Dare to be Flexible: Become the Employer of Choice with Flexible Scheduling Alternatives

by Priscilla Kohl, HRTools Business Writer  

Many of today’s most talented, experienced and skilled employees prefer flexible organizations where the employer culture values a healthy work and life balance. For documentation of this trend, review the 2008 National Study of Employers published by the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit organization.  According to this report “employees in more effective and flexible workplaces are more likely than other workers to have:

1. higher levels of job satisfaction;
2. stronger intentions to remain with their employers;
3. less negative and stressful spillover from job to home;
4. less negative spillover from home to job; and
5. better mental health.”

Employers, Dish It Up!

Successful businesses realize that healthy employees and a more holistic-working environment contribute in positive ways to the bottom line. While employers don’t have to start the day by singing “Kumbaya” with employees, think about your shopping trips to your favorite supermarket or department store. Did you notice that they play music of a certain tempo to put customers in an upbeat mood so they will shop longer? Have you ever found yourself humming along and suddenly feeling better about spending your money?

These same ‘aim to please and keep you’ principles can be applied to your employees. HR specialists are working with innovative employers to provide a smorgasbord of alternative and flexible working arrangements for their employees. You may be surprised at how easily you can please high performing employees, who in turn will amaze your customers, in ways that will make them never want to leave you! Can you start to see the circle revolving?

First Things First, Especially Where Your Employees Are Concerned

HR professionals are finding that to be competitive and successful in today’s business environment—where customers expect your world to revolve around them—relationships are the keys to the treasure chest.  The relationship you want to develop and nurture first is your relationship with your employees.

I think that Southwest Airlines’ President Colleen Barrett best makes my point. Their business-leadership model advocates putting the customer second, next in line after their employees. In other words, Barrett says that their employees are their number one customers. Southwest has found that when employees feel good about the company they work for, they will deliver the same care and friendliness to their customers.

Again, it goes back to prioritizing relationships and developing a workforce culture based on understanding and caring.

Top-Producing Employees Often Need Understanding and Help

Today’s workforce reflects the demographics represented in our society. It is significantly diverse and employees are balancing competing needs. For one, the younger-to-middle-aged demographic groups include many two-parent working families. Balancing child care needs with demanding job schedules, commuting and traveling, etc. is stressful. Even for those younger workers with no children, their highest priority is finding a healthy balance between work and life, the importance of which you can read about on this Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research Web site.

Obviously employers are better off, too, with healthier employees. Healthier employees are more productive and they have fewer medical issues and related expenses.

Then we have the older demographic age group. Many baby boomers are balancing elder care along with personal and work schedules. Not only that, many in this age group are primary caregivers for their grandchildren. According to AARP and the Brookdale Foundation Group, approximately 1 in 12 children in this country are living in households headed by their grandparents. Due to the recent financial crisis, this age group is also watching their retirement funds go down the tank. With that, many baby boomers now face longer employment stints before they can afford to retire.

As you can see, understanding and recognizing employee needs today brings unprecedented challenges to employers. That is why an open, flexible, innovative and caring approach is especially called for during these frenzied economic times.

There is Good News for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Even so, small-and-medium-sized businesses have both recruiting and start-up opportunities in this down economy. According to the news reports, many alarming layoff figures are coming from the larger corporations. Take the recent announcement by Citigroup and their plans to have yet another round of layoffs. This latest round could affect up to 50,000 employees.

So use your creativity and imagination and bend like Gumby to tailor flexible working arrangements to meet employee needs and yours too! Whether you are looking to keep your most valued employees, recruit some fresh new talent or start up your own company, here are just a few alternative working arrangements to get you started thinking:

• Telecommuting. This is another term for working at home. Telecommuting employees can be employed full-time, part-time or on contract. Most full-time employees are compensated with full salary and benefits. These workers are paid more for their production and professionalism (availability, reliability, responsibility and integrity), not by “punching in a clock.”  They may be working in their pajamas and stopping to feed the dog every once in awhile. You’re most interested in their results.
• Flextime. This is a schedule whereby employees mold their schedules to their needs so long as they work the required number of hours. For example, if an employee normally works from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., flextime allows him or her to begin work at 7 a.m. and leave work at 4 p.m.  They may need this schedule in order to pick up their baby from day care and get dinner started before homework starts.
• Compressed workweek. This schedule squeezes five days of work into four (or even fewer) days. For example, suppose employees currently work eight hours a day, five days a week. With a compressed workweek, they might work ten hours a day, four days a week -- getting a day off each week without taking a pay cut. This is ideal for a business where employees must be at the worksite to perform their duties.
• Job sharing. This is an arrangement where two people split up one job. There's no set formula for job-sharing arrangements. In some cases, a job-share partner divides the work week, with each person working two and a half days a week. In other cases, a job-share partner divides the work that needs to be done, instead of the time that needs to be worked.
• Part time. This arrangement entails working fewer hours and receiving less pay than a full-time commitment. For example, an employee might choose to work three days a week instead of five and receive 60 percent of their usual salary.

Once you have developed alternative work scheduling arrangements suitable for your business needs and your employee needs, you will want to put together some details and develop guidelines or a policy. At minimum, you will want to cover the following:

1. The hours and days you plan for employees to work
2. The job responsibilities you expect them to handle 
3. The salary and benefits you can provide
4. How you can reach employees if an issue arises during a time when they are not in the office
5. The number of days you expect telecommuting employees to work from home
6. The home-office arrangements for telecommuting employees
7. The specific details of how job-sharing partners will break up and handle job responsibilities.
8. A management rights clause stating that this is an optional benefit that can be discontinued for business reasons
9. Any impact on paid leave or vacation periods, etc.

Many employees have adapted to the waves of downsizing in recent times by taking on a free-agent sort of attitude. Many are no longer motivated by ‘climbing the corporate ladder.’ To attract and keep employees who want to continue amazing your customers and who will never want to leave you, think about flexible-scheduling working arrangements. These alternative working arrangements are relatively cost-free and they can actually end up saving you on employee-related overhead costs.

Legal Disclaimer

The information contained in this document is for general, informational purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice. This information is not a substitute for the guidance of a professional and should not be relied upon in reference to any specific situation without first seeking the advice of a qualified HR professional and/or legal counsel regarding applicable federal, state or local laws. HRTools, Insperity and their respective employees make no warranties, express or implied, and make no judgments regarding the accuracy of this content and/or its applicability to a specific situation. A reference or link to another website is not an endorsement of that site or service.

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