Starting a new job is an exciting transition, but for many workers, the period between giving notice to a former employer — which often prompts a hectic cascade of offboarding tasks — and beginning work for a new one can perpetuate burnout from one job to the next.
Nearly 70% of female U.S. workers, and 52% of their male counterparts, reported feeling burned out at work, according to
And with some employees starting new jobs before they’ve had a chance to recover from burnout at their old ones, one company is focused on making sure its new
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SevenRooms, a CRM platform that equips hospitality businesses with data to create personalized customer experiences, is creating a new approach to onboarding with its Fresh Start program. The initiative aims to tackle employee burnout by offering the first two weeks of employment as paid time off.
During these two weeks, employees are free to pursue whatever is meaningful to them. That could be a hobby, traveling, or simply relaxing and spending time with family — the choice is up to each individual.
“I spent a lot of time reading different articles about the Great Resignation and people feeling burned out,” says Paul McCarthy, SevenRooms’ chief people officer. “[I started] thinking about what really matters. What do people really care about?”
McCarthy says he resonated with accounts of what people lost out on during the pandemic, as people were temporarily forced to give up social gatherings and travel. These stories helped him realize that what people were craving most were the time and experiences the pandemic had stolen from them.
As he talked with current employees and candidates, McCarthy says he often heard people expressing the desire to take two or three months off. While he couldn’t give them that, he says he started thinking about how he could help them make up for what they’d lost over the past two years — and that’s where Fresh Start came in.
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“It was a message we could send to people,” says McCarthy. “We know that you haven't had a chance to see the people that you want to see, to invest in yourself and take a class or go to a gym or do a photography tour. During the interview process, we heard a lot of amazing things from people about what they would do.”
McCarthy also wanted to eliminate the financial barrier of taking time off by ensuring the Fresh Start program is fully paid. This way, employees can take full advantage of that time without worrying about covering expenses.
One of SevenRooms’ newest hires, Alana Steinberg, used her Fresh Start time to receive a wine sommelier certification that she’d had her eye on for a while, but had struggled to fit into her previous schedule.
Steinberg says she viewed the two weeks as a gift from the company. With the security of having a paycheck, she didn’t have to worry about dipping into savings or budgeting her spending. Instead, she chose to put that money towards the course. When she wasn’t learning about wines, she visited family and toured New York City.
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“Fresh Start gave me that opportunity to reset, catch up on sleep, and feel ready to go once I started this job,” she says. “It [allowed me] to feel completely prepared and not bogged down by external things that I still needed to deal with, or the stress of rolling off another job.”
After accepting an offer, a new employee determines two dates: their date of hire, and the date they’ll start work. The date of hire commences the employees two weeks of Fresh Start PTO. During this time, the employee has full access to SevenRooms’ health benefits so that they don’t have to worry about lapses in care during this period. Two weeks later, on the employee’s start date, their professional responsibilities begin.
Fresh Start is just the latest
“Not only are we giving them the time, but we're also giving them dollars to invest in the things that matter to them,” says McCarthy.
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While McCarthy says it’s still too early to quantify the impact of Fresh Start on the company’s
Fresh Start isn’t about meeting business goals or enticing more people to come on board. Instead, the goal is to show employees their company has their health and well-being top of mind.
“It was conceived because we realized that it was the right thing to do,” McCarthy says. “It was something that people would really appreciate and value.”
