NEW: Samantha McDonald

Happier, more motivated staff are better value to a company, right? So why have so many employers turned into clock-watchers?

Time and money

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about time, money, and how it all works in a company situation. Many of my clients rule their staff with an iron fist, saying employees must start work at a certain time and finish at or after a certain time.

It’s almost as though they want staff to clock on and off to prove how many hours they worked that week. Actually, that’s probably exactly what they want to do!

My question to them is this: How effective are your staff actually being for all of those hours? Are they really working productively or are they just trying to pass the time looking busy? Are they truly motivated for every moment they spend at work, or is their lack of motivation and energy costing you more than their hourly rate?

I wonder why some companies are still insisting that their staff conform to these set times for work, when society is obviously changing around them. I wonder whether companies would have happier employees and stronger profits if they changed the way they viewed employee time.

Every employee is worth a certain amount of money to a company per year, right? Sales people need to bring in a certain amount of revenue, and even admin staff contribute indirectly to the growth of the business. So, at the end of the day, does it really matter how much time an employee actually spends at work to reach those targets?

Wouldn’t you prefer happy staff members who spend maybe less time at work, but in a more targeted, motivated way than people who “have to” stay at work until a certain time and are therefore building up their resentment towards the company and their boss because they’d rather be at home with the family? What difference does it make how many hours someone works, as long as they give the same output? Seriously??

I know, at least with some of my clients, that this is all a very unusual concept, but I think it’s worth considering if your company’s revenue and inner culture are not as good as they could be. As they say, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got …

Samantha McDonald started off her working life in the music industry in Adelaide before moving to Sydney to work in recruitment and training. At 28, she became a personal and business coach and started Dare Coaching & Seminars.

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