In addition, surprisingly, the European Commission, a body within the European Union that focuses on developing policy initiatives began promoting teleworking and other work-life balance practices only in the early 1990''s. In the US, alternative and family friendly work arrangements began to appear in the work place in the 70''s and 80''s.
No wonder when Tom Shorten, a Deutsche Bank trader was transferred to NY in the mid 1990''s, he returned back to the UK in 1999 infused with the idea of founding Enviego, a lifestyle management/concierge services corporation. Supposedly, Shorten had received a dose of good ol'' fashioned American service and believed that the concept of concierge services would be a much-needed hit in the UK.
The company and its client representatives will provide practically any service for those whose time is too precious to waste on doing those errands themselves. Any reasonable demand can be met, the company insists. Some of the more outrageous examples include writing a custom-tailored best man''s speech,
There are two ways that one can access their services. For £55 a month or about $80 a month, individuals can become members to Enviego''s services. However, without the coverage of a subscribing company, individual members are also responsible for paying service fees. The more traditional method is having your company subscribe to Enviego''s services as an employee benefit. Employees just pay for the services rendered while the company pays for their membership fees.
General Concierge Services in North America
Concierge services are extremely flexible, but in general, they aren''t cheap. Depending on the service, they can charge from $12 and $25 an hour or on a per-fee basis. Your grocery shopping service fees typically cost 20% of the bill, a reminder call may cost less than a dollar. Some services are "on-call". In this case, you will be charged a retainer, which can run several thousand dollars a year. Most concierge services are local companies offering personal service. Therefore, as each service is provided by an individually participating establishment, you can''t be guaranteed of the quality.
Here is a list of some interesting concierge requests:
Microsoft, Arthur Andersen, McKinsey, Brooktrout Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, I-Cube, Lockheed Martin, Motorola and Sun MicroSystems all offer their employees access to various convenience services. Therefore, some businesses offer a handful of amenities, such as dry cleaning or meal preparation. Others contract a concierge service provider to handle just about any errand, whether it''s shopping for a gift, taking the car to be repaired or planning a family vacation
US Concierge Vendors and Pricing
Increasing numbers of concierge vendors are Web and telephone based. They can take job orders and communicate with clients both electronically and over the phone. There are also national companies that take job orders online and subcontract the assignments to local partners.
Are Concierge Services really a Benefit?
Sure, access to concierge services sounds great, but offering concierge services and having employees use them, doesn''t indicate that your workplace is either family-friendly or promoting work-life balance. In fact, the opposite could be true.
For example, I used to work for one of the country''s largest banks. Often, maybe 3 times a week, they would order in fully-paid, hot lunches and dinners for the investment traders. That may sound very generous and charitable, but it was to make up for the fact that they wouldn''t let the traders leave to get their own lunches or sometimes even their dinners.
These services should be genuinely offered as a way to help employees recharge their batteries and not because they feel they have to spend 12 hours a day in the building.
It is also difficult to directly correlate the use of concierge services with the effectiveness of it as an effective retention tool. In fact, there is probably little relation between an employee''s use and their overall satisfaction. Think of it like this, would you stay with your employer just because they offered you free meals and dry cleaning services? Maybe, but then again, maybe not...