unscheduled Absences Without Alienating Employees, teach you the latest techniques to make PTO work for all concerned. One low fee trains your whole staff. Can’t attend? Order the CD. Read more.


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