Global HR platform Deel has just launched a new editorial initiative, Deel Works, with a rather revealing study about employee behavior around paid time off in different regions. The knowledge hub, designed to deliver rigorous insights into the future of work, debuts with research led by Deel’s newly appointed economist Lauren Thomas. The first study—based on 159,000 approved time-off requests from over 17,000 employees—highlights a dramatic divide between how North American and European workers take time off.
The data indicates that European workers take a median of 23.5 days off annually, while North Americans average just 14 days – with Canadians taking the fewest days of all. Surprisingly, the research found that unlimited PTO policies – more common in North America – don’t translate to more days off. Even as North American employees became two-thirds more likely to have unlimited PTO, they take roughly the same amount of time off regardless of whether their leave is fixed or unlimited. In contrast, unlimited-leave Europeans take about four extra days off compared with those on fixed leave.
Deel’s research points to a greater truth: flexible policies aren’t enough themselves. Unless there’s a supportive culture-one that encourages employees to take time off-policies fall short of their intended benefits. Alice Burks, Director of People Success at Deel, highlighted that “the most flexible PTO policy imaginable fails without implicit or explicit permission to take it,” and that HR strategies need to be culturally consistent.
Impact on the Human Resources Industry
- Rethinking PTO Policy Design and Measurement
The HR leader community has discussed the pros and cons of unlimited versus fixed PTO for some time, but Deel seems to indicate that policy design without reinforcement through culture may not be particularly effective. Offering unlimited PTO means little if employees are too afraid or hesitant to take it-a trend backed up by broader research highlighting many employees taking minimal time off due to pressure from their workloads or fearing perception issues.
For HR professionals, that means moving from a ‘benefits’ mindset to a ‘behaviour’ one: designing PTO policies that are generous on paper but also aligned with managerial practices, performance expectations, and social norms that actually encourage employees to unplug.
- Changing Culture: An HR Priority
The study reveals how culture trumps policy in many companies: “Where leadership tacitly discourages taking time off-a tacit expectation, or one baked into operational design-employees will take fewer days, even when unlimited PTO exists.” For this reason, HR leaders have to invest in manager training, monitoring actual PTO use, and verifying that policies are culturally internalized and endorsed by leadership.
- Evidence-Based HR Strategy
The Deel Works hub-back by real time-off data-points to an evolution in HR: corporate strategy informed by large, real-world datasets rather than assumptions or small surveys. By making workforce data more accessible and actionable, HR functions can make better, evidence-based decisions about workforce wellbeing, talent retention, and productivity.
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Broader Business Impacts
Workforce Well-being and Productivity
PTO usage understood and addressed by organizations is likely to result in better employee well-being with lower burnout. Research across industries shows that employees who take regular time off are often more engaged, more productive, and less likely to quit.
Competitive Talent Strategy
As competition for talent increases, companies offering both meaningful PTO and a supportive culture may have the competitive edge. Work-life balance is becoming more important to jobseekers, and public data on effective use of PTO enhances positive employer branding to help attract the best talent.
Operational Efficiency and Planning
Understanding the trends in PTO will help the business in planning for staffing, maintaining continuity, and structuring work to avoid bottlenecks during peak periods of leave. Those companies that proactively track and accommodate time-off patterns will be able to manage coverage and service delivery a great deal more effectively.
Regional and Cultural Variations within Multinational Firms
Deel’s findings put a strong emphasis on ensuring that multinational companies will have to revise and tailor human resources policies to local norms. Attention to PTO and work flexibility cannot be one-size-fits-all across Europe, North America, Asia, or any other region. HR teams need to balance global consistency with localized policies and procedures reflecting expectations about leave and work-life balance.
Conclusion
With the release of its new editorial hub, Deel Works, and its first-ever PTO research, Deel sheds light on many more regional nuances-and why policy alone simply can’t change outcomes. For HR leaders, it puts a premium on culture-centered, data-driven approaches toward workforce wellbeing. Embracing these insights will enable businesses to better retain talent, boost productivity, and drive competitiveness in a world of work that’s becoming decidedly flexible and global. As the nature of workplaces continues to change, such tools and research as Deel Works may prove indispensable for HR teams to understand the shifting dynamics that occur among policy, practice, and employee experience.
