A non-typical employee might be the best employee
Posted on Mon, Jan 07, 2013
Today we have a guest blog from Jim Hessler:
I recently visited my friend Leslie Schneider who’s co-owner of Office XPats on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Office XPats is a membership organization that offers co-officing space, mutual support, technical resources, and an engaging physical working environment for the growing number of people who have “non-typical” jobs and work from home.
Leslie told me that 30% of the work force is now working from home as contract employees or consultants, are self-employed, or work part-time or in some sort of flexible arrangement with their employers or clients.
There are many reasons for this trend, which I don’t have time to go into here. Obviously some of it is driven by the desire of employers to keep down permanent headcount and to maintain greater financial flexibility. But certainly one driving force behind the trend is also the desire of many workers to have a wholly different relationship with their work. Their approach to the employee-employer relationship stresses the value of the work performed as opposed to accumulating hours on the clock. It favors work-life balance and questions the time spent commuting to and from work. It reinforces the idea of the worker as a free agent, a worker with options, empowered to maintain a relationship that maintains a stronger boundary between management and the “managed.”
As owners and managers of our businesses, having a non-typical worker certainly creates difficulties, but it’s a trend that’s not going away, and if approached with creativity and trust it can be a win-win. Creating a high-trust relationship where much of an employee’s work can be done off-site, at home, and on a flexible schedule, will open up a pool of talent that may be closed to companies that insist on having workers in their chair, on the clock, and working under direct supervision.
Take a look around your building and ask yourself these questions?
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Which jobs could be done effectively from a remote location or home office?
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What scares you about having off-site workers?
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How might your culture change for the better if the focus was on work accomplished rather than time spent on the job?
Most of us in ownership or executive positions grew up in a time when the boss looked at the cars in the parking lot to see who was still on the job when the whistle blew. This old thinking assumes that workers need to be controlled, and that a necessary part of that control is having them front and center where they can be closely observed. This is an incorrect assumption. American workers are proving they can and will produce impressively without their boss looking over their shoulder. Maybe you should give them a chance.
Jim Hessler
Jim Hessler brings over 30 years of business management and executive leadership experience to his role as Group Leader for Excell.
Jim has been an award-winning salesman, sales manager, general manager and executive specializing in turning around underperforming operations. In the mid-90s he helped lead a massive reorganization of a Fortune 150 company.
In addition to his work with Excell, Jim is the Founder of Path Forward Leadership Development Services, a firm committed to growing leaders using approaches that produce real and lasting results. Jim’s hope is that someday everyone in America will work for a great boss. He strives to make that possible through his work with Excell and Path Forward.
Jim’s experience in general management has resulted in broad and deep knowledge of nearly all aspects of a well-run business. From building and managing a sales organization to managing complex inventories and delivery systems, from leading complex restructuring efforts to generating vision and trust in demoralized organizations, Jim has earned a depth of knowledge and insight that serves Excell members well, regardless of the leadership challenges they face.
Jim lives in Issaquah, Washington with his wife of 34 years, Paula, who is a teacher in the Issaquah School District.