Reference no: EM13188492

Textbook: Strategic Compensation (Sixth Edition) by Joseph J Martocchio
Chapter 9 Case 
Time off at superior software services.
As she hangs up the telephone, joan Jackson realizes that she needs to consider changing her company's time-off policies. She just received a call from an employee reporting off work because he is sick. This is the second employee on the same project team to call off this week and the unscheduled absence will likely cause a delay in meeting the project deadline.
Joan, the president of Superior Software Services, is proud that her company has earned a reputation for providing high-quality software solutions. Superior recruits and retains to software engineers and also an impressive administrative staff. However, even with a talented staff, Joan is concerned about the company's ongoing ability to meet project deadlines.
Over the past few months, unscheduled absences have caused Superior to delay the delivery of software products to a few clients, when a staff member calls in to take a sick day without prior notice, shifting employees to cover the work in order to meet a deadline is difficult. Joan believes Superior's time off policies may be causing some of their problem. 
Superior offers employee 7 vacation days and 5 sick days each year. The company has a policy that employees may use sick days only for illness or emergencies. Employees may not schedule sick days in advance. Vacation days are scheduled at the beginning of the year. Employees receive approval of their requested vacation days on a seniority basis, so most employees designate the days they will take their vacation within the first few weeks of a new year so they are able to effectively plan vacation travel.
Joan believes Superior's current time off policy creates an incentive for employees to call off at the last minute. She has learned from supervisors that many employees use their sick days to take care of personal business such as attending parent-teach conference or running personal errands. These are often events that could be pre-scheduled time off, but employees do not feel that have a time off option to address such needs. Sick days can not be prescheduled and vacation days are often already committed at the beginning of the year.
Joan believes that changing the time off policies could reduce the number of unscheduled absences bu t she is not sure if her idea will address her concerns. She is considering reokacing the current vacation/sick days allowance with a paid time off (PTO) bank. They would be permitted to schedule preferred days off at the beginning at the beginning of the year so that they can make vacation travel plans. But, the remaining days, could be scheduled ahead of time to take care of personal business. Joan believes this change will encourage employees to schedule their time off in advance when possible. With advance notice of absences, supervisor will be better able to plan projects and meet deadline.
Question
1. Do you think changing Supervisor's time off policies will decrease unscheduled time off?
2. Beyond reducing occurrences of unscheduled time off, are there any other benefits to offering PTO?
3. Are there any disadvantages to offering PTI?