It is safe to say that the chaos caused by the extreme weather conditions in February took much of the lustre off 2008’s first Golden Week for thousands of people – many of you included I would imagine. Spending hours waiting for trains that never came or being stranded in freezing conditions hundreds of kilometers from home, will have caused many people to return to work in greater need of a holiday than before they left. However, as extreme as the weather conditions were, the events of Spring Festival 2008 showed that the Golden Week system is far from perfect and that we may need other options in terms of time off for our employees.
Golden Week
The first Golden Week took place in October 1999 and proved a raging success. Over 28 million people traveled over the National Day period generating $1.6billion in revenue. Since then though, the holidays have grown in scope with current estimates suggesting that a staggering 120 million people are on the move for each holiday. Over the past eight years, this has generated over $70billion, but at the same time, has placed the nation’s transport infrastructure under increased stress.
Wang Zhifa of the National Tourism Administration last year told reporters, “The quality of people's travelling experiences has been negatively influenced during the past six years due to contradictions between consumer demands and service capacity." It was for this reason that, at the end of 2007, the Chinese government opted to change the Golden Week schedule.
The May Day holiday was shortened and both Tomb Sweeping Day and the Dragon Boat Festival were added to the plan. Even before the chaos this year, many Chinese were keen to modify the holiday system to make travel over those periods easier. Online surveys from sohu.com, xinhua.net and sina.com all found a growing demand for change. Almost 200,000 people responded to the sina.com survey, which found that nearly 75% of respondents were in favour of increasing the number of statutory holidays from 10 to 11. A further 62% of respondents were keen on the new changes that came into effect this year.
Taking a time outIt is clear that holiday time is an important issue for Chinese employees - it is hard to argue with as emphatic a statistic as the 120million people who are traveling during the Golden Weeks. However, currently, too many HR professionals fail to realise this. They are happy to offer a few days of annual vacation and to leave the arrangements for national holidays to the government. No one seems to be questioning if they could do more and offer benefits that their staff would genuinely cherish. Yet, there are alternatives that would dazzle your employees.The sabbatical is the type of benefit that organisations across the globe all too often overlook. An article last in year in Business Week reported that less than 5% of major multinational organisations have established programs in place. This is a major mistake, particularly in China. Therefore, Network HR thought we should introduce the sabbatical to you. Let’s begin with two key questions:
(i) What is a sabbatical?
(ii) Why are they perfect for China?
A sabbatical is a period of paid leave taken to pursue personal interests. Sabbaticals are excellent benefits for Chinese staff because they are an alternative to the Golden Weeks, providing your staff with time to travel and explore personal interests. Below are two examples of how major multinationals have implemented sabbatical plans.
Nike: World-renowned sportswear producer Nike is famed for some of its creative and lucrative benefits, such as comprehensive health insurance and employee discounts. However, the jewel in its benefits crown is its sabbaticals package. The longer employees stay with Nike, the longer they are entitled to as part of their sabbatical. For instance, those staying over ten years are entitled to five weeks paid leave on top of statutory holidays and annual leave.
Intel: The US computing pioneers are also keen to offer their staff groundbreaking benefits. On a global level, employees are entitled to an eight-week sabbatical every seven years. In China, employees are entitled to a minimum of 12 days of annual leave, which increases depending upon their length of service to the company.
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I believe I can bring the War for Talent to a peaceful end. I came to this realisation two
months ago after I was invited to present at the ‘Corporate Travel and Technology
World' conference in Shanghai. The topic, "Selecting Potential Leaders and Turning a Company from Good to Great", was
provided some months earlier, giving me time to source opinions from
around China. Read More
