Showing trust in employees - can this help businesses survive the cold snap?
12/01/2010, Author: Judy Bennet
This cold snap has presented more challenges for leaders and managers than the obvious one of getting from A to B. Transport links once again have buckled under the strain of the snow and many people haven’t made it into work, sometimes for several days.
I read the other day about an unhappy employee whose boss had insisted that they make it into work – 3 hour journey or not – to ‘show their commitment’. Seems other members of the team had done so and this individual stood out!
As employers – particularly those in small businesses - a loss of a day’s work can indeed have a big impact and it sometimes doesn’t take much for the nerves to set in. However, showing trust in the people you work for has got to be a starting point hasn’t it? In addition, finding things for people to do at home when they can (and in this technological age it must be possible for many people) also allows them to make a contribution. Working flexibly has continued to grow for the last few years and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
What do you think?
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I read today that the nightmare weather has cost UK businesses around £2.2 billion with up to 15% of the UK workforce having to stay at home on the worst days.
At the DOP conference this week I got chatting to a couple of different people both undertaking research into how to prepare employees for flexible working and fitting into virtual teams. I think this weather has been a wake up call for businesses to better equip themselves and their employees for flexible working – and I think that there needs to be more structured assistance to help them with this.
20/01/2010 by Richard Hunter, http://www.criterionpartnership.co.uk
Flexible working is great, but sometimes making the journey really is a way of showing commitment. Last Friday, we had an important meeting planned which involved Kieran, our Business Development Manager. If we had delayed the meeting because of the weather, it would have been weeks before all of the participants could have found an alternative date. It looked like Kieran would not be able to make it because of the road conditions, so we resigned ourselves to him joining us by telephone . In the event, he made the 5 hour car journey through the snow and showed up in person. His participation in the room was valuable and appreciated.
On the subject of weather, have you seen this You Tube clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN_lLvJfLJY&sns=em I liked this but that may be because I grew up in Felixstowe.
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