When the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020, Riverside Dodge -Chrysler -Jeep-Ram in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, started providing limitless sick days to its staff.
The message to staff was easy: If you happen to’re feeling sick, keep dwelling. Do not feel like you must come into work since you’ll miss out on pay, and threat spreading COVID-19 within the course of.
It was meant to be a brief measure, stated Trent Hargrave, basic supervisor at Riverside Dodge, positioned about 330 miles north of the U.S.-Canada border and 329 miles east of Edmonton. However the dealership noticed its absentee fee plummet “nearly to zero,” he stated, as a result of fewer individuals who in any other case would have unfold ailments at work as a substitute stayed dwelling.
“You see it on a regular basis: An individual is available in with the sniffles after which they fight for a day or two, after which they’re sick. So, we lose a day or two from them anyway,” he stated. “After which three different folks the following week begin to exhibit these signs. So, both they will attempt to powerful it out and be much less productive, or they will unfold it round.
“So we stated, what if there was simply an incentive to not try this?”
The dealership shortly determined to make its coverage everlasting.
He stated the coverage has additionally helped to spice up worker morale and satisfaction, since staff really feel much less strain to come back into work sick as a substitute of staying dwelling, getting higher and coming again. It was one of many key components that led to Riverside being named one in all sibling publication Automotive Information Canada‘s Finest Dealerships To Work For in 2021.
Whereas limitless sick days and paid time without work are extra widespread within the tech business, it’s a uncommon profit for dealerships to have. Certainly, even among the many 25 Canadian dealerships to obtain Finest Dealerships recognition, Riverside was the one one to say it supplied limitless sick days to staff.
Of the 24 Finest Dealerships winners that don’t supply limitless sick days, seven stated they did not supply a separate financial institution of sick days to staff after one yr of employment, based on information gathered by Finest Corporations Group for Automotive Information Canada. The remainder had insurance policies in place starting from two to 5 annual sick days.
Hargrave stated the coverage has additionally resulted in elevated productiveness on the dealership, which has annual gross sales of about 650 new and used autos.
He stated staff who come into work at the moment are much less more likely to be in poor health, which means they can work at a better degree than they’d be in the event that they had been battling a chilly or one other illness. And the coverage may also help to interrupt a possible chain of an infection, preserving different staff’ productiveness excessive.
As a substitute of coming in sick, “Fred would not are available, and solely Fred will get sick,” he stated. “It is not like Susan and John are sick the following week or no matter. That is the good factor. It is remoted.”
Hargrave stated the last word measure of whether or not any coverage works is the way it impacts the dealership’s profitability. On this case, Riverside’s income are as excessive as they’d have been in any other case, he stated.
If an worker who works eight hours per day at $20 per hour calls in sick at some point, “we are able to afford $160 to verify three folks do not get sick as a substitute of only one,” Hargrave stated.
Hargrave stated there have been preliminary issues that making limitless sick days everlasting may end in staff abusing the system. However these issues had been shortly dispelled, he stated. Hargrave stated having a “robust, trusting tradition” within the office is essential to implementing such a coverage
“If someone’s abusing that system, that is a administration subject,” Hargrave stated. “Absenteeism is at all times a administration subject anyway. So what if we simply managed it?”