How to handle employees that are committed to work hours only

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of the business and time management books TimePeace: Making peace with time – The Book of Answers:  105 Career Critical Situations – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management, and work-life balance strategies.   

This question came from a busy professional.

I have two employees that usually leave work at 6 pm. They are good, but I don’t like that their commitment lasts for work hours only. What should I do as a CEO?

Resetting expectations

One thing that I would recommend is to reset your business expectations.  As a CEO, you are naturally very invested in your company.  This company is “your baby”.  You receive much satisfaction on your company’s success, revenue and growth.  You are passionate about your company vision, mission and purpose!  This is your life.

This is all as it should be.  You also reap the benefits of your long hours of passion in the form of a high salary, yearly bonus, stock and company profits.

This is also a business.  As such, you pay your staff a salary based on a 6-8-hour work day.  You expect your staff to perform quality work for the pay. 

Although your employees may share your views and passion regarding the work that they do, this is a job to your employees.  They are being paid to do their job during the work hours.  This is the contract that you have with them.  Although some may choose to put in extra hours without additional compensation, they also need to live their real-lives after work.

If you expect more than that, you need to update your contract and pay them additional.

Compensation Alternatives

If you want your employees to consistently put in additional hours, you should update your employee contract with them with additional pay or alternative compensation.

Some alternative compensations or fringe benefits could include:

  • Gym Subscription
  • Higher or Continuing Educational Scholarships
  • Additional Stock Options or Performance Bonuses
  • Partnership Options or Other Advancement Opportunities
  • Increase Pay through Promotions
  • Flexible Work-Environment that Allows them to do additional work from home
  • Day-care or After-school care of Children
  • Personal Assistants that would take care of their normal daily chores to allow them to work extra hours, etc

Get to know your employees

Setup a one-on-one meeting with your employees to discover what additional compensation they would agree to, in order to work the additional hours that you need from them.  You might be surprised how little will satisfy them as compensation.  Sometimes it’s as little as showing that you appreciate them and understand that they have a busy life outside the company as well.  By showing respect and understanding in their point of view goes a long way in assuring dedication and quality performance.

If you need some help with this, please setup a one-on-one consult session.

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