Four in every five UK finance directors believe businesses should do more to improve the quality of life for their employees according to this weeks Reed Accountancy / Accountancy Age íBig Questioní survey.
Directors made a strong link between an improvement in an employeeís quality of life and an improvement in their productivity: It is time employers recognised that a happy employee contributes a lot more in every respect than an unhappy one, said Paresh Samat, financial director, Croner Consulting.
Bryan Armour, financial director, Parchment Housing Group also linked an improved quality of life to improved retention: In these more challenging times, we have proved that happy staff are much more willing to go the extra mile when needed and are likely to stay with us for
longer, he said.
Flexible working hours was seen by many directors as a key to improving the quality of life for the employees in their companies. Healthy lifestyle concerns were also important for many directors.
There was however, concern over the impact such policies would have on the company bottom line. John Buckley, financial director, Sauter Automation said: Businesses see such improvements as an outlay without short-term payback. In a competitive world where every percentage point of margin is fought over, businesses are trying to cut all íunnecessaryícosts.
Funding such policies was also a key concern: Try and suggest any such improvements will be funded by pegging back the next annual pay review and see who gets labelled as ídelusionalí, said Richard Jones, financial director, Therm Tempered.
Richard Post, managing director, Reed Accountancy said: Evidently there is very strong feeling that businesses should be doing more for their employees. As you would expect from these directors, there is a keen awareness of the financial costs and benefits of such policies.
Finance chiefs say businesses should do more for employees
Quality of life leads to quality in work