Heery strikes a balance

Heery International is challenging the construction industry's macho image with some innovative work/life balance initiatives to improve staff retention levels.

Heery's staff turnover is an impressively low 11% (industry levels vary from 10% to 30%), but personnel manager Vikki Mansfield wants to make company staff even more loyal.

She told delegates at Contract Journal's conference, Recruitment and Retention - how to find and keep the best staff (sponsored by Investors in People and Anders Elite) that the company is 18 months into a programme to defeat its employees' long-hours culture.

Heery used funding from the Department of Trade & Industry for its work/life balance initiative and employed a flexible working consultancy. Ideas include:

n A holiday cancellation promise. If a manager cancels a member of staff's holiday at short notice, the employee will receive double the number of cancelled holiday days and be repaid for any expenses incurred.

n Priority cards for "me time". Each employee is given three priority cards a year to allow them to take three hours off work without needing a reason.

n Mini-shift patterns. These allow an employee to work from 10.30am to 6.30pm, for example, to avoid travelling during the rush hour.

Heery is also developing ideas to improve the health of its staff. These include:

n Free fruit, water and decaffeinated hot drinks on sites.

n Blood pressure monitors.

n Flexible working hours to allow daytime visits to the gym.

Mansfield added: "We are also examining alternatives to pay for weekend or late working. We asked: 'What would staff be doing instead?' If it is, for instance, gardening or childcare, we could offer them a gardener or childcare vouchers." The important thing about these initiatives, says Mansfield, is "it shows we care".

Some conference delegates were sceptical as to whether the ideas were as relevant for blue collar staff as for Heery's mostly management workforce, but Mansfield challenged them to "find a way".