Grant Thornton trials after-work emails delay to balance work and family life

Grant Thornton is doing its bit for the work-life balance of employees with a trial curfew on late-night internal emails.

The national audit, tax and advisory firm says the month-old initiative is aimed at providing relief from what can be a never-ending, disruptive stream of communications.

Grant Thornton chief executive Greg Keith, who was in Perth this week for a look at the firm’s new Perth offices, said research suggested that workers “who have predictable time off are likely to come back to work refreshed, are more productive, happier in their work and stay with their employer longer”.

“One of the issues I’m constantly hearing from our people is that they never leave work,” Mr Keith said yesterday.

“Their emails are at them all day. They are checking them after dinner and before bed, and a lot of those emails are not important or urgent.

“The scenario is me as a CEO doing exactly that before I finish work, sending out 15-20 emails and then creating an avalanche of work that I didn’t mean to, I just wanted to clear my emails.”

The curfew focuses on the sender, delaying any emails despatched on a firm-deployed laptop to other staff after 7pm until 7am the next day.

It means that staff can still clear their emails from home but without concern that they are interrupting the private time of colleagues.

The Grant Thornton enabling program includes an override function to ensure urgent emails are dealt with immediately.

Mr Keith said the trial was part of the “push back” by business against the negative effects of technology in the workplace.

“We are certainly not the only organisation that’s trying to find a way to let their people relax at night,” he said.

The firm will seek feedback from its 1300 staff early next year as to whether to continue with the curfew or perhaps even expand it to include external emails.

“If we can get our staff turning off at night and spending time with their partners, kids and friends, that’s got to be a good thing,” Mr Keith said.

Under Mr Keith, Grant Thornton is intent on carving out a leadership position in providing specialist advice to mid-size (annual turnover of more than $10 million) companies.