What Makes a Good Retirement Plan? [infographic]

It's top-of-mind for almost everyone in the workforce—how can I save enough money to retire?

Businesses in different countries have different obligations to assist their employees with retirement savings. In many places, employers contribute to government-mandated pension plans. In others, retirement savings plans are lucrative benefits that employees appreciate dearly.

Do your employees even need a retirement plan? How strong is the government support? This infographic from Mercer investigates.

 

How do you find out what your employees want? You ask them in a safe environment. TribeHR lets you solicit anonymous feedback from your team. Get started today. 

 

How to Make the Day Last Longer

Mike and Raymond worked as copywriters at the same Chicago-based media company, teaming up on the same projects, and reporting to the same supervisor. Mike worked 40 to 45 hours per week. Raymond worked about 55 hours a week.

One day a senior executive complained that Mike always seemed to be leaving work early. Mike's supervisor came to his defense, saying he got as much work done in 40 hours as any of the other copywriters, including Raymond.

How did Mike do it?

Here are some tips on how you can use your time more wisely, so you can work faster, smarter, and better—and impress everyone around you:

Put in your eight hours a day.  Are you working hard or hardly working? Too many employees today are hardly working. The average worker privately admits to working only five hours a day, wasting time on the Internet, socializing with co-workers, and “spacing out.”

Why aren’t they giving their employers eight hours a day? About one out of four feel underpaid. One out of three say they don’t have enough work to do. About one out of five blame co-workers for distracting them. Imagine how much more efficient we would be if we actually worked eight hours a day.

Take breaks. Work the eight hours you’re getting paid to work, but make sure you take a short break in the morning, and another in the afternoon. These breaks—even if you’re just stretching your legs or grabbing some coffee in the lunch room—help relieve stress and sluggishness, and make you more productive by giving you an energy boost.

Don’t try to multitask. It’s a waste of time because virtually no one can do it well (even though lots of us think we can). When you’re trying to do more than one thing at a time, one task is always distracting you from the other one, so you end up doing a bad job of both. Once you realize this, you have to start all over—one task at a time.

Set priorities. Before you leave work for the day, make a list of all the things you must get done the next day, and make a second list of the things you’d like to get done. When you come to work in the morning, start on the first list. After you’ve checked off everything on your first list, start on your second list if you have enough time.

Twenty-four hours of sunlight while working in the far North? On a planet with two suns? You can still be wasting time. Flickr/Andreas Schreyer

Figure out the best way to communicate. Email can be a very time-efficient way to communicate, but that doesn’t mean it’s always the best way. Do you need an answer right away? Make a phone call or knock on an office door. Waiting around for someone to reply to an email can be a huge time waster, not to mention that it can really stress you out. Plus, if you’re talking with someone in person, you don’t have to worry about having your tone misconstrued.  

Organize. Know where you can find everything you need to get your work done—whether it’s on your desk, in a filing cabinet, or in your computer. That doesn’t mean you have to be a neat freak. You can be a slob, but you need to know where everything is if you want to use your time wisely.

Don’t procrastinate. The workplace isn’t high school or college. You probably can't get away with waiting until the last minute to do a project. More likely, your boss will review your work and know that you procrastinated, and you very well may have to redo it. Talk about a time waster. One of the worst things about procrastination is that it not only hurts you, but it also might hurt your entire work team.   

Use technology to your advantage. Can you use videoconferencing or Skype to meet with colleagues or clients in another city? Do you have a smart phone or laptop that will let you work when you’re not at your desk? Can you attend a webinar rather than travel to an out-of-town conference? Take advantage of all the wonderful ways that technology can save you time.

These tips are all so simple that you might be thinking, “these are nothing but common sense.” You’re right. They are common sense. So why don’t you follow them?

 

Easy-to-use HR technology can make your whole team more productive. Get started with TribeHR.

 

Carnival of HR by the Numbers

Today’s Carnival of HR came up to visit us at the TribeHR offices in Canada, and it's got some doozies.

Here at TribeHR we’re really big on numbers (for example, see our infographic on social recruiting from back in November). To summarize the Carnival for you, we pulled together some data on the posts: 

• The blog posts in this Carnival add up to 12,467 words
• The posts average 623 words long (only 40% of the "ideal" length)
• 100% of the submissions were in on time
• The word “centre” was spelled the Canadian way 25% of the time

Because we're such data junkies, the first post that jumped out was Change & Communications: Implications for Asia Pacific by Abhishek Mittal. As a service to companies that operate in the Asia-Pacific region, he summarizes some of the most important findings of a recent Towers Watson study.

