Independent Sector values strong performance and long-term service, but simultaneously supports employee personal wellness. In the spirit of recognizing tenured employees, encouraging innovation and creativity, and ensuring employee renewal and retention, it is important for IS to give employees time for learning and revitalization to qualified long-term employees. A sabbatical leave provides a vehicle to motivate valued employees to continue their careers with the organization. While this plan creates space for employees to step away from their work for a period of reinvigoration, the program also reflects an organizational culture of practicing wellness, and promotes opportunities for other colleagues to take on work and responsibility they may not have otherwise.