Owners of SMEs should talk to their employees about ways of reducing costs rather than spying on them, new research findings suggest.
Iris, a software solutions provider, conducted research which showed that business owners are increasingly scrutinising the timesheets of their employees as well as expense claims and purchasing decisions.
The TUC, however is arguing that this is not the way to reduce overheads and urges managers to talk to their staff about money-saving matters.
TUC policy officer, Paul Sellers, claims that employers who snoop generate resentment which results in lower productivity. Employees can often have good money saving ideas and therefore the best approach would be to involve them in cost cutting exercises, either through the union or a workplace representative.
Meanwhile, big businesses are missing out on potentially large savings by not investing in energy efficiency. The Carbon Trust Advisory claims that companies could save £1.6bn easily by simply upgrading their existing systems and training staff on ways to save energy.
The Trust published a paper earlier this month entitled The Business of Energy Efficiency which showed that finance directors estimate the internal rate of return on energy efficiency investments is less than 20%. In fact the average is actually 48% and investments start to pay back within 3 years.
Hugh Jones, the MD of the Carbon Trust Advisory, said their research showed that large companies are wasting billions every year on unnecessary energy use because they ignore many of the investment opportunities.
Energy efficiency appears to be a low priority in many businesses and a more convincing case needs to be made in order for these organisations to access the capital, resources and expertise required for implementation and staff training.
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