Similarly, we learned how Bias Charges are at an All-Time High from Anne Freedman of HREOnline’s The Leader Board (sneak-peak: 99,947 is a daunting number).

We love HR technology, so it was awesome that Naomi Bloom of In Full Bloom sent us An Open Letter to HR Executives, outlining some great key points to keep in mind when choosing an HR platform.

At TribeHR we do our best to support legislative requirements and compliance issues from all around the world, and a number of today's posts take a compliance and legal tone. We start off with a commentary on the Fair Labor Standards Act in FLSA Pitfalls by Rachael Peterson, and continue with a fascinating read from Mike at Omega HR Solutions. He talks about the implications of a recent supreme court ruling which dealt with what constitutes a “complaint” from an employee. Along similar lines, Mike McCarty at Safe Hiring Solutions asks Is Your Employment Background Checks Policy Discriminatory?

While reflecting on the personal side of things, and the often very real and very difficult situations we encounter, Paul Smith at Welcome to the Occupation shares his thoughts on how HR Takes The Bitterest Pill, while Lynn Dessert at Elephants at Work shares her insights in 16 helpful questions to crack open a stalled career.

If you're in the mood for some reflection on your role and your profession, Wally Bock at Three Star Leadership offers some interesting thoughts on what a world without bosses might look like, while Ian Welsh brings one of the most engaging posts in today's Carnival, "And That’s When HR Met Its Waterloo."

All bias aside (TribeHR has a soft spot for our hometown of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), Ian’s post includes some excellent examples of being stuck in difficult situations—I think we could all stand to do a little more sharing.

Along with Wally and Ian on the reflection side of things, Prasad Kurian at Simplicity @ The Other Side of Complexity muses on the Political Paradox for OD & HR. Ben Eubanks continues the personal learning and sharing thread with his post Ten Rules to Work (and Live) By.

With management in mind, Dan McCarthy shares with us How to Get the Most Benefit from an Executive Development Program. There’s also a fantastic Summary of HR Directors Business Summit from John Ingham.

A newcomer to the Carnival is Joyce Akiko at Go HR for Startups. In her post Managing Job Openings: Do You Need an Applicant Tracking System? she gives an ATS intro to startups, and also offers some great advice on selecting a startup-friendly ATS.

Thinking about personal technology? Jennifer Miller at The People Equation talks cells phones and managing mobile devices in Stack Your Phones at the Next Company Meeting. Meanwhile, Trish McFarlane at HR Ringleader asks Can Music Impact Employee Performance? 

Things get personal again as we wrap up today’s Carnival. Doug Shaw reminds everyone to treat workers like human beings in Liveable Lives — Humanising the Workplace. Meanwhile, Ben Martinez begs us to promote retention through communication in Strategic HR Wishes For Retention, and John Hunter cautions that thorough processes shouldn’t be confused with mistrust in Trust But Verify.

Next week’s Carnival of HR is hosted by the always-sharp Laurie Ruettiman over at The Cynical Girl. We’ll see you then!

 

In the meantime, subscribe to the Workplace Tribes mailing list and RSS feed. And don’t forget to Like TribeHR on Facebook, Follow TribeHR on Twitter, and sign up for the TribeHR newsletter.

 

Unconventional Job Postings and Recruiting Ads

It used to be that the classifieds of the Sunday newspaper were the best place to find a job.

Then, as the digital era began, online job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder began to slowly exert their dominance. Today, however, companies are expanding their recruiting strategies to include some unique and out-of-the–box venues.

Many companies have begun using social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as their recruiting platforms. Twitter postings are limited to the 140 characters, but a quick hash-tag relevant ad can make it easy to find a great candidate.

Recruitment videos can provide much more emotionally detailed descriptions of the positions you’re recruiting for. Companies like Google have long been using video recruitment tools to solicit some of the world’s most brilliant employees. 

Tech Savvy Recruitment Campaigns

With technology advancing and mobile campaigns taking off, there are unending possibilities for utilizing digital media in recruitment campaigns. Text messaging campaigns are becoming increasingly popular, but it’s just the tip of the mobile iceberg.

