{"id":781,"date":"2023-09-01T15:30:38","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T19:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.attendancebot.com\/blog\/?p=781"},"modified":"2025-06-17T14:14:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T18:14:01","slug":"types-of-leaves-leave-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.attendancebot.com\/blog\/types-of-leaves-leave-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Types of Leaves Every Company Should Offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A comprehensive leave policy can be a game-changer regarding employee satisfaction and retention. Many organizations may think that outlining paid leave days and public holidays is sufficient, but there\u2019s much more to it. Candidates frequently inquire about leave policies<\/strong><\/a> during the recruitment process, wanting clarity on the types of leave available for various personal and professional needs. In this article, we\u2019ll explore the ten essential types of leaves every company should consider incorporating into their leave policy to foster a supportive work environment and enhance employee well-being.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why You Need a Leave Policy in Your Company<\/span><\/h2>\n

A leave policy helps you define the number of leaves your employees have, the types of leaves that they are eligible for, and how to apply for leaves. With a leave policy, you can give them assurance that you will provide them with the essential time off to take care of any issues they have or take time off to vacation, recover from an illness, celebrate their festivals, deal with life events, or simply relax.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read about how to create a leave policy and manage your leaves.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Here are 10 types of leaves you need to accommodate within your leave policy:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Sick leave<\/span><\/h2>\n

Sick leave is time off given by the company to allow employees to recover from an illness and take care of their health. Sick leaves are crucial incentive to allow employees to get the rest they need without worrying about losing pay – most companies recognize the economic value of disincentivizing contagion and extended illness, let alone benefits to hiring and retention. Sick leave is also a mandatory requirement in many countries to ensure employee well-being.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The US does not federally require paid sick leave, but for companies subject to FMLA, there is a minimum 12-week unpaid<\/em> sick leave. Additionally, many states have their own paid sick leave requirements, and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that nearly 80% of the private sector offers some form of paid sick leave, typically around an hour per 30 hours worked.<\/span><\/p>\n

In India employee are entitled to 12 sick days per year without carry over, with Canada and Australia guaranteeing 10 days without carry over, and countries like Sweden, Britain, or France guaranteeing much longer paid sick time at less than 100% of wages.\u00a0<\/span>In these and most countries sick leave does not accumulate and expires each year, but check if any regions you operate in have sick leave that carries over year to year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of company policy, it’s important you urge employees to take the day off if they are sick.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Types<\/p>\n

2. Casual leave<\/span><\/h2>\n

Casual leave is most common outside the US, and is taken by an employee for travel, vacation, rest, and family events. Such leaves are given to allow employees to take time off for life events or personal reasons like traveling to another country or weddings they have to attend. Providing paid casual leave allows employees to prioritize their private life when required, helping them feel appreciated and balanced.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the US casual leave is typically replaced by a broader paid time off (PTO) umbrella for vacation and personal time, but elsewhere casual leave is set aside specifically, typically for a maximum of 8 to 15 days a year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Set<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Public holidays<\/span><\/h2>\n

Public holidays are days set aside by the government. While these days are typically targeted for government workers, they are often observed by so many other institutions \u2014 schools, banks, agencies – that private companies find it most convenient to recognize them as well<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Importantly, public holidays can be handled in two way: mandate or floating holidays. Mandatory holidays typically don’t subtract from leave balances, but are sometimes folded in as extra accrued days which must be deducted. Floating holidays are a more modern approach, which creates a set bank of days which can be taken anywhere as long as they’re planned in advance. This provides flexibility for employees to build their own holiday schedule and prioritize the holidays important to them, for example if they don’t celebrate Christmas. This flexibility is an important benefit for employees, though there are pros and cons to having a less homogenous schedule for your company – benefits may include better customer coverage during busy season, while downsides might include harder-to-predict schedules and work flow.<\/span><\/p>\n

For official US holidays check the US Department of Commerce<\/a>, which lists the dates of major holidays you should be familiar with like Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veteran’s day, and the relatively newer Juneteenth, among others. Every country has their own list, and some – like India – may have a different list depending on the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

