With the new age of employee awareness and HR transformation, companies across India are providing new and unique kinds of leaves, all in order to attract and retain their top talent.
From some companies removing the cap on how many leaves their employees can take, to others promoting mental health days, new forms of leaves have become a huge part of a company’s selling point as a place to work.
While the types of leaves that companies can provide are varied and only limited by human imagination and employer capabilities, some have gained much popularity in India over the years.
Paid Time Off
According to the Shops and Establishments Act, companies are legally bound to give all their employees 15 annual leaves after they complete working for one year. Depending on the state, companies also have to provide 8- 12 days of sick and casual leave. However, a significant number of companies in India provide paid/earned leaves that surpass their legal obligations.
Company in Action: Accenture India, one of the biggest employers in the country, provides earned leaves to its employees depending on the location. Employees in Noida get a total of 40 leaves, those in Indore get 45, while Bangalore workers get 30 days off in a year.
“In our new leave structure, you can take small and big time-offs – for everything from running a small errand to attending your child’s recital to taking longer time off to care for a loved one or climb that mountain you’ve been training for,” Lakshmi Chandrasekharan, Managing Director and HR Lead of Accenture India, shared.
Menstrual Leaves
With women becoming a prevalent part of the workforce by the day, menstrual leaves have become one of the most common new-age leave policies. Many companies have started to offer one day off every month, or work-from-home options, to their female employees.
Company in Action: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is one of the latest companies to offer menstrual leaves to its female employees. For International Women’s Day 2025, S N Subrahmanyan, the Chairman and Managing Director of L&T, announced that its female employees will be given one day of menstrual leave every month.
Mental Health Days
Sick days may be mandated by law, but they only cover physical ailments. Keeping the importance of mental health in mind, some companies now offer their employees paid mental health days.
Company in Action: In 2020, amidst the rising stress due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Urban Company announced its unlimited sick leave policy, highlighting that this includes days needed to recover one’s mental health.
“These are anxiety-prone and sensitive times. Mental Health is one aspect of human well-being about which people have very little understanding in not only identifying the symptoms but also in helping another person suffering from it. Mental health treatment and psychological consultations continue to be expensive. Therefore, through such initiatives, Urban Company is not only trying to foster employee health, but also create an environment where people feel safe to talk about mental health issues,” said Suhail Vadgaokar, Director HR at Urban Company.
Even today, Urban Company states that it provides “generous mental health leaves” to its employees as per their needs.
Unlimited Paid Time Off
With unlimited paid time off (PTO) in play, employees can use as many leave days as they want, as per their manager’s approval and team needs. While the policies surrounding how one can avail these leaves may vary from company to company, the bottom line remains the same: no more pay deductions for going on leave.
Company in Action: Under the umbrella of “uncapped leaves,” MakeMyTrip has no restrictions on how many leaves their employees can take. According to the company, this policy is a testament of the trust and flexibility afforded to their workforce.
“We created an uncapped leave policy under which managers can approve as much leave as you need. During the pandemic, it helped us, and we did not get into a compliance issue. Incidentally, it was not misused and reaffirmed that employees want to work,” Yuvaraj Srivastava, the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) of MakeMyTrip, shared with Moneycontrol.
Paternity Leave
While maternity leaves are mandated by law in India, the same does not hold true for expecting/new fathers. With the changing family structures in India, though, fathers have started to become more and more involved in the child-rearing process, leading to a demand for paternity leaves.
Company in Action: Since June of 2019, Zomato has been providing a 26 week leave to all of its employees who are going to welcome children into their family. This includes both expecting mothers and fathers, even in the cases of non-birthing parents.
“I believe that young parents should be able to make a choice of how to care for their children. And that a myopic view of primary care-giving not only alienates one half of our workforce, but also creates circumstances that lead to fewer female leaders within organisations, the community and the nation,” Deepinder Goyal, the CEO of Zomato, shared.
Birthday Leave
It’s that day of the year, and even your company has given you the day off to celebrate! Birthday leaves, while not as common as some other types of leaves in this list, are still gaining popularity.
Company in Action: Praxis Home Retail, a leading retail company based in Mumbai, gives their employees birthday leaves. as a part of their “My Day” policy. The leave needs to be approved by the employee’s manager and has been in effect since June 2018.
As per Praxis Home Retail, the objective of the “My Day” policy is “to encourage employees to take time off and spend it with their loved ones on their birthdays, in case it falls on a working day.”
What to consider when creating a leave policy
Creating a new type of leave policy for your company can sound like a fun idea. However, when coming up with the ideas, there are certain factors that should always been kept in mind to create an effective and usable leave policy.
- Demand: Create a leave for the people, by the people. Ask employees what kind of leaves they want to have and why. Understand their needs to create a truly effective policy.
- Practicality: Unique or not, every leave policy should be practical enough that employees get a chance to actually use it. Ask yourself if this is a leave that employees can actually use.
- Reason of Distinction: For some new leave policies, one might ask why it needs to be separated from the wider umbrella of paid leaves. So why the distinction? Be ready to answer this when creating a new type of leave for your company.
- Legal Compliance: Make sure that the leave policy you are putting in place complies with the laws in place. Check the national and state laws pertaining to mandatory leaves in your area.
- Expected Frequency: Consider how many times employees should be able to avail a certain type of leave and why. The frequency of these leaves is important to consider when balancing off days with working ones.
How to implement a new leave policy
Any leave policy should be implemented with extreme care to make it practical and usable. From information distribution to employee feedback, the HR and leadership must take proper steps for effective implementation.
- Define Objectives and Parameters: Any leave policy is only as effective as its parameters. Be precise in how one can apply for a leave, what qualifies them for it, and the limitations that it carries. The policy should be legally compliant to be truly functional.
- Integrate with the existing framework: Make sure that you integrate the new policy with the Human Resource Management System (HRMS) that your company is using. This will make sure that the employees can make use of the policy as soon as possible after the official launch.
- Announce the Policy and Reasons: When announcing a new leave policy, be clear in informing the employees about who can avail this type of leave, when they can do so, and how. State the reasons behind the management’s decision to endorse this policy.
- Monitor, Review, and Adapt: Once the leave policy is implemented, monitor its usage. Ask your employees about what they think of the new policy. Based on the numbers and suggestions, keep an open mind about making future changes.
In the End…
Not mandated by law and varying by the company, these new types of leaves are intrinsically related to an employee’s personal lives. By implementing such leaves, company show to their employees that they care about them more than what is minimally required by the law.
In many cases, these leaves are about providing equal opportunities to people from all walks of lives, irrespective of their gender or personal situations. In other cases, it is about celebrating the little things to ensure that employees feel fulfilled in both their personal and professional lives.