Location-based marketing will continue to evolve and will be a great place to recruit local candidates. This technology pings people as they approach a certain geographical distance from your business.

For example, you can have a text message that reads: "Need a job, stop inside XYZ to fill out an app and get a free cup of coffee." Not only might you find a great employee, but you may land a new customer as well.

Companies can utilize QR Codes (those little black boxes that are scanned via mobile devices) to place recruitment ads nearly anywhere. These little codes can link back to a video or website which can provide an applicant with detailed information on the positions available and how to apply for the job.

In-Your-Face Recruitment Campaigns

Perhaps technology-based recruitment isn’t quite what you’re looking for. There are plenty of other unconventional ways to post open positions.

Consider atypical locales. They take a little ingenuity and creativity to determine, but any unused space that is seen by your target demographic can potentially be used as a recruitment platform. You may need to get a little resourceful to pull off some of these tactics, but just think about the response you will get.

Need a new bartender or server at a swanky club? How about a great flyer located at eye level in the ladies room? Looking for a new barista? Place your ad on the bottom of your coffee cups, with instructions on where to apply for the job.

Are you thinking of stealing your tech-savvy competitors' finest? Consider placing a billboard just outside of their headquarters written in code only they will understand.

Whether you post your ad in the most unconventional of places or the most traditional, your ultimate goal is always to have it seen. You need to make it stand out from among the crowd of other recruitment postings, and attract the best candidate for the position.

 

Find your candidates unconventionally. Hire them innovatively. Save time and money with a powerful custom TribeHR job board. Applicant tracking and employee engagement software from as little as $19/month. Get started with a free 60-day trial.

 

Should I Hire my Best Friend?

Hire your best friend? Or your brother? Or your aunt? You must be crazy. Or maybe you’re a genius.

There are pros and cons to every business decision, and this one is no exception.

Why You Should Do It

• You love your friend, and you want to help him out. Nothing wrong with that.

• Your brother is someone you can trust, and you can’t have enough employees who will show you loyalty.

• 

  Is your friend that guy? Be careful about hiring that guy.
  Flickr/Meghan Dougherty

  You’ve known your aunt for 40 years, and you know her strengths and weaknesses. There will be very few (negative) surprises if you hire her.

• Your good friend knows you well. He knows when to give you some space and when you need some words of encouragement.

• In some areas, there can be tax advantages to it. In the United States, businesses that employ family members can get tax deductions for “reasonable compensation,” which in certain situations can redirect income from higher business rates to lower personal rates. (Fair warning: the IRS has the right to question whether compensation is in fact reasonable.)

Why You Shouldn’t Do It

• Your friend takes advantage of the fact that he’s your friend. He arrives late, leaves early and takes more sick days than anyone else.

• Your sister is a great person, but she just doesn’t have an aptitude for your business.

• Your uncle has a lot of experience in your business, but he can’t stop treating you like you're 10 years old, and he doesn’t give you the respect you’ve earned, especially around other employees.

• Your buddy is smart and ambitious—a little too ambitious because he acts like he’s the boss. Maybe he’s the Alpha Dog within your group of friends, but he’s acting the same way at work.    

• Your cousin is convinced he should earn more than the guy who’s doing the same job “because blood is thicker than water.”

• Hiring your friend is the easy part. Promoting him is difficult because other employees may assume it happened only because of his relationship with you. Demoting or even firing him can be even harder, because of the impact it will have on your personal relationship with him.

If You Do It

You can see that there are a plenty of pros and cons to hiring a friend or family member. If you do it, here are some rules:

• Always act professionally in the workplace.

• Create a clear job description for your friend or family member.

• Make sure your friend is governed by the same policies and procedures as every other employee, and that the entire team knows this.

• Establish specific hours for your friend, even if he’s a part-time employee.

• If you do decide to pay a friend or family member "more than they're worth," keep that private. Make sure that both he and HR know the importance of not communicating that with anyone.

 

Find the best person for the job. Build the best team with TribeHR's applicant tracking system.

 

HR in Popular Culture

Popular culture has a long tradition of bashing management and human resources. Whether portrayed as ineffectual, incompetent, or downright evil, HR seems to be cast either as the heavy or the punchline. Hopefully that trend will change soon—but in the meantime, here are the top five examples of human resources in popular culture.

