Why More Employees Are Running Errands During Work Hours.

A survey of adults living in 14 metropolitan areas in the US and Canada revealed that fully 93 percent of them spend part of their work day either shopping online, shopping offline, and/or running other personal errands. Captivate, the company that conducted the survey, found that the number of adults who shop online during business hours increased by 63 percent from 2011, and that one in five admitted to doing all three activities in a given week.

WHY DO EMPLOYEES FEEL THE NEED TO CARRY OUT PERSONAL ERRANDS DURING WORKING HOURS?

Work – life balance is an elusive goal for most employees. With the ever increasing demands of the workplace coupled with family and personal obligations, it is difficult to find the time needed to separate the two and they sometimes overlap with employees doing personal errands during workings hours and some even taking work home.

Another explanation for the ‘run away’ mentality may also be due to a lack of flexibility of some employers. Most companies or business places where personal tasks are executed, carry the same or very similar working hours as most corporate and government entities. This is true for banks, utility payment centers and most other institutions. However, employers may not willingly allow the time required to employees to fulfill these tasks because their businesses may suffer as a result or may have such packed work schedules and activities that time is critical.

HOW EXACTLY IS THIS AFFECTING YOUR BUSINESS?

1. Hinder business flow

Employees normally conduct the majority of their task and errands at the end of the month into the beginning of the following month. This tends to be a peak period for most businesses/ companies including yours. If your employees are not present to attend to the increase in activity at this time, this can hinder the flow of business.

2. Low productivity levels

Although employees not being present may also affect your productivity, not all employees may run away. There are some committed and loyal employees within every organization who may not leave during working hours but who may rely on their lunch hours or breaks to conduct their personal transactions. I can tell you from personal experience and based on the experiences of my peers and colleagues over the years, that after a lunch hour of running errands, workers are generally less productive! They are tired, hungry, sweaty and distracted! They are unable to function optimally for the balance of the day. Productivity is at a stand still or at the least, extremely low.

3. Poor customer service

Employees performing under these distracted and unfocused conditions generally cannot be customer centric. They are now moody, edgy and abrupt, just awaiting the end of the work day. This results in poor customer service, bad customer perception and may even affect your company’s chances of ever doing repeat business with a customer who has been the recipient of such service.

4. Your money

As a result of employees sidelining work tasks to complete their personal tasks, extra time now has to be taken to execute their duties within the desired timeframe. This results in either a) Substandard work or b) Increased overtime costs.

WHAT ARE YOUR OPTIONS?

I. Flexi time

II. Work from home

III. Instill stricter rules and monitoring of employees during working hours.

IV. Hire an errand service to handle your employee’s personal tasks while they work.

Although the first three are viable options, all three require major strategic planning, a change in operations, software and other adjustments and time to execute effectively.

HOW CAN WE ASSIST?

Option IV. is our alternative to solving your problem! Given that your employees are your number one asset and have the ability to make or break your business, emphasis should be directed toward this issue for the benefit of both your employees and your business.

HCS ERRANDS Services can partner with your firm/organization in providing the various errands needs. Having commenced operations in 2015, we have been assisting individuals and businesses with their tasks and errands so that they may have more time to focus on the more important aspects of their lives and business. Our services range from simple to more complex errands as we strive to meet the needs of our customers.