Houston expert shares how small business leaders can encourage PTO use

guest column

Retaining employees is no easy feat these days. Encouraging a healthy PTO policy can help avoid burnout. Photo courtesy of Joe Aker

As many small businesses continue to operate in a challenging, fast-paced environment, one thing that has arrived at breakneck speed is midyear, along with the summer months. Theoretically, to ensure work-life balance, most employees should have 50 percent of their PTO remaining to use for summer vacations and during the second half of the year. In reality, that is probably not the case given workers are hesitant to use their PTO, leaving approximately five days of unused PTO on the table during 2020 and 2021.

While the pandemic affected PTO usage the last two years, the labor shortage appears to be a major contributor in 2022, which has led to PTO hoarding and increasing levels of employee burnout. Although these factors can be compounded for small business owners because there are fewer employees to handle daily responsibilities, it is imperative for workers to take PTO, returning recharged with a fresh perspective on the tasks at hand.

Many employers might feel caught off guard by the amount of unused PTO that remains, but the good news is there is plenty of time to address the issue. Below are five ways for small business owners to help prevent PTO hoarding and encourage workers to take their allotted time off.

Remind your employees

Midyear is a good time to remind employees about the company’s PTO program, which is typically included in the employee handbook. Employers can share a link to the specific section of the handbook via email, along with key bullet points about the program that should be highlighted. For example, requirements to submit PTO requests in advance to help manage workloads, any blackout dates related to the nature of the business that can affect customer service and maximum number of hours that can be carried over into the new year to avoid losing any PTO hours. While employees are busy juggling numerous professional and personal responsibilities, it can be easy for them to overlook planning for PTO, so a quick reminder can make a big difference as employees and the company prepare for the remainder of 2022.

Leverage summer months

For some companies, the summer months present a great opportunity for workers to use PTO because business is typically slower, many clients also take time off and it might be easier to cover workloads. If leaders explain the situation to workers, they might be more inclined to schedule PTO because they feel encouraged to do so and there is less concern about leaving co-workers to handle heavy workloads. Leveraging the summer months for PTO can be a win-win for employees and the company, as operations continue smoothly and workers enjoy much-needed relaxation.

Stress the health benefits

Leaders should encourage employees to take time off by stressing the importance of taking care of their mental and physical health. A change of scenery away from work helps reduce stress, encourages relaxation and boosts adaptability, which can lead to greater creativity and innovative thinking. If workers do not take time to disconnect and recharge, it can result in low employee morale and decreased performance that may have a snowball effect involving co-workers, departments and family members.

Generate excitement

One way to encourage employees to use their PTO is to generate excitement by developing creative ways to inspire them to plan a getaway or other activities, which can have a positive impact and help prevent hoarding. For instance, organizing a contest on the intranet in which employees share how they used their time off, encouraging employees to vote on the most unique entries and rewarding the top three with gift cards. This activity might inspire others to break their routines and take time for themselves and their families by planning something special with their unused PTO hours.

Lead by example

Small business owners should lead by example and use their PTO hours to recharge, which also sends a clear message to employees that it is okay to take time off. While many owners may feel they cannot take time away from the office, it is critical for them to recharge, especially after two years of heightened stress levels and longer hours. According to a Capital One Business Survey of small business owners, 52% have not taken a vacation in the past year, 42% are currently experiencing burnout or have experienced it within the past month and 44% report having worked more than usual due to employee shortages. Owners who set an example are not only encouraging workers to do the same, but they are also taking care of themselves so they can be better positioned to operate their businesses for ongoing success.

As small business owners continue to navigate the labor shortage, savvy leaders recognize the significance of retaining existing employees, so it behooves them to encourage PTO usage to foster a highly engaged and energized workforce.

------

Jill Chapman is a senior performance consultant with Insperity, a leading provider of human resources and business performance solutions.

Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Houston researchers make headway on affordable, sustainable sodium-ion battery

Energy Solutions

A new study by researchers from Rice University’s Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Baylor University and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram has introduced a solution that could help develop more affordable and sustainable sodium-ion batteries.