The Top 5 List: HR in popular culture

1. Dilbert — Scott Adams’ long-running comic strip (first published in 1989) is probably the most well known example of human resources in popular culture. Dilbert appears in 2000 newspapers worldwide in 65 countries and 25 languages, in addition to spawning a TV series, video game, merchandise, and books.
    
   Catbert is Dilbert’s company's evil feline Human Resources director. He's buddy-buddy with the Pointy Haired Boss, and loves to watch employees worry about their jobs and potential layoffs.
    
    
2. Office Space — Peter Gibbons reports to eight different bosses and is sick of hearing about cover sheets and TPS reports. So when two management consultants are brought in to cut expenses by downsizing, hilarity ensues. Mike Judge’s 1999 directorial debut has achieved cult status over the years. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named Office Space one of "The 100 best films from 1983 to 2008."
    
3. The Office (U.S. version) —This Emmy award-winning TV show continues the tradition of bashing human resources in popular culture, with Toby Flenderson as the human resources representative for the Scranton branch of paper distributor Dunder Mifflin/Sabre. Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell, probably shows the most disrespect for Toby and the HR function, constantly telling everyone in the office that HR’s job is to make the office ‘lame’.
    
   
   Typical comments include, "Toby is in HR, which technically means he works for corporate, so he's really not a part of our family. Also, he's divorced, so he's really not a part of his family."
    
   The British version is equally funny.
     
4. Horrible Bosses — This black comedy, which stars Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx, is about three friends who (instead of just quitting their jobs) decide to murder their bosses. Contrary to Office Space, in this film the employees hire a consultant—a murder consultant.
    
   To promote the movie, Warner Bros. set up a 12-foot Voodoo doll resembling a corporate boss in downtown Montreal. People were given the chance to vent their frustrations on the doll by stabbing and hitting it with large needles.
    
5. Human Resources — This movie, actually titled Ressources Humaines, premiered at the 1999 San Sebastian Film Festival, where director Laurent Cantet won the New Directors Award. It's a drama about a recent college graduate who lands an internship at the plant where his father has worked for years.
   

   A government-mandated 35-hour work week was introduced in France in 1998 to allow more people into the workplace, by reducing the time each employee worked by 4 hours each week.

   
   The young man is the liaison between management and labor as the plant switches to a 35-hour workweek. But when the company uses the intern’s data to recommend the firing of many long-time employees, including his father, things really get interesting.

Attracting Staff to Rural Businesses

How to get star candidates to move to smaller towns

You’ve got a nice little business, but it’s not in New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago. It’s also not in Milwaukee, Sacramento or Tampa. Heck, it’s not even in Akron, Albany or Anchorage.

You’re in rural America—exactly where you want to be, and you’re not alone. About one out of five non-farm businesses are located outside of metropolitan areas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But even though you’ve chosen to be off the beaten path, that doesn’t mean you don’t want to employ the best of the best. So how do you recruit great employees to work and live in Mayberry?

Here are six steps to help you find and hire employees who will thrive at your small-town business:

1. Know what your employees like.
What attracted your existing employees to your company in the first place, and what has caused your long-time employees to stay? Those attributes, whatever they may be, are likely to be the same things that will attract and retain others.

2. Find the right types of people.
Who are they? They might be locals who grew up where your business is located and don’t need anyone to convince them that your town is a good place to be.  They might be people who went to small colleges in small towns and love that atmosphere. Or they might just be the kind of people who like to be a big fish in a small pond, and see your company as a great opportunity to be that big fish.

3. Accentuate the positive.
What does your company have going for it? Flexible work schedules? Great salaries? Lots of vacation? Company cars? Profit sharing? Job security? Whatever it is, play it up.

That goes for the city where you’re located, too. Is it a beautiful place to live with friendly people? Does it have good public schools and very little crime? How about the cost of living? Very often workers can earn a smaller salary in a small town and come out ahead.

Median household income in rural places is about 78 percent of income in metro areas, though the lower cost of living in non-metro areas usually narrows or closes the gap, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. Be sure to make that case convincingly to job candidates who mention that they’re being offered more money elsewhere.

4. Highlight cultural opportunities.
Employees who like big cities very often like them because of the cultural opportunities they offer. Play up your area’s cultural offerings, whatever they may be. Rural areas often have excellent regional museums, great summer-stock theater, and unique festivals.

