Paper | ppt |

Presentation 2024/06/22 pm.

(Abstract)

My study is about a typical small/medium sized Taiwanese company. Let’s call it Company A.

Company A wants to retain employees because Taiwan’s population is aging, and there’s a severe labor shortage. Because of this, Company A’s managers want employees to be physically and mentally healthy.

For Company A, it would be best if all its employees had good work-life balance. It’s hard to know what is going on in the lives of every employee, but Company A knows how many days of paid leave everyone is using. Managers at Company A use this data as a indicator of how well employees are doing in terms of work-life balance.

Recently, they’ve noticed a worrying trend: employees are taking less time off since the 2016 Labor Standards Act and the COVID-19 pandemic.

This decline in taking paid leave is concerning. The study looks into possible reasons for this trend and suggests ways to encourage more time off by examining company records and interviewing employees.

Surveys revealed that most employees need more family-focused leisure time, which could motivate them to use their leave.

These findings not only help Company A but also provide insights for other employers in Taiwan in terms of encouraging paid leave usage.

(1. Research Background)

Firstly, let’s cover some background. In 2016, Taiwan revised the Labor Standards Act to ensure all employees have 2-day weekends and 21 national holidays, totaling 125 holidays per year. Additionally, employees get 7 to 30 days of seniority-based holidays, meaning they have 132-155 paid holidays annually.

Typically, companies see a stable rate of employees taking paid leave. However, the COVID-19 pandemic changed things.

More people were working from home and avoiding crowded places. This affected holiday usage. Another factor is the government’s rule that companies must pay extra wages for unused holidays. Post-pandemic, social activities resumed, leading to “revenge tourism,” where people take lots of time off. But at Company A, the opposite happened. Employees took less time off in 2023 than ever before.

Why?

Employees decide when to use paid leave. It’s a reflection of their work-life balance. Company A’s leave usage rate was around 70% but dropped to less than 50% in 2023. This is not good. HR found that 2016 was a key turning point. Data shows: Before 2016, the leave usage rate was about 70%. It has declined annually to below 50% by 2023. Before 2016, around 35% of employees used all their leave, but after 2016, only about 15% did. The decline started before the pandemic but wasn’t noticed until COVID-19 highlighted the issue. There are several possible factors: Heavy workload and limited labor force at Company A, making employees reluctant or unable to take leave.

The 2016 Labor Standards Act revision, where unused leave earns extra salary, possibly incentivizing employees to forego leave for additional pay. So, how can Company A encourage employees to take more time off?

(2. Case Background)

Company A was established in 1959. Its main business is selling lubricants. Over the past 65 years, Taiwan’s industrial development has promoted its steady growth.

Selling lubricants requires specialist knowledge that comes with expensive training and experience. Company A therefore wants to retain staff as much as possible.

To achieve this, Company A offers competitive wages and tries to create a good environment. In the past, it has organized many types of events for employees, including large annual gatherings where the whole company could socialize face to face.

However, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly ended these traditions.

(3. Problem Analysis)

After the epidemic, Company A wanted to resume these social activities. However, considering the declining utilization rate of paid leave, the managers wanted to make some improvements.

Therefore, a deeper understanding of employees' current needs and how they use their paid leave was required.

HR found that employee leave can be divided into two categories:

1. Proactively planned leave
   This is the type of leave where people plan in advance. For example, they plan to travel, or take their children to exams.

B.Unexpected Leave
This is the kind of leave which employees take in order to deal with unexpected situations. For example, accompanying family members to doctor’s appointments, or to deal with emergency home repairs.

It was also discovered during the interviews that proactively planned leave can be further subdivided into three subcategories:

1.Personal leisure: such as dating, or shopping.
2.Family events: such as reunions or trips with children.
3.Study: such as taking art courses.

Most employees at Company A need family time.
It’s one of the most common reasons for taking paid leave.

(4. Proposed solution)

Since employees most commonly take paid leave to spend time with their family, Company A’s events could leverage this need to encourage them to take more time off.

However, the type of leisure activity required by employees is different depending on how old their kids are.

It’s suggested that Company A could classify children into three age groups:
1. 1-15 years old
2. 15-25 years old
3. And over 25 years old

The company could then make custom proposals for activities based on the needs of different ages.

If you take a look at Table 3: these are activity plans based on this system of categorization.

Company A could organize and financially subsidize family-oriented activities to encourage employees to use their paid holiday.

(5. Conclusion)

In conclusion, the continually decreasing usage of paid leave at Company A is very concerning. It could lead to a decrease in employee satisfaction with their work environment, and poor work-life balance.

Since Company A has no control over external factors, the HR department could instead incentivize employees to take time off by organizing and subsidizing family-oriented activities which suit their needs the most.

Further Research Possibilities:

1.Paid Leave and Children: Study the link between employees’ children’s ages and their leave usage, with consent for collecting personal data.

2.Paid Leave and the Elderly: Taiwan is an aging society. Not everyone has children, but almost everyone has parents. Research could explore if employees need more support for eldercare activities.

3.Labor Policies: Evaluate if government policies, like extra pay for unused leave, motivate or discourage taking time off. Surveys could measure the impact of these policies.

4.Seniority and Paid Leave: Investigate if senior employees use their benefits more or less. Company data could reveal trends in this area.

pp0-Abstract

pp1-Research Background

pp2-Case Background

pp3-Problem Analysis

pp4-Proposed Solution

pp5-Conclusion