What do your employees want more than anything? Money might be the first thing you think of, but a recent study found that flexibility is more important than salary or benefits. And that super nice office building? Well, 77% say they would prefer to work for a company that gives them flexibility rather than work for a company with a fancy corporate headquarters.
Managers often feel nervous about having employees work from home, even though many have successfully done it for almost two years now. While managers have a point – some people are slacking off, and there have even been cases where people hold down two jobs at once – the key is balancing your employees’ needs with their overall performance. You’ll find that flexibility helps everyone and employee relations teams can work with both managers and employees to make this happen.
To keep reading, click here: Meet Employees’ Needs and Performance Will Follow
Employees slacking off — whether working on site or telecommuting — is a problem. However, employees holding down two jobs at once — unless there’s a conflict of interests involved — is not, necessarily, a problem, in my opinion. If their performance is satisfactory, no problem. At one point, early in my current career, for personal and financial reasons, I actually held three jobs at once: a full-time (daytime) entry-level job at a Federal Agency, a part-time (evening) job at the restaurant my family ran, and a between-times job as a pastry chef for the restaurant (from my home, commercially-certified, kitchen). Fortunately for me, the restaurant jobs preceded my Federal employment, since — otherwise — I would have required Agency approval for my outside jobs, which might not have been granted. This three-job scenario continued for six years, until my help was no longer needed at the restaurant, and my Government career had sufficiently advanced to be secure, lucrative and bursting with potential. It was a relief, though, to, finally, find myself with massive amounts of free time and no longer functioning in a chronic state of sleep deprivation! 🙂