Thousands of articles, online and in print, have been published about the growing desire of employees to work flexible business hours. Most of these words are directed toward managers and corporate decision-makers to alert them that they should address this issue.
Unfortunately, it appears that some senior executives and employers are not spending quality time reading about and considering this strong trend. As Nick Martindale reports in his article, “More Employees Want to Work Flexibly,” (Personnel Today, October 2011), “more than one employee would like the ability to work from home but fewer than one in 10 has any provision for this included in their contract.” This data results from research done by the U.K-based Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP).
Flexibility Goes Beyond Working at Home
Working at home is not the only important component of flexibility. While U.S. employers struggle, as their U.K. brethren do with work at home flex opportunities, they are becoming more convinced that offering staff flexible business hours is valuable.
Some forward thinking employers, like Solix, Inc. (Parsippany, NJ), even allow their employees to choose their working hours, eliminating all the red tape of management policy or employee benefits decisions. Many of their employees begin work around 6:00 AM, getting to the workplace before the stress of rush hour saps their energy.
Solix has found that, by listening to their employees’ wishes for flexibility, the company has received outstanding operating results, higher productivity and much lower turnover, enabling them to retain their experienced staff. Other employers should heed and consider these results.
The research and advocacy organization, Families and Work Institute, found that a huge 87 percent of a recent survey respondents state that workplace flexibility is an “important evaluation” of new job opportunities. Companies having problems with employee retention should closely examine this important employee desire.
A companion statistic is equally startling. 60 percent of employees polled believe they lack sufficient time for themselves and their families. It appears that companies should seriously consider introducing more flexibility for their staff and employee benefits program.
Flexibility also Creates Sacrifices
Higher flexibility of business hours may be a win-win solution, but also comes with some employee and employer sacrifices. Employers must accept that they must make concessions to their preferred employee workplace hours. This can be challenging to the management and supervisory staff. If work at home flexibility is part of the program, management typically must overcome their feeling of a lack of “hands on” supervisory activities. This initial learning curve can stunt short-term productivity and comfortability.
Employees also may need to make sacrifices to make flexibility programs work well. They must commit to be equally flexible to meet the needs or work emergencies of their employer. Those comfortable with working only specified hours (9-to-5, 8-to-4, 7-to-3, etc.) must adopt flexibility as their mantra when the employer has operations needs and/or deadlines that must be met.
Some employers, such as Menlo Innovations (Ann Arbor, MI), have infused high level flexibility creativity. They even allow their valued employees to bring their babies to work—not once a year—every day. They have found that their large open space, called the “factory floor,” (even though they are a software development company), with all the ambient noise created by many voices speaking at once apparently comforts and soothes most babies.
Work Flexibility Can Take Various Forms
Employees and companies seem to define flexibility in different forms. While total flexibility is an unachievable goal, innovative employers can flex business hours for some employees.
For example, banks and credit unions cannot have their branch tellers and customer service representative work at home, as they provide in-person services, they can offer even these employees some flex-time options. Another challenge in the banking industry with work at home options involves privacy issues of customer accounts. Allowing employees to have access, while offering customer service at a home office, may compromise the sensitive information of account holders.
However, many other companies can safely permit their employees to work at home part-time, while they spend the rest of the week at the workplace. For example, an employee could work 9-to-5 at the workplace Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while 9-to-1 on Tuesday and Thursday, working at home on those afternoons.
Employers can also offer full-time employees some choices of workday hours. Allowing some to start early or a bit later than normal to avoid rush hour stress or to match babysitting availability creates higher job satisfaction and lower turnover. Employees who enjoy their workplace always perform higher than those who do not.
How do you rate the flexibility offered by your current employer? Does it meet your expectations and desires? If you do not enjoy these employee benefits at your current employer, are you considering a job change to a company that does offer hourly or work at home flexibility?