5. Court the most coveted job candidates.
Make candidates feel like they're the girlfriend or boyfriend who you want to be with for a long time. If you find out during their interview that they like wine, send them a gift basket with a couple of bottles of wine. If you know they like going to movies, mail them movie tickets. Do whatever it takes. And, yes, flattery often works, especially with younger people. Just make sure your flattery is honest and sincere.

6. Be patient.
Don’t hire good people who won't be a good fit for your company. Your employees cost you a lot of money—an average of $20.91/hour for wages and $9.21/hour for benefits, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics—so you don’t want to make hiring mistakes.

Companies in rural areas may have to work harder to find and keep good employees, but that hard work often pays off with a loyal and stable workforce. Whatever you do, don’t try to avoid that hard work. If you do, you may have to install the only revolving door in town.

 

TribeHR's tools make it easy for smaller businesses to recruit and retain star employees. Get started today.

Alternative Performance Rating Systems

Nearly every aspect of business has a “gold standard”—a practice that’s considered the best of the best. But, all too often, those same standards become outdated or simply irrelevant for the times.

In HR, the “behavioral anchored rating system” (BARS), which works by assigning a numerical value to specific behaviors needed for individual job duties, is often considered king. BARS helps ensure that both the general and specific duties of an employee are assessed in a quantitative and qualitative way.

Although BARS is an industry-leading appraisal tool, the system has some significant drawbacks. BARS demands a time and financial commitment that many smaller organizations simply can’t meet. Supervisors sometimes find rating certain aspects of an employee’s performance difficult, since the listed behaviors do not always include the required actions of the employee—and re-development is challenging.

BARS may be deemed the best by many, but there are several alternatives to the traditional performance rating systems that may better fit your company:

Mentoring/Coaching Sessions

Some companies have scrapped performance reviews all together. In their place, the company works to match its employees with a career coach who can help solve problems one-on-one, and offer advice about best practices within the job. These coaches also try to target and fix an employee’s deficiencies. Often the coach is a respected leader within the organization, or a manager from another department.

The coach system works best when it’s an ongoing practice, optimizing both contiguous (ie. constant) and continuous (ie. with breaks between sessions) evaluations. Coaches may report back to the employee’s direct supervisor with evaluations and recommendations.

360-Degree Feedback Appraisals

Teamwork is a critical aspect in every organization, so utilizing the members of the team is considered an accurate and credible technique for conducting appraisals. Although not a new strategy, the 360-degree feedback appraisals allow the entire team, including peers, subordinate and superiors, to weigh in on the performance evaluations. Since these evaluations come from several different sources, employees often feel they are more accurate and credible.

According to a study by the National Fire Academy that examined the functionality of 360-degree feedback, employees are more likely to change their work habits in order to gain respect from their colleagues than they are from their supervisors.

Self-Appraisals

We all know that you are your harshest critic. That’s why self-appraisals work. Performance evaluations conducted by the employee can provide honest and constructive feedback to managers. Employees know where they have succeeded, and where they have run into obstacles (both internally and externally).

Utilizing self-appraisals often helps employees define clear and realistic goals for progress and improvement. But beware: employees have to be motivated to take the exercise seriously, and some overly confident employees may miss the mark completely, giving themselves much higher rankings than they deserve.

Peer Evaluations

Some organizations have moved to 100% peer-based evaluations. Taskforces of six to eight employees are selected to develop and implement the evaluation process. Peer reviews have a high level of acceptance within the working environment, and are viewed as stable, task-relevant and accurate.

Many systems also allow for open communications between task force members and employees. This creates a more worker-friendly environment by providing a safe and non-threatening forum to discuss grievances and other organizational concerns. Most peer review evaluations, however, do not affect pay raises or incentive bonuses.

Regardless of the evaluation system that your company implements, it's essential that employee feedback be taken seriously. Workers want to know if they are meeting expectations. They want to know where they can improve, and where they excel. They want to know what skills they need to develop or enhance. They want to know if, quite simply, they're doing a good job or not.

Clearly communicating employees' strengths and weaknesses creates a more productive and more efficient working environment.

Have you adopted a unique evaluation system that works for your company? We want to hear about it. Leave a comment or send us a message.

 

TribeHR's online performance rating software can be customized to do almost anything. Get started today with a free trial.

 

How to Develop a Solid Affirmative Action Program

Governments often require employers to develop programs that promote diversity in the workplace. Employers must understand the specifics of the requirements in order to avoid any legal problems when they create these plans. 

In the United States, satisfying the Affirmative Action Program (AAP) laws can be tricky. Employers need to know whether the organization is required to have an affirmative action plan, know how to set the plan up, and how to ensure that it's enforced.

The following tips apply to fulfilling the needs of an AAP plan in the United States, but are good tips for developing a diversity strategy in most other countries as well. (But always remember: legal requirements change depending on where and when you live!)

Assessing Need for an AAP Plan

Setting up an affirmative action plan is necessary for any business covered by the affirmative action requirements. If your company has 50 or more employees and meet any of the following conditions, then an affirmative action plan is probably necessary:

• Hold a federal contract paying $50,000 or more per year.
• Your business is overseen by a federal agency such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (as in the case of a financial institution) or the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
• Serves as a depository of federal funds.

In addition to U.S. federal requirements, many states have their own requirements detailing when employers must set up an affirmative action plan. You need to check the laws in your state or country before you make a decision.

AAP Requirements

If a program falls under the federal AAP requirements, there are a number of standards that employers must meet. These components include an analysis of the organization, its job groups, and its placement goals.

Also, employers must have plans in place to keep all information related to the plan confidential. They must also maintain personnel and employment records and track applicants. Finally, they need a system for enforcing these requirements.

Companies should conduct regular audits to avoid employment discrimination. You should do an audit every time an employee is hired, promoted, or a group of employees are laid off.

Regular audits help the organization see how employees are doing in an organization. This helps to ensure that vulnerable groups aren't being given less desirable positions in the workplace. Audits help identify how personnel decisions are implemented in your company. You want to know if gender, race, culture, or disability have unfair influences on HR decisions.

Self-audits mean looking at employees in different job groups (i.e. employees that shares similar employment characteristics, like pay and opportunities). Within each of these job groups, make sure you identify who holds the position. You'll need to keep records in case you the government decides to conduct an audit of its own.

Companies and legally required to uphold the requirements of the AAP, or whatever regulator you report to in your own jurisdiction. But implementing AAPs and promoting diversity aren't just about meeting legal requirements—they're about making your business better.

 

Store your files in the cloud, manage your recruiting, protect employee privacy, and solicit anonymous feedback with TribeHR's comprehensive HR system.

  

The Glass Office: Pros and Cons

The Pros and Cons of Working in a Glass Office

One of the most heart-pumping scenes in the movie The Social Network occurred when Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin stormed out of a glass-enclosed conference room, confronted Mark Zuckerberg and angrily accused Zuckerberg of cheating him out of millions of dollars of Facebook stock. Saverin—or the actor who played him—then grabbed Zuckerberg’s laptop and smashed it into many little pieces of plastic and metal, as dozens of co-workers watched, mouths wide open.

This scene was for all to see because Zuckerberg was hard at work at a little desk, which was pushed up against other little desks in a wide open space, where there was no privacy to be found.

The fact is that the office depicted in the movie looks like a lot of workplaces today. Nearly 70 percent of all offices in the U.S. have an open floor plan, with glass-walled conference rooms and desks separated by no or low walls, according to a report by the International Facilities Management Association.

So many companies use this “open seating design” because the benefits are pretty obvious:

• Communication between co-workers is easier and quicker—and better because it’s eye to eye.

• Better communication leads to better collaboration, which leads to higher levels of productivity.

• More natural light in the workplace improves employees’ moods.

• Fewer offices and cubicle walls reduce build-out, maintenance, and energy costs.

• An open floor plan also gives more employees views of the outside, making them feel less confined and putting them in a better frame of mind.

• Employees will use their time more wisely if they know it’s more likely they're being watched.

But there are downsides, as The Social Network suggests:

Employees sometimes need privacy that their work stations don’t provide, so they need to get up and borrow a vacant office, or go to a conference room, which takes time and can hurt productivity. 

Open floor plans make noisier work places, and all but the most expensive glass walls allow more noise to pass through.

Some companies realize after the fact that their open floor plans are too open, and they end up spending money on frosting glass, erecting or lengthening cubicle walls, or replacing glass with sheetrock.

So do the pros outweigh the cons? Employees who like to doze off at their desks after lunch would say no, but a growing number of companies say yes.

 

Enhance productivity and cohesiveness with TribeHR. Please subscribe for e-mail updates from the Workplace Tribes Blog.