In today’s fast paced workplace expectations are high all around, from employees to executives there are daily demands that can include longer hours, increased stress and loss of balance between job and home! Both executives and employees find themselves having less time to take care of their necessary personal tasks. Studies have shown that 75% of employees take care of personal responsibilities while at work, sometimes spending as much as a third of their business time on these personal tasks. The average worker admits to wasting more than 2.9 hours a day, not counting lunch, on personal business. This costs companies an estimated $759 billion a year. (Salary.com)
While offering a concierge service to employees may not completely reduce these figures, providing employees with the option to have someone else take care of personal tasks while they work could be as step in the right direction. Thus, creating a more engaged and productive staff, improved work-life balance, stress reduction and enhanced company culture.
What businesses could benefit from concierge services?
Real estate management companies can receive virtual or on-site concierge services for their tenants to add value to their properties and increase their marketability.
Hospitals, medical centres, and health clinics. Staff can benefit when they have long shifts and need errands done. Patients may have things they need to take care of or their family may need assistance at home while they are in the hospital.
Small businesses to large corporations benefit from these services because they allow employees to spend more time and focus on tasks that are productive while leaving the mundane time consuming tasks to a concierge service.
The level and extent of services are usually tailored to requirements, leaving businesses to determine what kind of image or service they are looking to create for their company and their hard-working staff.
When a business gets busy, it can often be difficult for staff to keep pace with corporate meetings, confirming event space, and booking travel arrangements. It is often time-sensitive requests like these that can have a domino effect on the rest of the business and where a concierge service becomes an important business tool.
Imagine having your dry cleaning dropped off, your next flight booked, and even your vehicle washed and detailed without leaving your desk. Enter the workplace concierge, which takes office perks to the next level.
In an emerging workplace trend, landlords and companies are offering hotel-like concierge services to help tenant’s and or / employees balance their work and personal lives.
In providing a business concierge, companies are not only providing a valuable tool for employee satisfaction and retention, but are alleviating the time burden that personal tasks place on the company’s resources. Employee’s value work-life balance, we all know errands and chores are boring even when you have the time to do them so providing a service to help them eliminate this can go a long way in making your staff happier. Happy employees are more likely to work better and come up with new ideas. Studies have shown that happier employees are 12% more productive than average while in contrast unhappy employees were 10% less productive. Productive, in these cases, means using time effectively: getting similar quality results on projects while spending less time. Along with an increase in productivity companies with happier employees experience lower turnover rates, better team spirit and increased employee loyalty.
Employers looking to make workers happy and less stressed may want to consider doing their grocery shopping, picking up the dry cleaning or doing some other similar day-to-day task, according to Employee Benefits Advisor. Many employees are overstressed with long work hours and not enough time to do the day-to-day things everyone faces. Offering concierge services are not just a feel-good perk; errand running, dry cleaning pickup and grocery shopping actually offer direct ROI in the form of improving retention, engagement and productivity. Some other personal jobs that can help employees enjoy more work/life balance and suffer from less stress include pet sitting, prescription pick-ups or personal shopping. 75 percent of the general population experiences at least “some stress” every two weeks. (National Health Interview Survey)
What the numbers are saying?
80% of workers would keep a job with benefits rather than take one that offered more pay and no benefits (American Institute of CPA)
78% of workers would likely remain with their employer because of the benefits it offers, up from 72% in 2016 (WTW)
70% of employees agreed that fringe benefits would be a key consideration in evaluating future jobs (Zenefits)
64% of millennials say benefits are extremely or very important to employer loyalty (Qualtrics)
60% or more of employees would take a job with a lower salary for better benefits (Zenefits)
55% of employees would be somewhat likely to accept a job with lower compensation but a more robust benefits package (Aflac)
50% of adults would leave their current job for better benefits (Yoh)
45% of employees said they consider a prospective company’s work-life balance a crucial factor when researching a job (Lexington Law)
10% of workers who have a good work-life balance are more likely to stay at their companies than those who don’t (TINYpulse)
Employees said their top concerns during their job search would be their experience in the hiring process, the number of perks, programs and benefits a company offers to help workers with work-life balance and their connection with a company’s culture and values (Spherion)
Workers who are finding balance between their jobs and personal lives are twice as happy, more productive and show greater loyalty to their employers than those struggling to find balance (Robert Half)
In closing
Providing concierge services can have a marked improvement on overall employee satisfaction according to a recent Society for Human Resource Management Benefits Survey. In addition to improving the work-life balance of employees, these services can reduce employee turnover. Bronson Healthcare Group, a health care services company based in Michigan, reported a 54 percent drop in overall employee turnover three years after making concierge services available to its staff.
