Careers Succeeding at Work Why Your Company Should Offer a Floating Holiday Your Goal Is to Enable Employees to Take Their Floating Holiday Print Felix Hug/ Taxi/ Getty Images Succeeding at Work Human Resources Job Search Resources Hiring Best Practices Glossary Employment Law Employee Motivation Employee Management Management Careers Management & Leadership Employee Benefits Table of Contents Expand What Is a Floating Holiday? Floating Holiday Considerations Specific Decisions Regarding a Floating Holiday The Goal of a Floating Holiday Is for Employees to Use Them By Susan M. Heathfield Susan M. Heathfield Susan Heathfield is an HR and management consultant with an MS degree. She has decades of experience writing about human resources. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on 12/03/19 What Is a Floating Holiday? A floating holiday is a benefit that employers may opt to provide to employees. This coveted benefit is a paid day off or two that are not tied to the typical employer paid holiday schedule for the public and private sectors. The floating holiday provides your employees with another opportunity for flexibility, which is prized by workers of all ages and at all stages of their career. No U.S. laws, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, require employers to provide floating holidays. But there are reasons related to diversity, work-life balance, and employee satisfaction for why you might want to consider offering a floating holiday or two. It's rare to identify such an inexpensive, easy-to-implement benefit that employees appreciate so much. The typically expected paid holidays in the U.S. include civic, religious, and traditional days that a majority of the population celebrates. A floating holiday or two allows employees to take paid time off when their religious and traditional practices don't match the standard holiday schedule or for any other reason that they need the day. For example, a Jewish employee might like to use two floating holidays for Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, or Passover. Without a floating holiday, they would need to take a vacation day or another type of PTO to celebrate these days. You honor the needs of diverse employees when you offer a floating holiday. Even employees who celebrate the usual paid holidays might enjoy using a floating holiday to celebrate a birthday or another annual event such as a family reunion, holiday shopping day, or parent-teacher day. Floating Holiday Considerations If you're thinking about offering a floating holiday, you need to make policies relative to how and when the day may be taken. The way in which employees schedule a floating holiday with their managers is also an issue, as are the requirements of managers to honor these requests. A solid policy would guarantee that the employee could use the time as needed and not have to negotiate. Specific Decisions Regarding a Floating Holiday If you share these decisions when you announce the floating holiday, employees will be less likely to experience confusion, which can reduce the positive impact of the new benefit. When may the employee take the floating holiday? If no time period is specified, the employee may take the paid day off at any time. In this instance, managers need to understand that they must work with their employees to allow them to take the floating holiday when they need it. Like paid vacations, floating holidays are considered wages that the employee has earned. As such, you must pay the employee's floating holiday pay when he or she decides to leave the company. Thus you may want to consider that the time for a floating holiday is accrued or accumulated periodically. Or, in the case of two floating holidays, an employee might earn one every six months. The policy should specify all of these details. You need to decide whether employees can carry over an unused floating holiday to the next calendar year. But, you may also want to note that this is generally not recommended. Either pay them for the time not taken at the end of the year. Or, write the policy so it states that no more floating holiday time may be accrued until the time off already accrued is taken. Track employee accrual and use of floating holidays just as you track any other paid time off. Remember to include this paid time off when paying an employee who leaves the company. Don't consider adopting a use-it-or-lose-it policy, which is illegal in some states where vacation time is considered to be compensation that must be paid out when an employee quits or is fired from their job. The Goal of a Floating Holiday Is for Employees to Use Them Your goal with a floating holiday is to extend a benefit to employees that they need and want. Taking it away is not true to the spirit or goals of your provision. Why cause needless employee grumbling? Always consider the consequences. Blackouts, during which employees cannot take their floating holidays, are a mistake for the same reason. They usually occur during the same time periods when an employee is most likely to want to take his or her floating holiday—especially during the long November-December holiday season. Think of a floating holiday as another way you can inexpensively punch up your company's employee benefits package. It's a morale booster that's appreciated by employees when the policy is implemented correctly with clear, written policies in place.