The changes give employees a lot of personal responsibility, which Stephen says is a good thing.
Investec co-founder, director and former CEO Stephen Koseff has commented on changes investment bank's leave and dress-code policies along with other matters around the future of work.
In a recent CFO South Africa article, Stephen says the “no leave” policy, which allows employees to have unlimited leave within reason, gives people the freedom to operate as they please as long as they deliver on what is expected of them and continue to be a valued corporate citizen, looking after their clients and creating value for the organisation.
“They can do all of that at home, on holiday, or wherever they may be. I’ve found that, if they are committed citizens of the organisation and want to see it grow, the probability with the no leave policy is that they will rather take less leave than more. There’s a lot of personal responsibility, which I think is a good thing,” says Stephen.
“The same applies to the dress code. They know that they’re not going to see clients in shorts. They have to have the common sense or the emotional intelligence to determine whether what they’re wearing is appropriate.”
On what other changes he foresees happening in the world of work, Stephen says that, in the developed world, there will be a lot more people working for themselves. Furthermore women participation in the workforce is much higher than it has ever been.
“When I qualified as an accountant there were two women in my class of 200. Today, more than 50 percent of any accounting class is female,” he says.
Earlier this year, Investec head of HR Lesley-Anne Gatter spoke about the motivation for the policy changes, which were bound to have a significant impact on the culture of the organisation.
"The changes have been met with a huge amount of positivity, employees have adopted the dress code changes immediately and we’ve seen a boost in both morale, goodwill and care for the brand in how people are dressing. We’ve seen a big uptick in applications for Careers at Investec and meaningful engagement with leaders around the changes,' said Lesley Anne in the CHRO South Africa article.
