Effectively controlling costs is rule number one in any business. But the bigger and more expensive projects get, the more important it is to have a tight rein on expenditure. However, one cost organisations may not consider is the cost of employee apathy.
Simply put, apathy is a lack of interest or concern for something. If you have an apathetic employee heading up Human Resources for example, you may be met with flimsy new hire protocols, a disinterested attitude when interviewing candidates and outdated personnel files. When you have an apathetic employee handling Service Providers for your offsite project, the costs of apathy can be far greater.
To illustrate, consider an employee who’s responsible for sourcing competitive quotes from Service Providers for a large offsite project. These Service Providers need to provide good quality workforce accommodation, transport and catering. From the outset, they need to be invested and do their due diligence in not only vetting the reputation and track record of Service Providers, but in weighing up the cost-versus-quality pros and cons. They can’t simply accept the first quote that comes their way and call it a day. And as a business owner or project manager you need to be able to trust that they’re invested in realising the best possible cost and quality outcomes for the project.
On large projects, apathy can lead to Service Provider selection and coordination delays, inflated costs that haven’t been adequately benchmarked and time delays (often the greatest source of stress and money loss for most projects). For an average size project, even a 10% overrun can lead to a $5 million hit to project profitability according to Deltek, a UK-based project lifecycle software and information solutions company.
On large projects, apathy can lead to Service Provider selection and coordination delays, inflated costs that haven’t been adequately benchmarked and time delays.
Apathy can also lead to absenteeism, employee turnover and overall productivity loss. One US-based study estimated that the total cost of disengaged employees amounts to $450 to $500 billion per year. On top of this is the fact that, worldwide, employees aren’t engaged in their jobs to begin with – a 2021 global workplace report found that only 15% of employees are engaged in the workplace, marking 85% as apathetic.
Closer to home, lost productivity in South Africa amounts to more than 280 million days per year, which is an average of roughly 18.8 unproductive days per South African employee, per year.
When you consider some of the stats above, you can start to see the value in outsourcing core business functions – like Service Provider identification, negotiation and contracting – to a dedicated partner. You don’t need to constantly monitor employee engagement, micromanage interactions or re-engineer Key Performance Indicators to ‘force’ project investment and due diligence. There are also knock-on cost-saving benefits to contracting an outside partner, such as not having to pay employee medical aid or contribute to an employee pension fund for example.
At iLodge it’s our business to be engaged, to seek out the best Service Providers to accommodate your diverse offsite project needs, and to bring you Service Provider costs that match both your budget and quality expectations.
Work with us on your next offsite project and let us assist you in finding the right accommodation, catering and transport for your workforce.
