Last year in the PEI government's Throne Speech it was announced that there would be a new stat holiday for the Province starting in February 2009. The holiday, called Islander Day, is to be on the second Monday of every February. This coming Monday will be the first official Islander Day on PEI and many individuals and families will be enjoying their new found time to relax, play and generally celebrate life on PEI.
Unfortunately, is seems that there are some businesses who are complaining that this new stat holiday will negatively impact business on the Island. According to a CBC news report, these businesses feel that the holiday will cost too much in terms of lost payroll with no additional revenues coming in the door on the day.
Premier Ghiz, on the other hand, feels that the day will enhance business productivity,
little more invigorated, they want to get a little more done. I see
this as a win-win situation for the province."
While I have been known to disagree with Premier Ghiz on many occassions about how his government is supporting Island families from a public policy perspective; in this case I fully agree with his thinking. This seems to be one occassion where he really gets it. He recognizes that investing in people will pay off for the Island in multiple ways. What a good thing that is.
Dan James recently wrote a good post on his blog CEO Blues about this issue. In particular, this quote stood out to me:
wasn't meant to help you. It was meant to help your staff. It's a
decision made by the public (the government) for the good of the
people. We've deemed it healthy to have more time off, just like we
deemed it a good idea to compost and recycle. It has to be legislated
or greed would creep in and ruin it. Suck it up. Even with Islander Day
we're at the bottom of the pile for statutory holidays in the country."
So after considering everything, here is my take on this issue….PEI (and Canada for that matter) need more CEO's that think like Dan James. Dan totally gets the big picture here. Even Premier Ghiz sees the value this holiday brings. The simple truth of the matter is that investing in people pays off. Employees need time for their personal lives. Employers who take steps to help their employees achieve better work-life balance are rewarded in more ways than we can count. More and more employers are recognizing that it pays off to offer employees increased flexibility, time off, family supports and more. Happy employees are more engaged in their work and ultimately that is good for the bottom line. Study after study shows this. Leading employers demonstrate this through studies that show enhanced employee engagement scores in exchange for things like increased work work-life flexibilty, better communication, improved employee workload control and respect by management.
Dr. Linda Duxbury, a business professor at Carleton University's Sprott Shaw School of Business, recently delivered her sixth and final report on work-life balance with the warning that policies to support working families are a must to get the economy rolling again. She argued policy-makers must
recognize that heavy workloads and their interference on family life
are key reasons for Canada's declining birth rate and labour force.
They need to develop strategies, polices and interventions to help stem
this work-life "tsunami.
So for those businesses who disagree with this new holiday I say this….get with the program. (Or – even better – as Dan says: Suck it up.) As a Province and as a Country we need to be doing more to invest in the wellbeing of our people and our communities. What goes around comes around. Believe it or not, your employee's wellbeing will be all the better for the extra time this new stat holiday gives them. Enhanced employee wellbeing truly translates to a better bottom line….even in these tough economic times.
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