## Flexible Work Options for Maximum Productivity

### Cherryll Sevy

Human Resource Management Services
P.O. Box 2251
Los Gatos, CA 95032
(408)358-7794
email: cmsevy@aol.com

Introduction

Organizations, with rare exception, continue to encounter challenges related to attracting and retaining highly qualified staff in an era of a near continual talent shortage. Managers are faced with the business necessity to improve productivity, while controlling costs and efficiencies. Flexible work options provide a measurable positive impact on productivity, while in most situations reduce costs. The major obstacle seems to be manager reluctance to move from visual management to a results driven style. The technology is here today to support such arrangements and employees clamor for greater flexibility to perform their stressful work/life balancing act. Those companies and managers confident to make the transition from the Industrial Age style of management to the Information Age style will reap rich rewards.

The Pressure is On

In 1996, an Olsten Corporation survey found 62% of companies encourage telecommuting arrangements, 13% more than in 1995, and 23% more than 1994. For an organization to remain competitive in attracting and retaining employees, as well as maintain a competitive edge, flexible work options must be considered.

In recent years, we have seen a dramatic change in the profile of an employee, as well as the type of jobs available. Years ago, a typical corporate employee was male with a stay-at-home wife. Those days are gone forever! At the same time, we have also seen a continual decline in the growth rate of high quality, skilled educated employees. Rate of growth has shrunk from 2.9% annually to a mere 1% annual growth. The demand is significantly greater today than the supply and will continue to outpace it indefinitely.

There has also been a notable change in family and household arrangements. No longer is the employee as a sole male breadwinner. The workplace is filled with dual workers, married and single parents who must both address demanding family needs, including child care, elder care, disabled care, or simply the day-to-day household issues. Women constitute over 50% of the workforce, and nearly 90% of working women becoming mothers during their work career. As their presence and these facts permeate throughout the organization at all levels, this becomes a major planning factor for employers. Family issues have become corporate issues and impact directly productivity and profitability!

Workers today are less likely (or able) to simply subordinate their personal lives to their jobs. Absenteeism, lateness, and turnover are some of critical cost issues facing company’s today. Flexibility cannot be considered as an occasional employee benefit, but must be incorporated into today's workplace as a mutually agreed upon work arrangement to best meet both the employee's and the company's needs.

As the information worker continues to displace the production worker, an often over-looked potential labor pool of valuable employees must also be considered--the qualified, disabled worker. In addition to being a viable source of qualified employees, not to consider the disabled worker and offer reasonable accommodation could lead to discriminatory claims. It makes excellent business sense, as the cost to accommodate the special needs, is generally minimal, while the company has an excellent opportunity to obtain a valued, qualified, contributing staff member. Community services and other resources also make financial, technical or equipment support available to employers and disabled employees.

Trends & Technology

We are moving quickly towards decentralization in this Information Age from the centralization found in the Industrial Age. Consequently, the information worker is very different from the production worker. There has been radical change in technological advancement, the global economy, the diverse workforce, and the employee's work/life issues. Yet, we have seen a very slow evolution of the manager and the old style of visual management. Managers have seen the value of telecommuting and flexible work options in an informal way for years. For example, consider unscheduled, at home overtime worked by professional and managerial employees over the years. This overtime already reflects the value of telecommuting—improved productivity by limiting interruptions and allowing an employee to schedule their time more efficiently to achieve the desired results on time. Such work typically includes making telephone calls (often international calls at more appropriate times), reading, data analysis, and report writing in non-interrupted, quieter work conditions, more conducive for these types of activities.

Flexible Work Options Defined

To ensure a common ground of understanding of the flexible options available, they are defined below. Organizations may elect to begin modestly with flex time and move slowly up to a full telecommuting program to best meet their productivity, cost and management issues.

Flex Time.

This is defined as full-time hours which vary from a designated standard work schedule, allowing for the beginning, ending and lunch times to be changed at the discretion of the employee with manager's approval. Such flexible schedules may include compressed workweeks (e.g. , 4 10-hour days, or 3 12-hour days) and typically require presence in the office during designated core hours.

Flex Site.

This option provides an offsite, remote location, either home or a company-provided location for either all or part of the workweek. Such arrangements may include an equipped home office, remote work centers, satellite offices, or telework centers.

Telecommuting

. This option is defined as the combination of flex site, flex time and electronic communication.

We are not discussing options as they relate to part time employees or the contingent work force, i.e., independent contractors, consultants, temporary workers, job shoppers, part-time employees or job sharing employees.

Advantages

Flexible work options have been proven to provide employers the highest benefit and effectiveness for the costs incurred. A statistically proven high cost-benefit value! There are also many other valued advantages to both the organization and the employee. Such flexibility offers organizations a powerful recruitment tool and retention benefit, and can minimize the impact of permanent information labor shortage.

Productivity has been demonstrated to increase with the use of flexible work options. For example, companies such as Control Data, Aetna, and Los Angeles County have statistically proven a dramatic improvement in productivity of at-home programmers (15-43%). Improvement in quality of output may be a result of no distractions, reduced stress and improved morale. People who like what they do and their working environment tend to work harder, better and longer.

