Taking time off from advertising: Sabbaticals help retention

Workforce, April, 2002 by Frank Jossi

The advertising agency Fallon Worldwide boasts a long list of blue-chip clients, numerous awards for clever commercials, and a young staff accustomed to long hours and a near religious devotion to their craft. Realizing that burnout and flagging creativity could eventually hurt the agency, Fallon unveiled the program Dreamcatchers last year to offer time and money to staff members who have a project or a trip they want to pursue.

To get the program moving, the agency--whose clients include BMW, United Airlines, EDS, Starbucks, Nikon, and Timex--allows employees to participate as long as they have worked at least three years at Fallon. More than 50 employees so far have chased dreams that have taken them to writing novels, kayaking coastal Chile, and running with the bulls in Spain. Nearly half of the agency's 500 employees have signed up for the program, which matches employee contributions of up to $1,000 annually for two years and offers up to two extra paid weeks of vacation.

Company records manager Jen Jagielski seized an opportunity to take a two-week motorcycle trip through the Alps with her husband. "I worked at other companies where you were there to produce outcome," she says. "Here they're not only interested in output but in your physical and mental well-being."

Because of the economic downturn, Fallon has temporarily put Dreamcatchers on hold. Employees in the program will continue to receive matching contributions and time off, but no new enrollees will be admitted. Fred Senn, the agency partner who led the drive to create Dreamcatchers, wants to reopen it as soon as possible. "It's helped our retention, without a doubt, and our recruiting," he says. "What we notice is they [employees] come back gratefully refreshed, and that's all we want.

"Because we're a firm that lives by its wits, creativity is what we must deliver to the marketplace, and we are always looking for ways to allow people to do their best work and to create cultural energy," he says. "Young people today really want and need a creative outlet. People get out of college with dreams and they buckle up into work and never get to them. Getting to your dreams is important."

Though Sean says the program is unique in the advertising industry, American companies have long offered sabbaticals, mimicking what colleges and universities have given faculty for generations. Not everyone is sold on the concept, however. "The one downside is people sometimes use sabbaticals to look for new jobs, so their companies are, in effect, paying them to look for a new job," says Mitch Potter, an attraction and retention specialist with William M. Mercer, Inc., in Minneapolis.

On the other hand, Potter says, sabbatical programs are low in cost and effective in recruiting. Fallon says that Dreamcatchers costs less than 1 percent of payroll, a genuine bargain considering the universally favorable results. "I can't imagine anyone in the knowledge business or service business that doesn't need a loyal and energized workforce today," Senn notes. "Having this kind of program is one way to do it."