Case Studies

Financial Services Employees Support Coworker

carmen@ptoexchange.com (Carmen Williams) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 16:09:45 GMT

How a Financial Services Company's Employees Rallied to Support a Coworker's Family Using PTO.

Some of the most powerful uses of PTO Exchange have nothing to do with retirement accounts or student loans. For one financial services organization with a tight-knit, family-like culture, the platform became something else entirely: a way for a workforce to show up for each other during an unimaginable loss.

The Challenge

This organization offered a generous PTO policy, and many employees found themselves carrying a significant balance of unused time at the end of each year. As an employee-centric organization with a strong emphasis on work-life balance and financial wellbeing, leadership wanted to offer more flexible options that let staff get meaningful value from their earned time off.

But the need went beyond financial flexibility. With a genuinely tight-knit, family-like culture, the organization was also looking for a structured way to let employees support one another during times of hardship, rather than relying on informal, ad hoc efforts every time something difficult happened.

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Regional Financial Services Company Offers Student Loan Relief

carmen@ptoexchange.com (Carmen Williams) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 16:04:33 GMT

How a Tennessee-Based Financial Services Company Turned Forfeited PTO Into Student Loan Relief.

Student loan debt doesn't just weigh on new graduates, it follows employees well into their careers, quietly adding financial stress that shows up at work. One Tennessee-based financial services company, with more than 8,800 employees, decided to tackle that problem using a benefit employees were already losing every year: unused PTO.

The Challenge

Like many employers, this organization saw a significant portion of its workforce entering their roles burdened with student loan debt. With financial stress weighing on employee wellbeing, leadership began exploring ways to offer more targeted support for loan repayment, without increasing direct payroll costs.

Complicating things further, the organization's PTO policy didn't allow employees to carry unused time off into the next calendar year. That created a real tension: how could the organization honor employees' earned time if they weren't able to take it, especially in a fast-paced, deadline-driven work environment? Leadership wanted a creative, cost-neutral solution that would let employees unlock the value of that unused PTO and apply it directly toward their financial goals, student loan repayment chief among them
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Software Company Rallied Employees To Raise for Charity

carmen@ptoexchange.com (Carmen Williams) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:57:58 GMT

How One Software Company Rallied Its Employees to Raise $45,000 in Three Days, Using PTO.

Most PTO Exchange stories are about financial wellness. This one started with a young girl born with a rare, degenerative genetic disorder that affects brain development, muscle strength, and basic motor functions. Her condition has no known cure, but her family was determined to give her the best possible care, starting with a wheelchair-accessible van to get her safely to frequent medical appointments.

The Challenge

Recognizing the urgent need, the girl's parents reached out to Chive Charities, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting families and individuals facing life-altering challenges. Chive Charities, in turn, reached out to a longtime corporate supporter of their mission, a software company that had partnered with them on various initiatives over the years. This time, the organization wanted to do something different: use PTO Exchange to help make the girl's family's dream a reality.

At this organization, employees had historically used PTO Exchange for everyday financial wellness, converting unused paid time off into retirement contributions, education payments, or direct cash support. But for one extraordinary week, everything shifted to giving.

Texas Community Health Organization Relief for Student Loans

carmen@ptoexchange.com (Carmen Williams) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:52:10 GMT

How a Texas Community Health Organization Turned PTO Into $600,000 of Retirement Savings and Student Loan Relief.

Boosting retirement plan participation is hard enough on its own. It's even harder when a meaningful chunk of the workforce is younger staff just entering the job market, already stretched thin by competing financial obligations like student loan debt. One Texas-based community health organization, with more than 1,500 employees, found a way to solve that problem, and a few others, with a single benefit.

The Challenge

This organization, a mission-driven community health provider, was looking for a way to boost participation in its retirement plan. Many employees, particularly younger staff just starting their careers, struggled to contribute due to competing financial pressures, student loan debt chief among them.

At the same time, the organization was sitting on high PTO balances with no real outlet for employees to use those unused hours in a way that matched their financial needs or personal values. True to its socially conscious culture, the organization also wanted a benefits solution that could support employees' growing interest in social wellbeing, giving them a way to support causes and coworkers, not just themselves..

Large Healthcare System Cuts Turnover

carmen@ptoexchange.com (Carmen Williams) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:47:20 GMT

How a Large Healthcare System Cut Turnover and Unlocked $20.7 Million in Employee Financial Support.

Healthcare systems face a particularly tough version of the retention puzzle: a multigenerational workforce with wildly different needs, real budget constraints, and a PTO liability that keeps growing on the balance sheet no matter what HR does. One large healthcare system decided to tackle all three problems with a single solution.

The Challenge

As this organization's workforce became increasingly multigenerational, HR was focused on meeting genuinely diverse employee needs and expectations across those different demographics. Budget constraints made it difficult to implement programs that could serve everyone effectively, so flexibility within the benefits package became a top priority.

Financial wellness was also a growing concern. National studies suggest only 44% of employees feel financially well, and more than half have taken some kind of action due to financial strain, a reality this organization's leadership recognized in its own workforce. They wanted to support responsible financial behaviors and help alleviate financial stress, not just check a benefits box.

