Are You Flexible?--Reports on the Use of Flexible Work Schedules

By Cara Whedbee, Ph.D.

In the May 19, 2008 issue of Workforce Management is an interview of Libby Sartain, the Human Resources giant with three decades of success leading the strategic HR movements at Mary Kay, Southwest Airlines and most recently Yahoo. In his final interview question of this issue, Ed Frauenheim asks Sartain, “What are the biggest challenges these days for HR leaders?” In her answer, Libby observes that the talent market has changed so dramatically in the last two to three years that all of HR must change along with it. She explains,

“I think employers are going to have to learn how to have this individual work arrangement with each employee in certain aspects of the talent. I’m not saying that’s going to be the case for retail jobs or volume hiring positions. But it’s going to be the case for some of your top talent or some of your core talent in certain industries. It’s beginning to happen. The Silicon Valley is probably where we see a lot of it. But it’s going to sweep the country.”

What Do Flexible Work Schedules Look Like?

So what forms can this “individual work arrangement,” or flexible work schedule, take? According to a recent post (5/13/08) on the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) site by Kathy Gurchiek entitled, “Workplace Flexibility Has ‘Bottom-Line Implications,’” she says, “Schedule flexibility includes such things as compressed work weeks, flex-time and part-time options; location flexibility deals with working remotely from other than the main office or work site.”

What Do Flexible Work Schedules Do for Employers and Employees?

Gurchiek’s article is a review of a study conducted by researchers Joseph Grzywacz, Ph.D. and then-student Patrick R. Casey from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. The study results of more than 3,100 employees from a multinational company indicated “increased job flexibility is associated with a decrease in work-related impairments and improved job commitment over a one-year period…and benefits health-related outcomes with clear bottom-line implications for business.”

If Workplace Flexibility is Such a Good Thing, How Do U.S. Employers Use It?

Not well, according to a study published in May by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California Hastings College of Law. As Jessica Marquez of Workforce.com writes in her post on June 11, 2008, reviewing this study, “The U.S. is behind the majority of developed nations when it comes to having statutes in place to allow for flexible work arrangements. Of the 21 ‘high income’ countries examined in the study, the U.S. finished last.”

What are Lawmakers Doing to Increase the Statutes for Flexible Work Arrangements in the U.S.?

According to the same Marquez article, “Flexible Work Gains Attention of Lawmakers,” both Democrats and Republicans have put forth bills to offer flexible work arrangements for employees in the United States.

One such bill was offered in December 2007 by Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, and Representative Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, entitled the Working Family Flexibility Act, and as Marquez comments, “would grant employees the ‘right to request’ reduced hours or an alternate work schedule. If the bill is passed, employers would have to establish formal procedures for discussing employees’ needs and how to address them but wouldn’t be required to grant employees their requests.”

Another bill along these lines was introduced in May 2008 by Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington, called the Family-Friendly Workplace Act. According to Marquez, “Under the bill, private sector workers would be able to work overtime and essentially bank that toward paid time off or ‘family time.’ Currently, only public sector employees have family time.”

What Can You Do to “Be Flexible” in the Workplace?

As can be seen by the review of the aforementioned studies and proposed bills, flexible work schedules are going to be the norm for the future workplace in America, and around the world. Several options for making your workplace flexible exist and can include: