How Should We Handle a Sabbatical Request for Baby's Treatment When It's Not in Our Policy?

Sabbatical Leave Request for Employee's Baby Treatment

One of my employees has applied for a sabbatical of up to one year for her baby's treatment and has shifted to Mumbai. She has been working for the last three years in this company. Currently, there are no such options in our HR policy. What points should we really be concerned about?

Legal Implications and HR Policy Considerations

Are there any legal implications if we do not take her back after one year upon request? Or should we ask her to resign since it is not covered in our HR policies? We can later consider if there are still openings available.

Thank you.

If we are supposed to think only in terms of business and, of course, billability, then even we would ask her to resign. However, if we think in terms of human capital and the investment that goes into making a talent billable, we would look for a different approach to this situation.

Employee Performance and Feedback

This employee was hired three years ago. How has her performance been? What has she been working on? What are her reporting manager's feedback?

Consideration for Sabbatical

She needs a sabbatical for a genuine reason. A sabbatical doesn't require you to pay the employee. Hence, it is a low-risk HR process.

Including her after a year might seem a challenge. However, it may not necessarily remain so. If you can allocate her responsibilities internally for a year and take her back into the team at the end of the tenure, you will build employee loyalty at no cost, but with some work arrangements.

Implications on Other Employees

What would be the implications of this on other employees? Yes, there are chances others might apply for education and family reasons. That only opens the door for internal job rotation and cross-training.

Imagine a situation where the employees are pigeon-holed into their roles, offering no option to shuffle. Hence, they are hit by the plateau stage. You might then need to bring in a training consultant and motivate them.

Here, you have a situation that requires no such costs but benefits, if your leadership team is ready to foot in.

Please consider discussing the cost impact and the disciplinary challenges that you may find. Looking forward to hearing from you.