As Adam mentioned in his blog, Virgin Group recently unveiled a new company policy that allows employees to take “unlimited” vacation days, meaning vacation days are not numbered. Virgin’s founder, Richard Branson, admitted he got the idea from Netflix, another company that has done away with vacation days. Branson wrote that an employee may take a vacation if they feel that they are up to date with their work and that their absence would not harm the company, or their career. As Adam said, this policy will hopefully encourage relationships of trust between employees and managers.

However, this policy isn’t just to build healthy relationships in the workplace; it also may increase efficiency of Virgin Group employees. Employees now have an incentive to finish their work faster to have more vacation time. On the other hand, many people think this will cause employees to take less vacation time for fear of losing their job. Either way, Virgin Group will profit from more efficient employees or employees working more.

Another company that comes to mind when double-sided incentives are mentioned is Google. Google offices are known for being wildly creative in their layout as well as what they offer. Many offices offer subsidized massages, free eyebrow shaping, free pilates and yoga classes as well as numerous other benefits. Some of these things may seem slightly unnecessary, but consider the time employees would spend going somewhere else for these services. Instead, employees are spending all of this time at work, where they are still thinking of work and interacting with co-workers. This leads to increased activity at work and ultimately increases the output of the workers. Employee benefits and incentives are often overlooked and seen as added costs but they boost productivity in a big way.