Can innovative benefits increase productivity?

Last year a US company called Red Frog Events started to receive a lot of media attention due to their particularly progressive attitude to employee benefits and working environment. Amongst other things, their office features a tree house and a climbing wall, but one of the most intriguing aspects of their approach is the staff benefits package that includes unlimited annual leave for every member of the team. Everyone who works at Red Frog is entitled to take as much paid holiday as they want!

Writing in his blog on business website Inc.com, Red Frog's Joe Reynolds made this bold statement:

The 9 a.m.-to-5 p.m. workplace is almost dead. Throw your preconceived notions about vacation out the window and give your employees the no-strings-attached, unlimited vacation days they deserve or you'll soon be a dinosaur.

In this example, there are very few provisos and no questions are asked. The only expectation on Red Frog's staff is to ensure their work is done before going and covered whilst away. It's a simple concept and one that, according to Joe Reynolds, makes for a far more productive working environment.

This is clearly an example of an extreme end of the employer branding spectrum. Red Frog have certainly made themselves into an employer of choice, receiving speculative applications from all over the world, but the question that every manager and leader should ask is, could this work for me?

Realistically, the answer is unfortunately, no.

With production schedules, client requirements and consistently burdened workload, there is an industry or sector specific influence over the potential for introducing such progressive offerings, however in the UK in particular, our working culture is so different and entrenched that it would be hard to get such a programme off the ground. Equally, in some circumstances it would be hard to encourage the buy-in to the company ethos that would prevent individuals taking advantage of the unlimited holiday on offer. To get it right, the organisation has to offer unlimited holiday as the culmination of a wider employee engagement drive.

Employer branding, the concept of becoming an employer of choice and the bottom-line importance of these areas have only really started developing mainstream strength as HR concepts over the last 12-18 months, promoted to members by organisations such as the CIPD. Without establishing a process to create an engaged, employee-focussed culture that develops and rewards mutual trust and respect, any attempt to implement such forward thinking schemes is most likely doomed to failure, jeapordising rather than improving the productivity of the organisation.

There is definitely room for improvement across the board in approaches to establishing clear organisational cultures, with engaged, passionate teams and forward-thinking methods have a real role to play in this. Lead by shining examples such as Red Frog Events, we should all be looking to stimulate the most from our workforce - and for our workforce to get the most from their positions, but approaches should be in keeping with the tradition, ambition and purpose of the organisation itself.

Employer branding is a specific interest of ours at Swann. We work with employers to help them establish their position as an employer of choice with an engaged workforce and we're always keen to hear of examples of work (however progressive!) companies are undertaking on these lines.

Do you have a story to share?