While the number of working hours in the UK has risen, productivity has failed to keep pace, and is persistently low – to the point of collapse in some sectors.
This is the productivity paradox, that people are working more but achieving less.
Low wages and job insecurity play their part, but so also do inflexible work practices, and a growing feeling among many employees that they lack sufficient autonomy to work more effectively and efficiently.
“Many employees want the freedom to manage their own workflow, and the trust that comes with granting them that freedom,” says Greg Searle MBE, Chief Innovation Officer for Keys Business Concierge.
What Greg talks about is the two key elements businesses should consider about autonomy:
- Why it has value
- How to make it work practically
Feeding Productivity
How people work contributes to how motivated they feel, which then feeds their productivity.
“If employers show employees how much they trust them, and give them greater freedom to manage their own work, they are going to be repaid with a more engaged workforce”
“Employers should take the opportunity to build a positive work culture by engaging with staff in this way, and by enabling them to exert more individual control over their own working lives,” says Greg.
“Empowerment shouldn’t be some kind of by-product that an employee may be lucky to experience, but rather it must be integral to how a business works, suggests Greg. “It should be measurable, and it should be used to both reward and retain talent.”
Greg notes that there is a whole new generation of workers for whom values are drivers in how they view work, more so than financial rewards.
“Businesses must be able to show employees how they value them, by rewarding and empowering them.”
Demonstrable Autonomy
“If you can reward an employee with something that enhances their experience and improves how they work, you’re giving them something of lasting value,” Greg says.
“Business concierge services are one way of achieving this,” suggests Greg. “By offering employees something that demonstrably affects both how they work and their work-life balance, the employer is showing how much they value them”.
“Concierge services have ongoing benefits, because as they reward and motivate staff, they also give them the autonomy to work better, towards increased productivity.”
“Autonomy allows people to shape the environment they work in so that they can enhance their own performance, on behalf of their employer”
To become a reality, rather than an aspiration, requires taking practical steps to embed it into a workplace culture.
“Put any preconceptions about concierge services aside,” Greg concludes. “They’re not simply there to massage executive egos. They serve a very real, practical purpose.”
To discover how a business concierge service provides employees with leaves a positive legacy of a more motivated, productive workforce, please call Keys Business Concierge on 0161 884 3300 or visit keys-business.com.
For an additional read, please visit:
- How Can Business Boost Your Quality of Life?
- Is Your Time More Valuable Than Money?
- Employee Engagement: Why Should You Build a Sense of Belonging?
