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Work-Life Movers highlights progressive individuals who have taken that bold first leap towards creating a pro work-life culture in their organisations. These are the champions for work-life integration who have made an impact through initiating strategies for employees to harmonise both work and personal demands. EA finds out what inspires them and what challenges they overcame to create a win-win outcome for both the employee and the company. We hope their successful work-life journeys will inspire you to begin yours. |
2011 . Issue 1 |
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Mr Ken Leong
Director
361 Degree Consultancy Pte Ltd
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The Company
361 Degree Consultancy is a one-stop provider of corporate services such as accounting, book-keeping, corporate secretarial, tax and grant advisory services to SMEs. It is the biggest MYOB professional partner in Singapore. Work-Life Integration forms one of the company’s key values in its corporate mission statement.
The Inspiration
"My greatest satisfaction is when I see our Work-Life policies working, my employees happy and the company prospering. It is very fulfilling to see that what you truly believe in, actually works."
Mr Ken Leong
Director |
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The Champion
Mr Ken Leong, Director of 361 Degree Consultancy, is no stranger to work-life integration issues as he is a certified work-life consultant with MOM. When he started the company about three years ago, he knew that fostering Work-Life Integration would go a long way towards building both a successful business as well as keeping his employees happy. “As a relatively small company, having flexible work arrangements is an important factor in attracting talent as we compete with the bigger corporations to recruit the best people.” |
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The Cause
Flexibility is indeed the key to maximising his employees’ productivity. Staff are given a wide range of options such as working from home, part-time work or staggered work hours. Mr Leong firmly believes that these initiatives result in higher productivity. “When you work from home your performance should be better simply because there are fewer distractions than at the office, such as handling customer phone calls or administrative tasks. We are blessed because our industry is very much results-driven and this is how our staff are assessed, based on results and not the amount of time put in at the office,” he enthuses. |
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The Challenge
However one challenge he faced was the possibility of abuse, which he admits, is sometimes unavoidable. But an open system of good communication and trust is vital in making these work-life schemes a success. Occasionally there may be complaints when staff are required to take on the workload of those who come in late or who work half-day. But they realise that it might well be their turn to call on other colleagues to fill in for them when they experience a personal emergency themselves and need to take time off.
The other benchmark of productivity that Mr Leong uses is the personal well-being and happiness of his employees. He notes, “A satisfied employee will contribute more when he or she is able to juggle work and family life. When the spouse is happy, the children are happy, the employee will be happier and more productive.” His personal maxim for this is encapsulated in his own words, “Everyone who works in the company must feel happy.”
For past issues of Work-Life Movers, please click here.
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