4. Religious holidays<\/span><\/h2>\n

Christmas, Eid, Easter, Holi, Yom Kippur\u2014 your employee is sure to place great importance on the religious holidays they celebrate and want the day off to spend time with their family and observe rights or rituals. In the US, these holidays will likely fall under other categories of leave like casual or public holidays, but elsewhere it’s common to explicitly accommodate religious holidays and festivals. If your workforce is large enough and multinational enough, it may make sense to formalize these holiday calendars each year to provide better structure and planning, without waiting on individuals to set each calendar.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Parental leave<\/span><\/h2>\n

Depending on where in the world you are, parental leave might be one universal policy or split between separate maternity and paternity leave policies.<\/p>\n

Maternity Leave<\/h3>\n

Between recovering from delivery, learning to nurse or feed a newborn, adjusting to the daily rhythm of a new human, or just coping with sleep deprivation, maternity leave is crucial for new mothers, and accommodating this type of leave is good for everyone involved: employees get to prioritize their new child and mental health while employers avoid grinding down and tired employee or pushing them out the door. Maternity leave also helps streamline administrative process for new mothers who may deal with postnatal complications.<\/span><\/p>\n

While maternity leave is only officially covered by FMLA policy in the US (covering 12 weeks of unpaid leave), as with sick leave many states have their own regulations for paid leave and employers typically recognize the business logic for offering maternity leave even without regulation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Outside the US, maternity leave almost universally more generously guaranteed. See below for a breakdown of paid maternity leave among major developed countries – even growing developing powerhouses like India provide 6 months of maternity leave at minimum, though 3 months is a more common global trend.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Types<\/p>\n

Paternity Leave<\/h3>\n

Paternity leave is granted to new fathers\u2014\u00a0 husbands or partners of a pregnant woman, surrogate parents, or those who have adopted a child\u2014 to take care of their newborns during the crucial early stages of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike maternity leave, paternity leave is much less commonly or generously guaranteed, with new fathers usually getting 2 weeks of leave to take care of their child post-delivery. In the US paternity leave is not guaranteed, but rather covered by aforementioned FMLA, whereas in countries like Sweden, modern policies have developed to allow for shared “banks” of parental leave which parents themselves can alot between maternity and paternity (480 days in Sweden).<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike maternity leave, companies are much less likely to provide paternity leave with regulation, resulting from a confluence of gender norms, pay gaps, and cultural practices. This said, the importance of paternity leave has been growing quickly and businesses are just beginning to recognize the the real benefits of allowing new fathers to focus on early weeks of newborn life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Bereavement leave<\/span><\/h2>\n

Losing a loved one is an unavoidable situation and in such events, employees will often take sudden leave regardless of policy. As HR, it pays to include a bereavement leave policy that provides employees with the time to grieve loss and manage responsibilities associated with death, without forcing them to draw down personal days.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most HRs give employees 3 to 7 days of bereavement per year, often dependent on the closeness of the relative. If you aren\u2019t sure how to create a bereavement leave policy, <\/span>you can read our full guide here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Types<\/a><\/p>\n

7. Compensatory leave and time off in lieu (TOIL)<\/span><\/h2>\n

Compensatory leave<\/a> – often shortened to “comp off” or “TOIL” – is an essential piece of the HR toolkit for employees who work infrequent or irregular overtime. While the US mandates overtime pay for nonexempt employees, US companies and especially multinationals may implement TOIL policies to handle US exempt overtime or international overtime which employers prefer not to pay for economic or cultural reason. In these cases, employees who have clocked more hours than required by law or policy are eligible to receive additional time off in lieu of overtime pay, or compensatory days off.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These policies are typically a huge win for employers, who avoid costly overtime pay, and employees, who are able to reclaim or “bank” extra hours from one week by working less in a future week. Even for companies not obligated to pay overtime, as for exempt US employees, TOIL can be an important strategic tool for many reasons:<\/p>\n