The Personal Services or "Don´t-Do-It-Yourself" industry is enjoying unparalleled growth, as time becomes families´ and workers´ most valuable commodity. House cleaning services, childcare, travel planners, and dry cleaners are booming, on-line grocers, party planners, personal chefs and even on-line concierge services are starting to take hold.
Most concierge services are run by sole proprietors or small businesses with only a few employees. These operations are offered in most cities and can be purchased by individuals as well as companies. More recently, national, on-line services have sprung up, some of which are well-financed operations with hundreds of employees, and at least one is considering going public this year.
As Robert Reich (former secretary of labor) says in his latest book, The Future of Success, Americans are ´outsourcing´ more and more of what family used to provide. Today´s economy is more competitive and demanding than ever. In order to spend time with family and friends, most people need help with routine chores and the occasional project or event.
Add to the demands of work the pressures many boomers have with children at one end and elderly parents at the other and you´ve got a situation for many in which there simply isn´t enough time in the day. The typical organization, composed of single, working parents and members of two career households can profit from understanding and sympathizing with its staff in its daily battle with time.
Evidence shows that employers are catching on to the benefits of offering subsidized personal services to their employees. In 2000, Twenty-six of Fortune Magazine´s "100 Best Companies to Work For" offered personal concierge services (up from 15 two years ago). Estimates put the return on investment in increased employee productivity at 75-150%. That makes sense when you consider the time employees may be spending surfing the web looking for products and services, taking their cars for maintenance, calling for child or elder care, planning vacations, etc.
While on-site concierge services have been around for some time, they were most often reserved for senior executives. Today, progressive companies are providing personal and concierge services to all staff, usually for nominal fees, as part of their benefits. The good news for employers is that the old-style concierge services have been joined by new, web-based services that can be offered to staff less expensively.
On-line, Internet accessible personal services agencies are only a few years old but several leading companies have build national services already. By marrying web and telephone technology with hundreds of agents in major cities across North America, these agencies are offering their services at more affordable prices than were possible several years ago. Moreover, their knowledge of how to get things done quickly and efficiently grows exponentially as they learn about local vendors and about their clients´ preferences. Volume discounts and their ability to leverage purchasing power makes them better able to extract deals and levels of service unavailable to individuals or small concierge services.
If you think about the evolution of work, personal service agencies seem like a natural development. You may recruit software engineers better and more efficiently than you fix your carburetor, that´s why you go to a mechanic. Similarly it might make sense to spend more time doing what your good at and outsource your errands. Perhaps then you can split the hours saved between work and quality leisure time. The Economist Magazine, in reporting on concierge services, agrees:
"Even if their (U.S. and U.K.) economies drift into recession, the growth is likely only to slow, not reverse: the industry reckons it is selling less a luxury than greater efficiency."
While few workers would accept a job or switch jobs for a subsidized massage or car wash, the convenience provided by concierge services sends the right message to your staff. Their time is important and you´re demonstrating your respect for that by providing this benefit - helping them in their war for time as you fight the war for talent.
The facts speak for themselves; most companies that have introduced this benefit have expanded it at the request of their workforce. Some leading examples are Accenture.com (formerly Andersen Consulting), Netscape, Texas Instruments and Cisco Systems.
Most companies contract with a concierge service and require their employees to pay nominal charges as they use the service. Smaller agencies tend to charge a sliding hourly rate depending on the type and complexity of the request. Hourly rates can be as low as $10 to as much as $60 and beyond.
Some large concierge companies charge a yearly fee and/or a monthly retainer. LesConcierges, a San Francisco based service, charges corporations $10,000 a month, for example. This includes an on-site concierge who will take employees requests and make arrangements with vendors and sub contractors to get the tasks done.
Accenture partners with two concierge services to reach staff in all of its US based offices. 2 Places at 1 Time of Atlanta and BurCorp At Your Service of Cincinnati. 2 Places at 1 Time charges a start up fee of $7,875 and $6,000 monthly for a full time, on-site concierge. Other companies, like Circles.com, don´t recommend using an on-site concierge. Their model is Internet and telephone based; employees submit their requests and Circles´ network of personal servants do the rest. The costs may be lower in the end; Circles charges between $50 and $250/yr per employee.
