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The ROI of Flex-Time
May 18, 2009
Flex-time is golden to the harried worker and can assuage the conscience of an otherwise evil boss, but it also can boost your business. A recent study by Corporate Voices for Working Families links workplace flexibility for hourly workers with the attainment of business financial goals and objectives. Here are highlights and recommendations from the report:
• Managers and employees agree flexibility has positive benefits and adds value for the business and for the individual employee in key areas involving productivity, customer service, employee work-life effectiveness, stress, and well-being.
• More than 80 percent of employers and employees surveyed say flexibility is important to recruitment and retention.
• Companies have found offering flexible schedules and innovative time-off policies contribute to being an “employer of choice” for younger workers.
• For positions in customer service and sales with typically high turnover, companies find flexibility is a way to keep high-performing employees both in the short term and the long term. These companies use flexibility to respond to the changing needs of their workers at various stages of their lives and careers—going back to school, raising a family, or to retain mature workers.
• Adopt a team-based approach to flexibility. Given the nature of many hourly jobs, employee work schedules are interdependent. Establish clear business parameters and performance expectations and then build flexibility into staffing models, cross-training team members on essential skills and processes. Use the implementation of flexible work schedules as an opportunity to enhance operational effectiveness, as well as employee effectiveness.
• Empower employees in the design of flexible work practices and for ongoing success. Involving the work team in the design and ongoing management of flexible work solutions builds commitment to business goals, ownership of the flexibility process, and achievement of results. Agree to pilot solutions for a specific time period and measure results.
• Provide employees with choice and control over their work hours through access to flex-time and just-in-time time off. Giving employees more control over their work hours through ongoing flex-time and the ability to occasionally adjust work hours has the highest impact on employees. Strategies that increase employee control and choice include personnel policies and management practices that enable workers to manage shift trades, to make up time in the same pay periods, and to take vacation and sick time off in small increments, as well as scheduling systems that incorporate employee preference.
• Equip managers to incorporate flexible work practices through information, training, and accountability. Managers are even more important to the success of flexibility for hourly workers than for professional workers. Managers are the main conduit for information about flexibility options, and employees rely on managers to approve flexibility arrangements. Managers’ openness to new ways of working, comfort with, and willingness to involve employees in developing flexible work solutions, and support of flexibility are necessary if flexible working is to succeed.
• Develop clear guidelines/policies and request process; apply policies consistently. Fair and consistent application of clear policies is one of the most important factors in the success of flexibility for hourly workers. Policies, transparent evaluation of flexibility requests, and explicit performance expectations provide the infrastructure employees and managers need to utilize flexibility effectively for business and personal success.
• Communicate effectively. Effective communication is even more crucial to high performance when workgroups utilize flexibility than when team members all work on the same schedule and in the same location. Making staff schedules readily available and updating critical business information in real time across the team ensures seamless operation. Regular meetings and discussions strengthen interpersonal relationships and keep performance expectations on track.
• Promoting flexible work options, expressing leadership support, and sharing success stories contribute to a work climate in which flexible work practices are more broadly accessible and accepted.
Source: Training magazine
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