31. At the recent White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility, John Berry, the head of OPM quoted Andy Grove of Intel as saying " There are two kinds of businesses--those that use email and those that will. " John Berry went on to say " Today, flexibility is the new email. There are employers that have it and those that will ."
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Hinweis der Redaktion
According to a recent Right Management study, 61% of your employees are actively looking for work and another 20% are open to the possibility. The loan we took out on our employees during the last 2 yrs is coming due.
Flex is about changing the way you think about how, where and when work gets done. --performance tool --attract, retain and engage talent --attitude of transparency, trust, responsibility, communication --set of arrangements You have to customize to meet your company culture. No one size fits all.
Some arrangements include: -Flex start and stop times -Core hours -Part-time -Reduced schedule for a period of time, for example upon return from maternity leave -Summer Hours (add a ½ hour per day and skip lunch/leave at 1:00 on Fridays) -Compressed work weeks (4 days out of 5 “4/5’s” or 9 days out of 10 “9/10’s”) -Job-share
Some flexible work scheduling options include: -Employee teams draft their schedule taking into consideration the time-off needs of themselves and co-workers -Floaters (especially retired workers) to fill-in for shifts when a worker needs a day off -PTO in hourly increments rather than half or full-day increments -Electronic shift trades through online scheduling system -Schedules provided more than a week in advance
And Flex is one of the top three reasons your employees will choose to stay or go. What are the other two?
Assume a 2.5% performance increase for 100 employees with an average salary $35K……YIELD? $87,500 productivity savings.
Brigham Young and IBM found that employees who felt they had flexibility could work 8 to 13 hours more/week, without negative impact on stress or work-life balance.
Wellness NO CONTROL = STRESS = SICK For years, studies have found links between "high job strain" and heightened rates of heart disease, depression and other ills. Researchers define high job strain as work that is demanding but allows employees little to no control over how they work. Stress is a better indicator of vulnerability to colds than smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise.
Aguirre Roden, Inc. Dallas 50-99 employees architecture, engineering and construction Some companies might give flexible work opportunities to white-collar executives, but they think twice before doing the same with construction workers. This Dallas architecture, engineering and construction company scored high in giving all its employees time off and choices in managing their schedule. The option of being away from work for whatever reason, as the firm puts it, is open to all employees at Aguirre Roden. “We understand the needs of our extended family and the obligations we all have to maintain a healthy workforce, raising children and being in an atmosphere where team members enjoy what they do,” a representative explains. The result: a team that gets the job done for the client, but is also able to manage its obligations away from work. Repeated recipient of Eagle Award from National Builders and Contractors and the Award of Excellence by Builders and Contractors of North Texas. Hispanic Business 500 Award
The Children’s Center of Wayne County Michigan 100-249 employees Almost a quarter of Wayne County’s children live below the poverty line. The Children’s Center rises to the challenge of helping these at-risk children through a staff of outstanding psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers not to mention more than 100 highly-trained volunteers and interns. Flexible scheduling helps keep staff morale high: employees can schedule work between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on weekdays and on Saturdays, too and work from home if necessary. The Detroit agency also enables its people to schedule their 40 hours of work within four days, and lets them take the fifth day off without using vacation time. Of course, all scheduling must be consistent with client needs, which include some of the most challenging issues a family can face, ranging from autism to substance abuse to teen pregnancy. The Children’s Center credits its flexible management practices for extremely high retention; in fact, nearly half of the people who left for more money in the last 16 months have since reapplied for employment.
American Geotechnics Boise, ID 10-24 employees geotechnical engineering Flex: Staff members determine their own schedules, including the amount of overtime they work. Employees can move between part- and full-time roles, leave the office if they have a personal matter to attend to and do volunteer work during the workday. How: American Geotechnics has established a common electronic calendar, shared with all members of the team, and given most employees cell phones Success: Started with staff of two people, borrowed desks and a $150,000 SBA loan. Paid off loan five years early, hired its 17 th employee, and generated total revenue of more than $2 million. Benchmarked against similar firms, revenue per employee is at the top of the scale.
Open Work: a network of people, places and technologies started in 1995 56% of their employees work remotely at least 2 days/week $387 million saved over six yrs in real estate and utility costs 60% of the time employees used to spend commuting, they now spend working 85% of employees say they’d recommend Sun as an employer $1700 in fuel costs is saved annually by the average employee telecommuting 2.5 days per week Telecommuters score higher on performance ratings than their on-site counterparts Lower turnover, higher employee satisfaction ratings
PROFITS Companies on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” (must flex to qualify) outperform both similar companies and the broad market. Also…. “… with respect to flexibility programs that enable workers to work from home, if the proportion of employees working from home increases by one percentage point, the firm’s profit rate increases by an additional six-tenths of one percent. For the average firm included in this sample, this equates to a profit increase of approximately $84 million.” Meyer, C.S., Mukerjee, S. & Sestero, A. (2001). Work-family benefits: Which ones maximize profits? Journal of Managerial Issues, 13(1), p.40.
So why does the thought of flex make us react more like THIS than…..
THIS?
Oprah. We’re afraid employees are going to sit at home watching Oprah.
Empty offices. If we offer this to one person, EVERYONE will want it and we won’t have the coverage we need. How do I know you’re working if I can’t see you?
Dissatisfied Customers. We are a high demand organization and we need to be here for our customers.
We address middle management hesitation. Root? Work needs to get done and if no one is here then that’s a threat to the work getting done.
Assumptions Expectations Explicit Communication Briefly touch on: Flash Reports, Project plans, Gantt Charts, enterprise software tools Remind people to ask questions throughout and to add what’s worked for them on this topic. Take 3 minutes to answer questions and highlight best practices that came up in that section.
We teach them to manage flexible workers. That means: Communication (explain) Sense of team (explain) Performance (explain)
This is part of what gets addressed when you flex: --build transparency --use technology to improve communication --build trust, teams, communication --Set goals and objectives --manage for performance
People are loyal. Less likely to look for another job, or even take a headhunter’s call.