A short presentation on what are flexibility practices at the workplace and key considerations in developing a supporting policy/implementation plan

1. Building
A Flexible
Workplace
01 May 2012

2. What is workplace flexibility?
• Workplace flexibility is about when, where and how people
work.
• Enables both individual and business needs to be met through
making changes to the time (when), location (where) and
manner (how) in which an employee works.
• Key components - organization, managers and employees

3. When people work
Flexible working hours:
Individualized start and quit times that remain constant each work day
Hours that vary daily but the total number of hours worked every week
remain constant
Part-time work:
Working fewer than the standard weekly hours e.g. 2 days/wk
Compressed work schedules:
35-40 hour work week condensed into fewer than five work days
•4/8.75 Four 8.75-hour days (35 hours)
•4/10 Four 10-hour days (40 hours)
Variable year employment
Changing work hours over the month or through the year

4. When people work
Source: Worldatwork
Survey on Workplace Flexibility 2011

5. Where people work
Teleworking: working away from the main office (i.e. at home) either full or part-
time, and on a regular or intermittent basis. For most people, it's working from
home either occasionally or for an agreed number of days each week
•
Source: Worldatwork
Survey on Workplace Flexibility 2011

6. How people work
• Job-sharing - two people sharing one full-time job on an ongoing
basis. For example, working two and a half days each, a two/three
day split or one week on and one week off
• Phased retirement - reducing a full-time work commitment over a
number of years (e.g. from 4 days to 3 days per week) before moving
into retirement. It can also mean becoming an "alumni", i.e. that a
"retired" employee returns to the workplace to cover peak work
periods or to provide specialist knowledge
• Annualised hours - working a set number of hours per year instead
of a number of hours per week.

7. Why is this
important?

8. #1: Job Satisfaction
BlessingWhite Global survey on what would improve job satisfaction?
• "more flexible job conditions"
• “ career development”
• “more opportunities to do what I do best”
Source: Worldatwork
Survey on Workplace Flexibility 2011

9. #1: Job Satisfaction
• 75 percent work more hours because of flexible work schedules
(work wherever & whenever they want)
• 79 percent reporting increased productivity and 78 percent
reporting increased efficiency
• 64 percent reported improved work/life balance
• 51 percent felt more relaxed because of flexible work

10. #2: Engagement & Motivation
• 79 percent reporting increased productivity and 78 percent
reporting increased efficiency
• 64 percent reported improved work/life balance
• 51 percent) felt more relaxed because of flexible work
Source: Worldatwork
Survey on Workplace Flexibility 2011

11. #3: Changing demographics
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates from 2008 to 2018 labor force
participation by workers age 55 and older is expected to increase by
43 percent
• Participation by those ages 16 to 24 is expected to decrease
• Strategies to attract & retain:
– Offering part-time positions
– hiring retirees as consultants and temporary workers
– offering flexible work arrangements

12. CONSIDERATIONS
FOR A
flexibility plan

13. #1: Unique culture
Control vs. Flexibility
• Do you want to allow your workers to control their work/life balance
• Would you rather prescribe certain modes of working and allow your workers to
have freedom within those bounds?
Self Service vs. Full Service
What is flexible about your work style?
• Self Service mobile officing environments make assets available for employees
with little oversight & admin support
• Full Service environments go to great lengths to insure employees have
everything they need – catering, supplies, little amenities, etc.
Who is applicable & why?
• Reward driven?
• Demographic driven?
• Roles driven?

14. Source: Worldatwork
Survey on Workplace Flexibility 2011

15. Examples: context based
Parents with Dependent Care Responsibilities
• Traditional flextime
• Last-minute flexibility
• Reduced work hours
• Leave for caregiving
• Fathers?
Low wage and hourly workers
• Reduced work hours
• Traditional flextime
• Shift flexibility
• Break arrangements
• Leave for caregiving
Workers with Disabilities
• Reduced work hours
• Traditional flextime
• Telecommuting/working from home options
• Break arrangements

16. #2: Mobility across departments
Mobility cuts across departments & vary: Study departments
and include all your work style analyses
Psychological Patterns vary: sales persons don’t want a office
as compared to consultants who do
Don’t assume that teleworkers can always work from home and
will never need to return to the office: Your mobile officing
program must accommodate them in their need to return to the
office in order to keep their satisfaction high.

17. #3: managers'
• Managers hold the key to effective, full-scale
implementation of flexibility
• Only 12 percent of organizations that are developing
flexibility initiatives provide their managers with training and
resources.
• Essential to enhance their knowledge, provide them with
tools and develop their skills

18. #3: managers'
Source: Worldatwork
Survey on Workplace Flexibility 2011

19. #3: managers'
• Enhance Knowledge: Communicate employee challenges &
use best cases to share success stories
• Tools and Training
– Performance management
– Communication
– Virtual meetings
– Team culture

20. Lessons Learnt

21. Flex Policy obstacles
The main obstacles to implementing flexible work arrangements:
 equal treatment for employees
 ensuring that the work is done
 the impracticality of such arrangements given the nature of jobs in
the organization’s industry
 the difficulty in supervising employees working off site
 possible co-worker resentment

22. • Question your assumptions: Do employees really need two
workplaces?
• Develop metrics to measure success
• One Size does not fit all
• Home based work attracts
• Incorporate different domains
• Executive champions needed
• Change is complicated
• Remain Flexible

23. The END
questions