Service Providers:
Circles.com
Janet Kraus and Kathy Sherbrooke, recent graduates of Stanford Business School founded Circles Inc. in 1997. Their idea came from their observations of their own families - dual income households where their parents would have gladly paid for the convenience of an errand service.
Kraus and Sherbrooke secured over 15 million dollars in financing from TL Ventures, GE Capital and others. They have grown to over 230 employees and are based in Boston but have clients across the U.S. Circles targets high-tech, financial services and other progressive employers who have at least 1,000 employees.
Their vision: to help people attain ´work-life balance´ is paying off, the company´s revenue grew over 700% last year. Circles has recently added Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Allaire Corp., and Ernst & Young to its roster of clients.
Circles uses the web to provide employees with personal pages from which they can access concierge services. Over time, the Circles software analyses patterns to learn about customers´ preferences. This information lets it provide tailored suggestions and gives live personal servants insight into what their customers will like and appreciate.
Like most other concierge services, Circles´ agents will do anything that is legal and not what they consider morally wrong (an example they´ve used is sending a dead fish to an ex-wife). Circles will not provide childcare but they will find babysitters and day care providers. Circles has helped with marriage proposals, finding rare collectibles, planning theme parties and an assortment of one-off, odd requests. The most common services, however, are the day-to-day chores that consume so much of their clients´ time.
An excellent article about Circles, including the author´s personal experience of their service, can be found in the July 2000 issue of Fast Company at: www.fastcompany.com/online/36/tschwartz.html
Circles.com
300 Congress St.,
Boston , MA 02210
617-622-6200
617-622-6220 (fax)
LesConcierges
Les Concierges is a San Francisco based service that has been in business since 1987. Today it provides service to tenants in apartments and condominiums, passengers on airlines and, of course to employees in corporations. LesConcierges operates in 18 U.S cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Honolulu.
LesConcierges considers itself more ´high touch´ than Circles. It has not yet incorporated technology into its operation to the extent that Circles has. Their approach is to place a full-time concierge within corporate clients´ workplace.
LesConcierges.com
100 Bush St, Suite 300,
San Francisco, CA 94104
415-291-1165
415-291-0190 (fax)
Others:
There are literally hundreds of players in the personal services industry, some offer technology-centric solutions like Quixi.com, for example. Quixi is a new service provider that received over $27 million in financing last year. It acts as a 24-hour personal assistant. You call a ´quixi helper´ personal assistant from your cell phone anytime of day for assistance. For $9.95/month, Quixi personal allows you to upload all your contacts to their databases and your assistant will connect you to any of them when you call. Quixi will also help you find movies, restaurants, tickets, etc. and assist you with your shopping needs.
LiveSmart.com is an Internet work-life balance portal that targets leisure, home, car and shopping related errands. Other services like Kozmo.com will deliver groceries and other items to your home and office. BurCorp and 2 Places at 1 Time, mentioned previously are traditional-type concierge services that have earned excellent reputations through their servicing of major accounts like Accenture.com.
Conclusion:
Even though the North American economy is slowing down and may be headed for recession, organizations should consider adding the services of a concierge to their employees´ benefits. The costs are minimal compared to most other benefits and the results, as far as they can be measured; appear very promising, especially with regard to increased productivity and morale.
Personal services programs are very visible and may influence people to join your company or stay with it. Regardless, most employers would prefer to have their employees´ minds on their work rather than on day care, oil changes and planning the family vacation.
Allan Schweyer has been involved in Internet recruting since 1994 when he helped develop solutions for Human Resources Development Canada. From 1995-2000, Allan helped developed and manage the National Graduate Register, Campus WorkLink and SkillNet.ca. Allan currently writes for HR.com and is enrolled in graduate studies in organizational behavior at Harvard University. He can be reached at ASchweyer[at]hr.com.