Recently I sat next to the CEO of a business who spent a good fifteen minutes telling me why he wouldn’t allow any of his staff to work from home. There was a lot of repetition, some pretty daft comments such as they would spend sunny days sunbathing in the garden and wet days decorating the front room and the rest of the dialogue focussed around trust and it became apparent that he didn’t trust anyone. I thought well here is a pretty sad chap.
Anyway there was still some way to go before I reached my destination and I decided to spend the time attempting to re-educate my travelling neighbour by asking some questions. I asked him what he would do if he broke his leg and couldn’t drive to work and initially had to rest at home. Quick as a wink he told me that wouldn’t be a problem because he would work from home. I replied – well do you think all those staff you don’t trust would just think you are skiving? I think this really shocked him because he had only considered trust as a one way thing. Further I asked him what a top salesman in his business sold per annum and again very quickly he told me the best bring in £180,000 of sales. I asked where they worked and he told me in the sales office to which I replied how many days a week? He told me very few as he wanted them out on the road meeting existing and potential customers. So I said to him you trust them then. Again he was very pensive and after a while told me he did.
Shortly before I disembarked at my station he looked at me and said “you must think me a bit of a chump”. I just smiled as I left the train.
Flexible working is absolutely vital to most businesses to both retain and attract talent and to reap massive benefits for all concerned. There is a lot of survey data to support this with 96% of staff saying that working flexibly positively impacts on their productivity; 72% of companies are putting systems in place to support flexible working; 81% of employees would like to escape the 9-5 culture; 56% of employees check their emails before leaving for work; 40% of employees work from home either regularly or from time to time up from 21% 10 years ago and flexible workers can save 39 days a year in commuting time.
If you wish for improved performance and more satisfied staff and don’t want to spend any money, just try some flexible working.
Dr Hugh Billot, Deputy Chairman
HR GO Group of Recruitment Companies
HR GO Recruitment offers solutions to all your staffing needs, temporary and permanent, please call 0845 130 7000
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