While a request for a six-month paid vacation now may leave most employers laughing, some HR experts believe that in the near future potential executives may expect such a deal as part of their recruiting package.

In Europe, sabbaticals are called August—as Europeans traditionally leave their workplaces in droves—but in the United States, extended leave from work has historically been frowned upon. Most employers see such lengthy time away as a high-risk loss in productivity rather than as part of a solid benefits plan for top executives.

The overwhelming majority of U.S. firms still don’t offer such a program, but many believe that in the not-too-distant future sabbatical leave may become a staple of more benefit plans because of the looming talent shortage and difficulty in retaining key employees.

“You don’t hear about sabbatical programs too often, but we are starting to hear about them more as employers do what they can to keep top talent,” said Mary Lynn Fayoumi, president and CEO of the Management Association of Illinois in Downers Grove. “Employers will have to sweeten the pot to be competitive.”

According to the Society of Human Resource Management only 11 percent of large companies offer paid sabbaticals, while 29 percent offer an unpaid option.

It is hard to find a smaller employer that offers the benefit, as it is more difficult to absorb the loss of a key employee for an extended time period, but as of 2006, 16 percent of small employers and 21 percent of mid-sized companies offered unpaid sabbatical leave, reports SHRM.

Oak Brook-based McDonald’s has included a sabbatical program in its benefits package since the late 1970s. At that time, Jim Quhn, vice president of individuality, initiated the program for employees to avoid burn-out.

The program allows employees to take a paid eight-week sabbatical for every 10 years of service with the company. This benefit is provided to all corporate employees and restaurant managers who work for corporate-owned stores.

Employees have been known to take once-in-a-lifetime trips, engage in personal studies or spend extra time with family. One employee took a 56-day trip that spanned five continents, while another took eight weeks to study the practices of Buddhist monks, said Don Crosby, senior vice president of international and corporate human relations at McDonald’s.

Crosby himself has taken advantage of two sabbaticals in his tenure at the company. His first was for the standard eight-week period, but his second he had built up to 13 weeks.

“My first sabbatical I didn’t really do a lot,” he said. “I worked a lot on my golf game. The second one I took my whole family on a tour of Europe. I also found time to work on my golf game again.”

Crosby said that the experience was very positive and he found that he returned to his job energized and excited to work again.

And while many companies would be hard-pressed to lose key employees for such a long time, McDonald’s officials see the situation as opportunity for the company to help cultivate its future leaders.

“That is the other benefit of the program,” said Crosby. “It allows others to step up and take on more responsibility. It lets other people show what they have got and work on leadership abilities.”

Minneapolis-based M.A. Mortenson Company, with a major presence in Elk Grove Village, offers a sabbatical program for employees who build up enough unused paid time off (PTO). The construction firm can offer the program without any inconvenience as the length of time between its major projects can sometimes be six to eight weeks.

“In our industry it is not as difficult to offer a sabbatical program,” said Don Mengel, benefits manager for M.A. Mortenson. “In most cases people use their sabbatical between projects.”

Not everyone at the company participates in the program, as it does not make sense for just anyone, said Mengel. At Mortenson the program is designed for people who have a sabbatical as a long-term goal, because it is based on employees managing their own hours.

Employees can accrue extra PTO hours and place them in a sabbatical bank or use them as additional vacation time each year at their own discretion.

However, PTO placed in a sabbatical plan will not be paid if an employee leaves the firm before using it, said Mengel.

The maximum amount of hours that employees can have in their sabbatical account is 320 hours, or, eight weeks. Right now 160 employees currently have sabbatical accounts open.

“The program is meant to let employees recharge their batteries,” said Mengel. “We encourage them to go somewhere that their phone doesn’t work.”

And while not everyone participates in the program, Mengel said that it can be a difference maker when trying to attract top talent.

“Most young people don’t think that they won’t use their vacation,” he said. “But after two or three years in the working world they find out that they might not use it all.”

Some companies do not have sabbatical programs on record, but have been persuaded to allow them at times to hold onto top talent.

The Arpac Group in Schiller Park, an industrial packaging supply firm with 230 employees, does not have a sabbatical program, but it did institute the option once to retain a key employee.

“He was a key engineer and we did not want to loose him,” said Linda Fitzgerald, HR manager for Arpac. “He had been here for 12 years and he was burnt out.”

The employee presented a proposal to Rapac officials for a six-month unpaid sabbatical. His other option was to leave the company.

The employee was granted his leave. He came back as promised and still works for the company today, said Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald said that his work was spread out among the remaining engineers, which some found very unfair, but that it made the most sense for Arpac to follow this route as it would have taken the same amount of time to replace the employee as it did to allow him his leave.

“The recruiting process for that position can take four to five months,” said Fitzgerald. “By the time the employee is properly trained it is a year and a half later.”

Some organizations offer sabbaticals, but not for dream vacations.

Nonprofits and corporations will offer sabbatical leaves to employees who wish to spend an extended period of time volunteering for a charitable cause.

FHN, an integrated health care provider in Freeport, Ill., offers a six-week sabbatical program to employees with a seven-year tenure. The sabbatical is paid in part by the employer and in part by the employee’s accumulated flex-time.

Employees must apply for the program, which is not commonly used.

“We don’t usually receive many requests,” said Karen Hensal, HR consultant for FHN. “We maybe have one or two a year.”

Hensal said that employees sometimes use a week for personal time, but the remainder of the sabbatical is usually devoted to another nonprofit.

“We strongly encourage participants to work at assisting another non-profit,” said Hensal. “It benefits our organization to see how things are run in another non-profit. The employee who takes part in the program has to give a presentation on the experience when it is finished.”