Management clinic - sabbaticals: Big break

An employee wants to take three months off work to travel but there are no provisions with regard to extended breaks in their employment contract. While the employee has one month of holiday entitlement to use, the other two months won't be covered. What can I do?

It is the sign of a good employer to consider allowing periods of unpaid leave for the purposes of allowing good employees to go travelling or take a career break. This form of unpaid leave is usually called a sabbatical and can be an effective staff retention strategy.

Sabbaticals allow employers to keep valuable, committed employees within their workforce who might otherwise leave to travel and then find alternative employment upon their return. An employer does not need to have a specific