On the frontier of flexibility
Slowly, companies are offering flexible schedules - a key demand of workers.
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By Stacy A. Teicher
| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
There is a world in which showing up in person for a meeting is now the exception instead of the rule. A world where people can reach "partner" status at work and still be home to greet their children after school. A world where even single professionals without kids can choose to work part time.
It's called the flexible workplace - a frontier where work and the rest of one's life find a happy equilibrium.
Like any frontier, many people dream about it from a distance. And the ones who make it there often have to clear obstacles and make up new rules along the way.
Nevertheless, the American workplace is making progress in flexibility. In the process, employers are addressing a top concern among workers at a critical time in the economic cycle. If the job picture continues to improve, good employees will again be in short supply, forcing companies to find creative ways to attract and keep them. Addressing the work-life balance is one way employers are doing that.
Of course, as with any cultural change, progress is slow. "Sometimes companies need to have a personal experience to change the mind-set of presence [at work] equals productivity," says Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute in New York. The institute's recent report, "When Work Works," highlights improvements in access to flexible work options - such as reduced workweeks, telecommuting from home, and long leaves of absence. But it also shows the gap between people's needs or desires and the reality of their work life (see box, below). For example: The study found that 79 percent of workers say they would like to have more flexibility. But 39 percent fear they would jeopardize their jobs or career advancement by using flexible work options.
That is why the institute and others are pushing employers to follow the pioneers of genuine flexibility - something that goes beyond marginal programs with a "mommy track" reputation. Congress is considering how better to help working families with the web of demands they face. Foundations are setting up workplace-flexibility awards.
Advocates never stray far from making the business case for flex time: Work-life balance is the top priority for 86 percent of employees, according to a study last year by Spherion, a recruiting and consulting firm in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Turnover is expensive, and businesses need to prepare for an impending war for talent. Jobs are projected to outnumber workers by nearly 7 million in the coming decade, according to the Employment Policy Foundation in Washington.
While some companies have reduced flex benefits in recent years in the name of tight budgets, others warn that's shortsighted. "Looking at demographics ... a smart business person sees it's necessary," says Jim Wall, national managing director for human resources at Deloitte & Touche in New York. "If you have to drag some people kicking and screaming, so be it.... The old days are forever gone.... What we've seen with the high-talent market is, they'll leave for a place that is flexible."
Aha moment
The light bulb went on for Mr. Wall's company in the early 1990s, when managers realized how many people, especially women, were walking out the door because of a rigidity that their life circumstances could no longer bear. Even though women had been half the new hires for years, there were only seven of them in a group of 100 candidates for partner in 1992. A year-long task force helped the company emphasize "a holistic view of the life of the staff" and the need to shift away from the idea that face time equals productivity, Wall says. Now about 35 percent of partner candidates are women. About 2,000 employees (out of 30,000) are on reduced work schedules, and even 30 to 35 partners have flexible work arrangements. Turnover is down to 17 percent from 28 percent a decade ago.
Deloitte's conversion also sped up after its offices were destroyed by the hijacked planes on 9/11. Thanks to technology - and flexibility - the company was back serving clients within 24 hours. It became even clearer that employees' effectiveness was not so dependent on place.
Molly Hufton heard about Deloitte & Touche's efforts to retain women by offering more flexibility early in her career there. "I thought it would be all talk," she says. Now, nearly 10 years later, she's a believer. Three days a week she goes to the office in Chicago. For the other two she's at home with her infant and her 2-1/2 year old, occasionally taking business calls when they nap.
The biggest challenge, says the self-labeled type-A personality, is making sure she doesn't work much more than the 60 percent time she's arranged. But the real test of her boss's support came within the first six months of her part-time arrangement. Her day care shut down temporarily, and with no extended family in the area, she had to spend five weeks working from home. "I thought they'd say, 'Forget it!'" she says, but they gave her backup and told her to do whatever she needed to do.
"If Deloitte wasn't as flexible, I would have quit," Ms. Hufton says. Instead, she's been promoted to senior manager.
Stories such as Hufton's are promising, but far from universal. More than half of wage and salary workers don't have options such as working part time, or choosing the time they start work in the morning.
One major concern is a lack of "onramps" for those who take time out to raise children and then want to reenter their careers. "Despite all the work-life happy talk in organizations, women are often penalized," says Barbara Moses, a career consultant and author in Canada. "I've seen them do all the right things - keep their skills up to date, stay in touch with their employer - and still, three years later they're having trouble kick-starting their careers."
In response, some companies are offering longer leaves of absence and creating more ways for people to stay up to speed while they're away. But they're careful not to suggest that these and other flex options are only for mothers.
"We found that women were more vocal about flexibility, but men use it. It doesn't even matter if you're single or married - people are taking advantage of it in all walks of life," says Jim Sinocchi, director of diversity communications for IBM, which offers an array of flexible work options and helped fund the Family and Work Institute's study.
Elder care is a prime example of employees' demands at home. Twenty-one percent of households have one person who cared for an aging individual in the past year, and of those caregivers, 59 percent were working at the same time, according to the Work & Family Program of the New America Foundation, a public-policy institute in Washington.
And as baby boomers reach traditional retirement age, more employers are looking for ways to keep them engaged, even if only part time.
Then there are infinite individual reasons. "Sometimes people are just bored," says Ms. Moses, citing the example of a 48-year-old male executive who had "plateaued" and decided to spend a year taking art history and language classes in France.
Next: Part-time success
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