Underneath both of those concerns was a familiar structural one: PTO liability was one of the largest line items on the organization's balance sheet, and it kept growing every year. Leadership wanted to reduce that liability at a fraction of the cost of traditional programs, ideally before year-over-year salary increases made the liability even more expensive, by simply repurposing the value of excess PTO hours already sitting on the books
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Regional Non Profit Delivers Employee Support

carmen@ptoexchange.com (Carmen Williams) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:43:35 GMT

How a Small Nonprofit Built a Disciplined PTO Program That Delivered $546,000 in Employee Support.

Tight budgets don't have to mean thin benefits. For one community services nonprofit, the challenge wasn't wanting to support a multigenerational workforce facing real financial strain, it was finding a way to do it without compromising fiscal responsibility.

The Challenge

As a nonprofit operating with tight budget constraints, this organization struggled to offer the kind of expansive financial wellness benefits that larger, better-resourced employers could provide. Leadership recognized the growing financial pressure on employees across generations and wanted a cost-effective way to help, without opening the organization up to unpredictable costs.

When the organization was introduced to PTO Exchange, leadership was excited about the platform's flexibility, but raised a fair concern: any program they adopted needed built-in controls and guardrails to protect cash flow and align with the organization's financial planning cycles.
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Mission-Driven Nonprofit Safety Net From Unused PTO

carmen@ptoexchange.com (Carmen Williams) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:38:07 GMT

How a Mission-Driven Nonprofit Built a Structured Safety Net for $900,000 of Unused PTO.

Most organizations worry about PTO piling up. One mission-driven nonprofit had the opposite problem: a front-loaded PTO policy meant employees risked losing earned time off entirely if they couldn't use it before year-end, and leadership wanted a way to protect that value without opening up unrestricted, year-round access.

The Challenge

At this organization, employees receive their full PTO balance at the start of the fiscal year. Because the organization doesn't allow carryover, many employees faced a real risk of losing unused PTO if they weren't able to use it before the year closed out.

Leadership wanted to make sure employees could access the full value of their earned time off, but without turning the exchange program into a year-round benefit. At the same time, the organization wanted to create a genuine safety net for employees facing medical or personal hardship, without taking on the administrative burden of managing a traditional Leave Sharing program internally.

Mission-Driven Health Organization Provides Financial Relief

carmen@ptoexchange.com (Carmen Williams) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:09:53 GMT

How a Mission-Driven Community Health Organization Turned Unused PTO Into $700,000 of Financial Relief.

For mission-driven healthcare organizations, taking care of the community often comes first, but leadership at one faith-based community health organization recognized that taking care of their own people had to keep pace, too. With a workforce dedicated to empowering underserved communities, the organization needed benefits that reflected that same spirit of care internally.

The answer was a no-cost solution for unused PTO.

The Challenge

As employee expectations around benefits evolved, this organization's people team recognized the need for fresh, meaningful ways to boost culture and morale. Leadership was looking for tangible financial wellness support that would resonate across a diverse workforce, many of whom carry real day-to-day financial pressures, without significantly increasing benefit costs.

At the same time, the organization was navigating a familiar healthcare challenge: employees accumulating unused PTO balances with no practical outlet to put those hours to work for them. What the organization needed was a flexible, easy-to-administer solution that could support financial wellbeing while encouraging healthy PTO utilization, not discourage employees from taking time off in the first place.

Professional Services Company Creates Unique Benefit From Excess PTO

carmen@ptoexchange.com (Carmen Williams) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:09:35 GMT

How a Project-Based Design Firm Turned Excess PTO Into $1.6 Million of Flexible Value.

Project-based work creates a unique PTO problem: employees can't always predict when they'll have downtime to actually use their earned time off, which means PTO tends to pile up and cause headaches for everyone come year-end. One design services firm decided to solve that problem by giving employees a way to convert excess PTO into value throughout the year, instead of racing to use it before it expired.

The Challenge

This organization was moving from a defined contribution benefits program to a more typical benefit election model, and wanted a PTO conversion program that preserved flexibility for employees through the transition. Specifically, leadership was looking for a solution that would let employees set up recurring exchanges throughout the year, rather than a one-time annual event.

Project-based work made it difficult for employees to use all of their PTO within a given year, which led to a logjam of PTO requests toward year-end. In a competitive talent market where retention depends on standing out, leadership also wanted a Total Rewards offering that would genuinely differentiate the organization from its competitors.
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Transportation Company Finds Employee Value in Unused PTO

carmen@ptoexchange.com (Carmen Williams) — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:09:02 GMT

How Amtrak Turned Unused PTO Into $5.9M In Extra Employee Value.

In today's highly competitive labor market, attracting and retaining top talent takes more than traditional compensation, it demands flexible, personalized benefits that meet employees where they are.

For Amtrak, that challenge carries extra weight. As the company plays a pivotal role in rebuilding America's infrastructure and expanding into new markets, it's working to hire 4,000 new employees, making a compelling, differentiated benefits package a strategic priority for recruitment, retention, and engaging a modern workforce.

The answer was to find extra value in unused PTO.

The Challenge

Amtrak needed a solution that could maximize the value of its existing benefits while giving employees more choice, autonomy, and financial flexibility, without adding cost or complexity to an already large and growing organization.