Decreasing the stress between work and family conflicts is one of the most critical for both the employer and the employee. Not being available to either situation as a result of a crisis or demand from the other, results in stress on the employee and lost time and productivity for the employer. Able to manage these conflicts through effective scheduling positively impacts employee morale and adds further value to such programs for attracting and retaining valued employees. Such programs are also effective in reducing turnover and their related costs.

The reduction of commute time, an average of 7-10 hours per week per employee opens up more time for an extended work day of production. This is also much better for the environment and air quality control. It allows an employee to structure commute time around child care needs, as dual workers struggle to keep everyone moving on time.

The cost savings related to reduced space requirements in today's expensive real estate market are easily quantifiable. It is not uncommon to realize a minimum 20% reduction in space requirements through such telecommuting programs. No longer does each employee require their own individual space, rather a company offers an alternative mobile work center, designed and configured specifically for the occasional on-site workers.

Absences and tardiness are high labor costs for employers. The average 48 hours paid which are missed annually per employee result from child care emergencies, school closings, medical illnesses and appointments. Flexibility allows the employee to accommodate work and personal emergencies, rather than forcing an either/or situation, costing lost work time. Traditionally, an employer pays by financing absenteeism without the benefit of the work being done. Flexibility of schedules and sites allow managers to regulate work such that employees can better address nonwork related issues. These family issues will not go away and need to be addressed positively for all. Satisfied employees file fewer claims against a company and employers have also seen workers' compensation claims related to stress reduced. Safety studies have shown there are fewer accidents occur at home than at work or during commute time.

Disadvantages

Flex Time arrangements may result in the lack of visual supervision during some non-peak hours, understaffing at certain times, or the unavailability of key staff. To address such concerns may require an increased need for better scheduling, planning and communication.

It should be noted that telecommuting should not be perceived as relieving child care needs, rather as offering flexibility in this area.

Traditional supervisory methods are not appropriate to the off-site employee. Such flexible work options require strong management skills by better defining productivity standards and results. Well-defined plans are essential to preserve the employment rights of telecommuters, including job advancement, security, safety, and other benefit programs.

Success Factors

Positions Selected

The types of positions best suited for flexibility vary by organization and function. This would be dependent upon such factors as the requirement to be on-site as part of their job definition (e.g. receptionist, receiving clerk) or the equipment duplication would be too costly or inappropriate (e.g. production line workers). An analysis of the essential job duties, flexibility in location and times should be done for positions considered.

While the majority (65%) of telecommuters are professional or technical positions, 48% are in sales & marketing, 27% accountants, with other positions, such as data entry, customer service, inbound sales, less represented. We have seen a substantial increase in telecommuters in recent years due to a broader application of occupations, i.e. data entry to managers, as well as the quantifiable value of telecommuting to both the employer and employee.

Positions to be considered are those which would benefit from the significant decrease in interruptions at home dramatically. Benefits in productivity may be a result of extended periods of concentration for such solitary activities as reading, thinking, analyzing, creating, telephone calls, and writing.

Individual Employee Characteristics

While there are no personality tests to ensure the "best candidate" for flexible work options, there are certain performance factors a manager may consider in an employee. However, care must be taken in these areas, so as not to play favorites, discriminate against those employees who may be new to the organization and not "proven", employees not "liked", or other potential legally defined protected classes. Flexibility is a privilege, not a right and the employer has the final decision as to whether or not it is working out favorably, based on sound criteria.

To succeed, such programs do often require of the employee mutual trust, personal integrity, ability to handle autonomy, self-motivation, self-discipline, and capability to work well independently. Such personal performance factors are generally required of most information workers today. While they may be desired, primarily the decision must be based on measurable productivity levels.

Obstacles

Perhaps the most crucial obstacle to effectively developing and implementing such flexible work options is management resistance. This is due, in large part, to the perception of loss of control over time and place. Industrial Age management has been typically visual. With information workers, the focus on measurable results must be emphasized, with less regard to process. This requires a change in management strategy to maintain or improve productivity and stability of this new worker. There is also a possibility of loss of communication among the on-site staff and those working flexible options. Staff availability may be also be perceived to be compromised in situations such as unplanned emergencies and unexpected meetings.

Assumptions based on prior experience with flexible work alternatives and variations of such programs, often informal, casually managed and randomly applied are often false regarding the value, benefits and respective challenges of such programs. Such judgments must be re-evaluated in the context of the programs.

Men, traditionally in upper management, most often represent the single-income family with the non-working spouse. This leads to the perception (often rightly so) by employees that senior management lacks empathy regarding the conflicts between work and family.

There is always the potential for employee abuse and such programs require trust and a strong focus on measurable productivity.

In addition to manager resistance, employees may also resist such flexible programs, thinking their career opportunities may be limited. Therefore, organizations should consider to offer voluntary program participation, in addition to requiring scheduled on-site activities to ensure visibility in organization.

