In July, innovation consultancy Inventium took the step of offering its staff the chance to take unlimited annual leave as a way of boosting productivity and morale in the workplace.

The company’s founder Amantha Imber, explained the new policy means workers can take as much leave as they want following busy times.

“It’s an industry where typically people work pretty hard and the hours can be long. It felt that we weren’t putting a cap on hours so it wasn’t really fair to put a cap on leave,” explained Ms Imber.

She added: “There still is that fundamental four weeks of annual leave. It’s just that when you’ve used up your annual leave, you just tip over into re-balance leave which is unlimited.”

So far the policy appears to be working, with a quarter of the firm’s staff already taking advantage of the new work perk.