The Case For and Against Innovative Company Practices

by | Mar 18, 2015 | Culture | 0 comments

There’s rarely a singular “right way” to go about any task, and this is especially true when discussing workplace culture and innovation. Many articles and news stories with catchy headlines draw us all in with promises of “the ONE thing your office is missing!” that could make it so much more productive, efficient, and attractive to potential new hires or customers/clients. And we all continue to click away at these titles, ever hopeful that one fix-it-all solution to our problems might exist.
There are multiple sides to any idea or product promoted as an all-in-one solution. Ultimately, the best that can be done is to approach any product critically, weigh the potential benefits and risks of many different options, and determine a combination that works best for your company, your culture, and your people.

Treadmill & Standing Desks

The Case For Them
Many studies and articles have shown that sitting at a desk all day can be seriously detrimental to one’s health. Standing or treadmill desks may provide a way for employees to avoid major health problems later in life. They have specifically been shown to improve one’s ability to focus on tasks and to increase short-term memory and recall. For these reasons, they could improve a company’s overall productivity.
A simple standing desk also has the potential to greatly improve employees’ health. Individuals who stand at a desk are more likely to walk away from their desk, which results in additional calorie burn.
Simply having either type of these desks around the office, even if they are not utilized by all employees, may serve as an exercise-related reminder to all.
Most people find that standing/walking away from their desk entirely, or participating in a walking meeting can help encourage more discussion. A professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology found that 21 of 23 students felt better after a ‘walking seminar’ than they did after a typical sedentary seminar, and no one reported feeling worse. Seventeen of the students additionally reported that communication was better, and it was noted that students who were typically shyer in traditional classroom settings felt more comfortable opening up.
The Case Against Them
Treadmill desks are expensive, noisy, clunky, unprofessional looking, must be maintained, have a number of safety risks, may be distracting to other workers, and take up a lot of space. It may be necessary to store them in a designated room or part of the office where people could come in with a laptop. Standing desks share some of these qualities too.
Most notably, it has been found that walking or standing throughout the work day is not an effective replacement for regular exercise due to its lack of intensity. The calorie burn difference between sitting and standing is negligible, though, as mentioned previously, standing does encourage people to move around more, thus increasing calorie burn. The overall effectiveness of treadmill/standing desks is disputed.
Conclusions
Treadmill desks and standing desks are not indisputably a company’s healthiest option. Encouraging company-wide healthy habits can benefit both employees and the company, but there are many simpler yet still effective methods. Companies that lack the physical space and/or financial resources to accommodate treadmill desks or other onsite exercise equipment might consider holding walk-and-talk meetings, encouraging company-wide health-related competitions (such as a pedometer competition), developing a holistic wellness program, or finding other ways to encourage healthy habits company-wide.
 

Flexible Work Hours

The Case For Them
Employees on flexible work schedules are able to move around and/or compress their work hours. As a result, employees may have a greater ability to meet personal or family needs and obligations, reduce their commuting time and fuel costs, avoid the stress of commuting during rush hours, and take more ownership and control over both their schedule and work environment. Flexible work hours also produce less potential for employee burnout due to work overload and allow people
to work when they feel their freshest and most prepared.
Companies have been reported to see an increase in productivity, higher morale and more positive feelings toward one’s job, reduced turnover, and a wider range of potential employees due to family friendly flexible hours.Bus interior
Flexible work hours actively shift a worker’s priority to results and work quality, and allow people to work based on their own rhythms and routines. Offering such an open schedule could set your company apart, as this is still an emerging benefit.
The Case Against Them
For organizations that must be focused on meeting customers’ or guests’ needs, implementing this kind of system could be difficult or even impossible. For a service-oriented organization that prioritizes being present for clients or customers at all times, an intensive tracking system would be necessary. Potential work-arounds for such organizations could involve enforcing limitations on who is eligible for flexible work hours or eliminating the flexible work hours on certain days or at heavier workflow times of the year.
Additionally, employees can sometimes find compressed work weeks (which typically equate to 9-12 hour work days) to be incredibly draining.
Conclusions
Think of flexible work hours as a spectrum, and consider where your organization, with its priorities and the nature of your industry/field taken into account, falls along that spectrum. Offering even a limited form of flexible work hours still demonstrates understanding and respect of employees’ personal commitments, which can forge a strong trust between employer and employee and improve overall company morale and culture.
 

Unlimited Vacation

The Case For Them
Unlimited vacation does what it sounds like it does: allows employees to take as many paid vacation days as they want. It has been seen to boost morale, bolster trust, provide a job perk at little to no company cost, encourage work-life balance, improve efficiency, and reduce record-keeping time and costs. Many of these benefits are due to the simple fact that employees work harder when they are happier, and having unlimited vacation makes people very happy: for example, employees no longer
experience anxiety or guilt over using “vacation” days because of an illness, which in turn helps them to focus on relaxing and getting better.
Time offClearly, such a policy primarily serves as a workplace culture strengthener. When employees have unlimited PTO and are able to choose when they need time off, it means that they are also choosing which days they come to work. This ownership of time spent at work creates happier employees who are more invested in doing what’s best for the company over time.
Additionally, employees with this policy become a stronger team. When employees do opt to take time off, they feel more responsibility for an absence, which causes them to be more conscious of the work they are leaving behind for a coworker to do.
The Case Against Them
There is an undeniable potential for employee abuse, and, perhaps unexpectedly, the potential for employer abuse, as some employees may still feel like they are always working without designated days off. In the United States, 75% of employees do not take the paid vacation they’ve earned. It also has frequently been found that employees typically take less time off under an unlimited vacation than they would with a limited amount of paid time off. The primary reason for this seems to be due to employees’ concerns about falling behind, losing respect of their coworkers/superiors, appearing to lack focus, or even losing their job if they take too much time away from the office.
For certain kinds of companies, making plans when there’s always an uncertainty of when people will be taking work off could be a challenge. Enforcing a timekeeping system or setting up some sort of rule around communicating in advance of an absence might be necessary.
Conclusions
Unlimited vacation is a policy offered by a very slim number of companies currently. Communicate with your employees and understand whether this policy would be of interest to them and whether it would work for the nature of your industry/field (this policy would likely be disastrous for a retail store around a holiday, for example).
 
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Image credit: Flickr // Ramsey Beyer

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