{UAH} Why I Tell My Employees to Bring Their Kids to Work.

Why I Tell My Employees to Bring Their Kids to Work

by Sabrina Parsons  |   11:00 AM April 22, 2014

I am the CEO of a fast-growing high-tech company. I'm also a mother of three boys, ages 9, 7, and 4, and I pride myself on being very involved in their lives. I have had to juggle kids and career for the last 10 years, and I cannot separate work and home life, as I've found that creates too much stress and pressure. Instead, I integrate both, bringing kids to work and work to home as I need to. This has worked so well for me, and Palo Alto Software, that it has become part of our company culture.

No, we don't bring our children into the office every single day, and by no means have we used this freedom as a daycare replacement. But, when the nanny needs an afternoon off, school is suddenly canceled, or someone's child is not feeling great, we welcome and encourage them to spend the day in the office. We even have a room designed specifically for children who need to spend time in the office where they can watch TV, play games, work on art projects, read, or do homework.

My employees also aren't burdened by strict working hours. Regardless of the reason, if parents need to be with their children during "normal" work hours, we understand and support them. We focus on results and achieving goals rather than hours worked in the office, and give employees the freedom to get their work done where and how they need to.

As companies compete for top talent, company benefits and culture are important. We've all heard about some of the ridiculous benefits at Silicon Valley firms, like barber shops, coffee carts, game rooms, and free dry cleaning on campus. New employees get the latest tech gadgets as signing bonuses. One COO of a fast-growing Silicon Valley company told me he never thought so much of his job was going focus on how to get the best burritos to the cafeteria to avoid losing employees to the next Internet darling.

But at the end of the day, these types of benefits are pretty superficial. Everyone knows those are focused on keeping you at the office for as long as possible — not about actually making you happy. Providing an environment where an employee can be loyal, work hard, and get rewarded for innovation will bring both better results and more talented people to your company. The best of the best are swayed less by a new iPad or free lattes than by having the opportunity to manage their own hours and focus on results, at a company that respects their home lives and their families.

Research has shown that a person can only be productive for a certain amount of hours each day. Beyond that, employees are just wasting time and producing meager results. Sometimes working too many hours actually produces a negative, not just a neutral or delayed, effect on results and productivity. So why encourage employees to stay at the office for 60, 70, and 80-hour weeks when you may, in fact, get less out of them or even lose them to other companies? The culture that I advocate for allows employees to work hard and gives them the opportunity to de-stress and refresh every night when they go home at 5:30 or 6pm.

Do my employees produce less? Has my company suffered financially for the work style and the benefits I afford my employees? Quite the contrary. We have never grown faster, nor been more financially successful. We have happy employees who love to work for us. Oh, and we also had an office baby boom — there have been 10 babies born in the past year. If that isn't an indicator of happy, secure, well-paid employees, I don't know what is!

We believe that to both recruit and retain the best people, we need to provide a culture that gives them room to be creative, take initiative, and excel in their careers. That's why we recognize the importance of their personal lives — and why we give them flexibility in hours, as well as the flexibility to bring kids and babies to the office as necessary. So let's forget about the "cheap" perks like foosball and free burritos, and instead provide a culture that respects people as human beings who want more than just work.

More blog posts by Sabrina Parsons

More on: Organizational culture, Technology, Work life balance

SABRINA PARSONS

Sabrina Parsons is the CEO of Palo Alto Software.

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