Sir Richard Branson was widely reported yesterday in letting his own staff, about 170 bods sort out their own time off, relaxing any holiday policies, in effect letting staff take as much holiday as they like.
It seems the inspiration came from Netflix who seemed to have pioneered this approach and Bransons daughter suggested he try it himself.
At first it sounds ridiculous, especially those of us previously conditioned to large company mentality and processes.
But if you take a step back and analyse it, it starts to make sense, especially for small business owners.
There are few business owners who simply work a Mon - Fri 9-5 day, although there will be plenty of employees. But imagine if you could recruit the type of people who share a similar work ethic and passion. Those employees who go the extra mile and would do extra work if required to get the job done, rather than being stitched. Then maybe reward them not only financially, but allow them to organise their own working day.
If someone is burning the midnight oil for you, and there is no impact if they come in late, then let work flexibly. If someone needs some urgent time off and can rearrange their schedule, and will make up the hours at a later date then why not?
Suitable for everyone?
Now there are obvious pitfalls, if you are a plumber or run a retail shop, then staff may need to work specific hours. Also it doesn't suit everyone. A large chunk of the working population are plodders, come in, do their job and go home. No problems with that, we can't survive without plodders.
But for senior staff or filling important roles such as marketing etc, what a great incentive to attract the right kind of people.
I can't see this policy getting rolled out across the Virgin Group, I'd imagine it would be selective and job role related, but certainly an interesting concept.
Richard Branson being Richard Branson has turned this idea into an obvious marketing opportunity to peddle his latest book, but if you want to hear more about it, you can read it on his blog.
So any converts to letting staff come and go as they please? 