Steps to A Successful Program

1. Identify current situation and stated corporate objectives in developing a Flexible Work Options program.
Establish short and long term objectives. What programs does the organization want to consider at this time? Identify measurable criteria to judge the success or failure of the program. Design a prototype program prior to a company-wide implementation program. Consider the culture of the organization. Is it one which values innovation, flexibility, change, and trust among its staff. Is it willing to develop its managers to supervise in new, more effective ways? Employees must recognize that flexing, in any of its forms, is a privilege, not a right and can be rescinded when it not working out to the needs of the company.

2. Analysis of the Positions for Flexible Work Options.
Whether flexible scheduling, flexible workplace or telecommuting, it is essential to honestly and carefully evaluate the critical duties, responsibilities and nature of the position. Consideration must be given to such factors as: the amount, level and nature of personal contact, degree of concentration required, process or project oriented, access to necessary resources, the types of work activities, amount of travel, the technology resources available.

3. Assess technology resources required & cost efficiencies.
This may vary from simply a telephone to a fully equipped electronic office, including complex electronic access, including ISDN lines, Internet and database access. Identify efficient uses of technology to minimize costs, i.e. use if 800#s, off peak telephone and computer usage, batch files, LAN access, etc.

4. Determine budget, recognizing not all costs and benefits can be readily quantified.
Identify types of costs: program management costs, overhead expenses of participating departments, security & utility costs (for flextime off hours use), general office expenses, data processing costs, telecommunications costs, document management expenses and home office expenses.

5. Focus, evaluate and adapt the best methods for flexible work options.
Adjust them to the organization as they are implemented, evaluated and fine-tuned to meet the unexpected issues arising from the program.

6. Define Implementation, Coordinator, Communication, Training & Security Issues
What positions will be affected first? Who is eligible to participate in the program? Identify a Flexible Work Options Program Director.
Communication will need to be more formal, concise and consistent. Plan for regular, effective and planned communication processes. Define the technologies and forms of communication which would be most effective and when…one-on ones, group meetings, email, voicemail, activity reports, etc. Identify how program communication will be distributed throughout the whole organization, to impacted departments, and managers.
What training will be required? Time management, prioritization, organization of the home office, dealing with interruptions & home/work conflicts, co-worker communications, scheduling and safety, security, ergonomics, etc. are topics to be addressed.

7. Liability, Security, Equipment Losses and Software Licensing Issues.
While Workers Compensation issues are a concern, it is important to understand that only home office workspace is considered actual work area. Accidents occurring outside of designated area not covered, i.e. kitchen in home. Also, injuries to non-employees while in home office are not generally covered by employers workers compensation. Other insurance considerations regarding the company's or the employee's own equipment need to be addressed.
It is imperative to clearly understand and communicate software documentation standards as licenses vary, depending upon products and users.
Security issues must be considered, including the variety of hardware and software protection to be designed into the system to ensure greater security. Telecommuting employees should be educated on home office security issues.

8. Agreements & Policies
To formalize the program, written policies, procedures and an Agreement must be developed which outline responsibilities of both management and staff. Such documentation identifies scheduling agreements, at-home equipment requirements & responsibilities, security, reimbursable and non-reimbursable expenses, liabilities, insurance requirements, risks the telecommuter assumes, limits to employer liabilities of at-home work, certification regarding the safety, home office ergonomics set up, site inspections, required training & communications sessions.
Such documentation would also emphasize voluntary participation, non-discrimination standards, objectives of program, and how it may be terminated at any time by either the employee or the manager, with agreed to notice.

Critical Requirement: A Higher Standard of Performance Management

Flexible work options require a high level of quality management to ensure success. It must be results driven, not simply monitoring activity. There must be less focus on procedures, or visual managing, and a greater emphasis on the end product for evaluation. Management by objectives (MBO) offers employees greater latitude to focus on results and greater discretion in the process of their work. There is less monitoring of employees' daily activities, and more effective communication channels among the telecommuters, other employees and the manager.

The manager must develop current Job Descriptions, identifying essential duties, responsibilities, and required objectives. The manager must also establish performance standards, success criteria, and measurable objectives. Such objectives should meet the SMART criteria. SMART objectives are: Specific, Measurable, Achievement-based, Realistic, Time-defined.

Effective management must include clear, concise, open communication and an on-going dialogue regarding the benefits and problems related to telecommuting, and regular, honest appraisal of performance evaluation. These are inherent in any successful performance management system.

Summary

Managers and organizations must consider flexible work options, if they intend to attract the highest quality of employees necessary to be successful and to be competitive in today's world. Such programs, well planned, effectively implemented and communicated are a viable option for consideration in this Information Age. With proven cost reductions, rising productivity levels, and key in helping the employee with the difficult balancing act of work/family issues, such flexibility deserves careful and immediate consideration. The technology is here, the need is present and the primary obstacle seems to be manager's resistance to change. Change is the only constant in today's world and well managed change is critical component to success. Flexible work options provide reasonable and successful alternatives to many of the challenges manager's face today.