Few would argue that time is one of the most precious commodities we seem to be losing. Making a living consumes the bulk of our days, leaving less time to enjoy the fruits of our labor. This complicates life, causing stress and lowering the quality of life.

These time constraints carry over into other areas of our lives, particularly our personal time for leisure and family. Extended hours are common in most professions, reducing personal time to pursue activities that enrich our lives. According to the Families and Work Institute, “Whole new phrases have entered our vocabularies to describe these feelings - the time crunch, the time bind, the time squeeze, the 24/7 economy and the everytime-everyplace workplace.”

Despite this gloomy commentary, the good news is that there are emerging social movements to help us “take back our time.” Corporations fully recognize the importance of employee recruitment and retention, and are employing initiatives that focus more on balancing work and life. To compete for the best employees, employers must implement employee services programs. A survey by the Employment Policy Foundation released in August 2005 found that employees are more likely than ever to consider a benefits package just as heavily as salary when looking at a job change. These initiatives range from corporate concierge services to workplace flexibility options or increased compensation. From the corporate perspective, concierge services are seen as a work-life benefit in helping individuals more effectively manage their time and work.

Everybody Wins!

More significantly, studies have shown that concierge services render invaluable benefits to the employers as well as the employees. It provides corporations a variety of professional and personal assistance options that can be made accessible to employees through their employee assistance program or human resource division. These stress-reducing services have been proven to:

•Help employees achieve optimum productivity

•Increase efficiency and reduce absenteeism

•Upgrade benefit packages for attracting new employees, while complementing compensation packages

•Provide fresh, affordable ways to enhance employee loyalty

By offering a menu of services valuable to employees, corporate concierges can alleviate personal stressors that make working 40+ hours a week physically and mentally exhausting. Employees like not having to use PTO (personal time off) that can be applied towards their vacation. Concierge services, consequently, add value to the corporation, thereby improving employee retention and recruitment!

A 20 year veteran still active in the hospitality industry, Janet Slater currently operates her own corporate and residential concierge services for several properties in Las Vegas and Arizona. She writes on many employee benefits and work/life balance related topics including concierge services. You can learn more about this industry by visiting her blog at concierge101.blogspot.com or her website at http://www.concierge101.com