Imagine getting all your grocery shopping done in the middle of a workday, and think of the time this might save you on your precious weekend! It might sound foreign to you, but a lot of companies are allowing employees to do this very thing. A new trend is rising that allows employees to run errands and do personal activities during regular working hours, and – perhaps surprisingly – it is actually increasing employee productivity.
In the last two years the number of employees running personal errands during the day has increased by 31%. At the same time, the number of employees who reported having a healthy work-life balance has increased by 11% despite a 30% increase of employees working more than 9 hours a day.
Professor Stewart Friedman, founding director of the Work/Life Integration Project thinks this work-life balance satisfaction is a result of allowing employees to take breaks during the day to perform personal tasks. “The big idea is that it’s possible to create value for the different parts – for work, home, community and your private self, the domain of mind, body and spirit – in ways that you probably didn’t think about before. It doesn’t have to be a trade-off,” says Freidman of this balance.
Allowing employees to handle some personal tasks during the work-week can:
– Improve focus and concentration
– Creates a results-driven culture
– Helps determine what is really required of the job
Striking the right balance will require a process of trial and error. Friedman recommends starting out by asking employees what type of flexibility they actually desire. Next, you can test this freedom for a set period of time before making it permanent.
Find out more about these points in this great article from Entrepreneur.com: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234434