Yesterday morning I caught the tail end of a story on NPR about a small social media company in Seattle, Social Strata, that offers unlimited time off for their employees. It began with one dedicated employee caring for her husband after an accident, and was ultimately extended to all ten employees in the company.
There are so many interesting business topics at play in this story. The two I am going to explore are trust and judgment.
In order for unlimited time off to be successful, employers must trust that employees are using the time off productively and appropriately.
If you trust that those you've hired to help grow your business, then you should trust that your employees are using the unlimited vacation time to actually take a vacation because they want to travel somewhere new, to take a long weekend to visit family far away, or use extended time off to care for a spouse or sick child.
You should also trust that they will return to work with renewed focus and gratitude for the opportunity to spend time away without consequences at work.
Next is judgment. Do your employees have good judgment? If they do, they are probably using their time away from the office because they would have a hard time focusing and being productive at work in the first place!
If employees use good judgment in work related tasks, their good judgment probably extends to other areas in their lives. Making it easier for employees to practice good judgment makes for more satisfied employees. For those who take pride in their individual and team success at work, this means employees will find a way to take their sick child to the doctor and also finish their deliverable, as promised, on time.
Social Strata and Netflix, two companies with unlimited time off, made sure to note that employees must finish projects and duties on time. This is an expectation employees must manage responsibly.
NPR reports that companies with unlimited vacation time are more productive and more engaged with unlimited time off. One piece I found to be interesting is that employees began taking actual sick days off instead of coming in to work to spread their germs to co-workers! Imagine that!
For those of you with decision-making power, would you let your company go to an unlimited vacation policy?
For those of you without decision-making power, how do the constraints of limited time off affect your use of vacation days?
Source: NPR.org, August 12, 2010
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-04-12-tainted-meat_N.htm?csp=hf
The lack of specific governmental regulations on the contamination of beef is leading consumers to distrust the marketplace. Although the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service tests meats for E. coli and salmonella, there is a growing issue with residue contamination in beef. Testing for these issues relies on assistance from the EPA and the FDA. Currently, there are no legal limits in terms of amount of pesticides or antibiotics. These risks directly will directly affect the public’s health.
It only takes a few stories about contaminated meat to deter end consumers from purchasing beef. Additionally, the screening agencies do not have the authority to stop the distribution of this contaminated meat due to the lack of regulation. The FSIS said in a written statement that the agency has agreed with the inspector general on "corrective actions" and will work with the FDA and EPA "to prevent residues or contaminants from entering into commerce." Will this be enough, or are the lobbyists correct in demanding specific laws and regulations?
Unless you've spent time in Holmes County, Ohio or Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, your impression of Amish life has probably been limited to Witness and Harrison Ford (or Birch Interval and Rip Torn). For the record, Rip takes more alcohol than the norm for the Amish population. This behavior by what the Amish call "the English" would not surprise breakaway leader Jacob Amman, or Menno Simons, who originally founded the sect from which the Old Order split.
The current issue (April 19) of Time magazine devotes a page to the success of Amish businesses, and the Amish styles of working and management. They, for example, have a start-up failure rate only 20% of that experienced by all US small businesses. The telling phrase? "Amish businesses value relationships over onetime deals." There's also reference to working "higher up the value chain." Maybe plain folk aren't as simple as we thought they might be.
That's no surprise in this corner, but it's always encouraging to see unsolicited independent support for our core contention that the quality of business relationships is a compelling difference-maker in sustainable enterprise success, for, in Time's words, ". . . those more dedicated to the Golden Rule than the golden calf."
David Maister is the consultant whose hard-won wisdom has guided an entire generation of consultants. He hasn’t written about key account management very often but in this essay (which later became Chapter 19 in his 2000 book The Trusted Advisor) he lists some points that are as insightful as anything else he has written. The article is called, appropriately enough, “Key Account Management.”
I’m going to list some of his insights verbatim and suggest strongly that you take a look at the article because it contains other real-world suggestions about managing key accounts.
Below are just a few of his points.
Key accounts’ commonly expressed concerns about suppliers:
Other insights:
All I can say is that if the points above do not offer some assistance with your key accounts, you must be in a unique market with unique accounts. Good reading. JSperry