A new study from PTO Exchange, conducted in partnership with Lighthouse Research, confirms what a lot of employees already feel: traditional PTO policies aren't built for the workforce we have today. The research, titled "It's Time to Rethink Paid Leave," surveyed workers on how they actually use their accrued time off, and the findings are hard to ignore.

Only four in ten workers use all their leave each year, and three out of four admit to taking a vacation they didn't really need just to avoid losing accrued time. At the same time, 83% of workers said they'd be very or extremely interested in converting unused PTO into other financial resources, and nine out of ten agreed that having this option would make them more likely to stay with their employer.

"We sensed we were onto something very meaningful, but these responses even surprised us," said PTO Exchange co-founder and CEO Rob Whalen, noting that the average employee leaves a full week of PTO unused each year. Lighthouse Research's Chief Research Scientist Ben Eubanks echoed the sentiment, calling the loyalty and financial stability findings a "sobering" wake-up call for an HR industry that has long assumed simply offering PTO was enough.

Read the full study coverage here: New Study by PTO Exchange and Lighthouse Research Finds Six in Ten Workers Leave Vacation on the Table Each Year.