Sunday, January 06, 2008

Are your employees costing you money?

I know its pretty abstract. Of course your employees are costing you money. What I am talking about is how much money are you loosing from inadequate employees serving on your staff? I jts heard this program on NPR about some companies that award employees 8 weeks to 6 months sabbatical leave if they work for the company for 7 years.

Here's the best part. Employees are free to use their time off as they see fit. Suggestions include: Carribean vacations, Peace Corps service, volunteer services or mentoring programs or even spending quality time with family.

The result: Massive employee loyalty, less turn over, higher performing employees and consequently higher returns and profits for the organizations.

Now I like all this but how can a simple act of encouraging employee training provide an even better result? The answer is these organizations are not only known for giving these generous time off programs but they also encourage staff and employees to dedicate a percentage of their time on individual projects. Staff are encouraged to maximize the use of training software programs that exists to tap into their inner creativity and passion.

Is your organization missing out because it is not challenging its employees enough? Or not rewarding them enough? Or definitely not training them enough?