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A third of companies offer employees guaranteed or discretionary paid leave to get married while 4 in 10 (42 per cent) give paid time off for moving house.
These are the results of a survey of over 250 UK organisations by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
On average, in addition to normal holiday entitlement staff are given two days’ leave for marriage and one day to move house.
More prevalent is additional paid leave for family emergencies.
Over half (56 per cent) of the companies surveyed give guaranteed time off for a death in the family while the rest (44 per cent) operate their policy on a discretionary basis.
In cases of serious family illness, a fifth (20 per cent) of companies provide paid leave automatically and more than half (55 per cent) do so at management’s discretion. In both instances of family emergencies, employees are entitled to up to five days off work.
David Wreford, European principal at Mercer, said: "Companies are only legally obliged to offer unpaid leave for family emergencies. Generous entitlements are often used as a retention tool and to show staff the firm is willing to be flexible."
Of the organisations surveyed, only 6 per cent allow staff to take time off to go on a sabbatical.
By Ben Willmott
