Angel grants employees their wish – for time off in return for high performance

Abstract

Purpose Describes a new breed of HR strategies that encourage employee involvement and commitment as part of high‐performance working (HPW). Design/methodology/approach Focuses on managing employee attitudes and skills through careful attention to leadership, reward and job‐design policies. Highlights the differences between people's formal employment contracts and their less formal “psychological contracts”, and emphasizes the importance of the latter. Provides a case study of UK recruitment consultancy Angel Services Group Ltd, which allows staff who meet their daily targets to go home an hour early. Findings Urges companies to have processes in place to understand the needs of individual employees. This can be done through leadership policies that require all supervisors and managers not only to manage their staff but also to know them as people. Practical implications Emphasizes that organizations need to see HPW initiatives as part of the normal way of managing people, and not as “flavour of the month”. Originality/value Outlines a wide range of initiatives that could help organizations to gain their employees' commitment.

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