The findings were recently published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

The team worked with tiny cone- and disc-shaped carbon materials from oil and gas industry byproducts with a pure graphitic structure. The forms allow for more efficient energy storage with larger sodium and potassium ions, which is a challenge for anodes in battery research. Sodium and potassium are more widely available and cheaper than lithium.

“For years, we’ve known that sodium and potassium are attractive alternatives to lithium,” Pulickel Ajayan, the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor of Engineering at Rice, said in a news release. “But the challenge has always been finding carbon-based anode materials that can store these larger ions efficiently.”

Lithium-ion batteries traditionally rely on graphite as an anode material. However, traditional graphite structures cannot efficiently store sodium or potassium energy, since the atoms are too big and interactions become too complex to slide in and out of graphite’s layers. The cone and disc structures “offer curvature and spacing that welcome sodium and potassium ions without the need for chemical doping (the process of intentionally adding small amounts of specific atoms or molecules to change its properties) or other artificial modifications,” according to the study.

“This is one of the first clear demonstrations of sodium-ion intercalation in pure graphitic materials with such stability,” Atin Pramanik, first author of the study and a postdoctoral associate in Ajayan’s lab, said in the release. “It challenges the belief that pure graphite can’t work with sodium.”

In lab tests, the carbon cones and discs stored about 230 milliamp-hours of charge per gram (mAh/g) by using sodium ions. They still held 151 mAh/g even after 2,000 fast charging cycles. They also worked with potassium-ion batteries.

“We believe this discovery opens up a new design space for battery anodes,” Ajayan added in the release. “Instead of changing the chemistry, we’re changing the shape, and that’s proving to be just as interesting.”

---

This story originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

FAA demands investigation into SpaceX's out-of-control Starship flight

Out of this world

The Federal Aviation Administration is demanding an accident investigation into the out-of-control Starship flight by SpaceX on May 27.

Tuesday's test flight from Texas lasted longer than the previous two failed demos of the world's biggest and most powerful rocket, which ended in flames over the Atlantic. The latest spacecraft made it halfway around the world to the Indian Ocean, but not before going into a spin and breaking apart.

The FAA said Friday that no injuries or public damage were reported.

The first-stage booster — recycled from an earlier flight — also burst apart while descending over the Gulf of Mexico. But that was the result of deliberately extreme testing approved by the FAA in advance.

All wreckage from both sections of the 403-foot (123-meter) rocket came down within the designated hazard zones, according to the FAA.

The FAA will oversee SpaceX's investigation, which is required before another Starship can launch.

CEO Elon Musk said he wants to pick up the pace of Starship test flights, with the ultimate goal of launching them to Mars. NASA needs Starship as the means of landing astronauts on the moon in the next few years.

TMC med-tech company closes $2.5M series A, plans expansion

fresh funding

Insight Surgery, a United Kingdom-based startup that specializes in surgical technology, has raised $2.5 million in a series A round led by New York City-based life sciences investor Nodenza Venture Partners. The company launched its U.S. business in 2023 with the opening of a cleanroom manufacturing facility at Houston’s Texas Medical Center.

The startup says the investment comes on the heels of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granting clearance to the company’s surgical guides for orthopedic surgery. Insight says the fresh capital will support its U.S. expansion, including one new manufacturing facility at an East Coast hospital and another at a West Coast hospital.

Insight says the investment “will provide surgeons with rapid access to sophisticated tools that improve patient outcomes, reduce risk, and expedite recovery.”

Insight’s proprietary digital platform, EmbedMed, digitizes the surgical planning process and allows the rapid design and manufacturing of patient-specific guides for orthopedic surgery.

“Our mission is to make advanced surgical planning tools accessible and scalable across the U.S. healthcare system,” Insight CEO Henry Pinchbeck said in a news release. “This investment allows us to accelerate our plan to enable every orthopedic surgeon in the U.S. to have easy access to personalized surgical devices within surgically meaningful timelines.”

Ross Morton, managing Partner at Nodenza, says Insight’s “disruptive” technology may enable the company to become “the leader in the personalized surgery market.”

The startup recently entered a strategic partnership with Ricoh USA, a provider of information management and digital services for businesses. It also has forged partnerships with the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, University of Chicago Medicine, University of Florida Health and UAB Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama.

View All Listings