PERFORMANCE CULTURE
Business functions that use performance metrics lend themselves to a results-focused approach to workplace flexibility, but workplace flexibility can be adapted even at organizations where measures are not as quantitative if a strong performance management culture exists.
CONTINUUM OF ORGANIZATIONAL PRACTICES
RE: Work and Personal Life
The varying results from work/life benefits practices can be explained in management theory that analyzes work and personal life benefits along a continuum of organizational practices as illustrated in the diagram below:
Continuum of Organizational Practices re: Work and Personal Life
Either the business life or the personal life wins. It is not possible to combine the two
Employees and managers work together to find ways in which to meet both the company's and the employee's needs - but not necessarily impacting company culture
The balance gained through work/life practices actually adds value to the business through identification of inefficiencies in the work processes and methods of improvement
Trade-Off Approach
Integrated Approach
Leveraged Approach
This management theory helps to explain why companies who have implemented work/life benefits may still not benefit from them since only the leveraged approach seeks to create added value. In order for employers to achieve leverage with work/life benefits programs, academic experts suggest a combination of the following three principles:
Clearly inform employees of business priorities and allow employees to identify their personal interests and concerns
Recognize and support employees as "whole people," fully acknowledging their roles outside of the work environments
Continually experiment with how work is done, seeking approaches that enhance the organization's performance while creating time and energy for employee's personal endeavors
Source: Jessica DeGroot, "Work and Life: The End of the Zero-Sum Game," Harvard Business Review (November/December 1998)
LEARNINGS FROM HP HR Houston's Impact Award: 2004 Winner for Flexible Workplace
Productivity is key - it is the one thing in a flexible work program that isn't flexible - it can only go up
A person can work best where it works best for them.
What you want for your customer you must want for your employees
Telemanagers - get to know your employees well enough that you are comfortable talking wherever they are at.
Important factors
Trust is number 1
Provide a high level of empowerment
Provide clear communication of goals
Be available for face-to-face support when needed.
Source: HR Houston membership meeting November 2005
ALTERNATIVE WORK SCHEDULE
All employees will be considered for alternative work scheduling on a case-by-case basis, where creative work schedule have been shown to accomplish both work and personal goals, to provide coverage for individual department operations and to serve the employer as a whole with increased productivity at no expense or quality of output.
Job Sharing - two part-time employees assigned to the same job equivalent as one full-time employee.
Source: Society for Human Resource Management Knowledge Center Alternative Work Schedule Policy
TELEWORK: COMPENSATION ISSUES
Generally, policies and practices applied to in-office staff should be applied to remote worksite staff, even if means are different. If in-office personnel are required to clock in and out, remote office personnel may be required to e-mail in and out.
In addition, use of standard login/logout procedures via computer or telephone show work starts, stops breaks and location changes (such as trips to the post office) help show when a teleworker is engaged in work. This type of record keeping can be crucial to the employer for workers' compensation and related issues, such as accident reporting.
As with nonexempt in-office staff, the telemanager must ensure that nonexempt teleworkers promptly and accurately account for their time and perform overtime only with express, advance approval because the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act apply to nonexempt jobs without regard to physical location of the incumbents.
Office closures and group dismissals on temporary or emergency conditions concern telework as well as main site staff. The employer must decide whether to dismiss a teleworker or require him/her to work at an alternate site (including home) when incidental, temporary or emergency conditions close the main office, the telework center or other worksites.
Employers permitting home office telework should ensure that each home office is legally permitted and meets local codes.
Telework is a unique instrument in the employer's tool box that, used wisely, can help put the right employees in the right jobs at the right times and places for significant, global competitive advantage. As America continues to move from an industrially based economy to one that is information - and service-driven, more employers will find the telework tool indispensable. HR professionals should carefully examine the compensation, employment and training aspects of telework now. Effective compensation support is a key enabler for effective telework.
Source: Society for Human Resource Management White Paper by Kenneth H. Pritchard, CCP December 1998
CREATING A RESPONSIBLE WORKPLACE
by Keith Ayers
When trust between management and employees is high, the following situations occur:
Information is exchanged freely, feelings and opinions are openly discussed, and people do not harbor hidden agendas
Expectations are clear, disagreements are discussed and resolved, and individual performance is discussed and agreed .
Employees feel respected for their contributions and they have input into how the organization can be more successful
People keep their commitments, strive for excellence in everything they do and can count on each other for support.
To build trust there are four behaviors - called the "elements of trust"
Congruence - walk the talk
Openness - level with employees and give them the whole story
Acceptance - respected for who they are and what they bring
Reliability - keep promises
Source: HR Magazine February 2005
MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES by Leslie A. Weatherly, SPHR
Achieving Outstanding Performance Through a Culture of Dialog: Organizations with effective performance management processes encourage two-way communication in which individuals and groups question, challenge, interpret and ultimately, clarify goals and engage in regular performance dialogue to ensure that employees' actions are aligned with the organization' goals. According to a Hay Group survey, a key reason people leave their organizations is that companies lack direction - only 27% said their organizations have a clear sense of direction. Once goals are clear, organizations need to create processes to ensure that people get the right messages, such as budget and planning sessions, staff and team meetings to discuss goals, performance management meetings, and talent review sessions; Organizations that have effective performance management programs also excel at aligning and differentiating their reward and recognition programs.
Source: SHRM Performance Management Series Part III
BUSINESS IMPACTS OF FLEXIBILITY: AN IMPERATIVE FOR EXPANSION Flexibility is not only a powerful business tool but also a key component of successful management practice. The positive impacts of flexibility can be summarized under three headings:
Talent Management - Organizational research presents compelling evidence of the positive impact of flexibility especially on the retention of key talent.
Human Capital Outcomes - Individuals who have even a small measure of flexibility have significantly greater job satisfaction, stronger commitment to the job, higher levels of engagement with the company, as well as significantly lower levels of stress. Human capital outcomes translate into innovation, quality, customer retention, and shareholder value.
Financial Performance, Operational and Business outcomes - Organizations find that flexibility is a driver of financial performance and productivity and is correlated to increased revenue generation, as well as positive impacts on cycle time and client services.
CHANGE IS HARD
Telework for Federal Agencies
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., who spearheaded the effort to include the telework provisions in the fiscal 2005 and fiscal 2006 spending bills, said he's hopeful the provisions will get agencies to start taking telecommuting seriously.
"I do not like having to be so heavy-handed and threaten to withhold funding, but if that is what it is going to take to get the point across to federal agency managers, then that is what I will continue to do," Wolf said Nov. 16 in testimony before the House Government Reform subcommittee on the federal work force and agency organization.
Merrill Lynch : Earning Loyalty "For once, the financial services powerhouse Merrill Lynch, with $1 trillion in client assets, didn't care about the money. Three years ago when the company decided to launch a program that will have 450 employees telecommuting by the end of 1998, money wasn't a factor. What mattered was making employees happy so they would stick around. 'We didn't care about cutting costs,' said Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President Howard Sorgen. 'Our goal was to promote loyalty and productivity.'"
Upper Management Distrusts Telecommuting but Cites Benefits By Kathy Gurchiek Document safety, a fear of lowered productivity and a lack of trust in employees are the biggest concerns U.S. executives have about allowing workers to telecommute, even as a majority of their organizations support the concept, according to a new survey.
The conflicting messages are due, in part, to executives struggling with the knowledge that telecommuting offers a competitive advantage against their long-ago bad experiences with off-premise employees, says Campbell Dobbin, CEO of Intranet Dashboard, an intranet software company.
The findings, which Intranet Dashboard released July 26, 2007, fly in the face of reports on the value of telecommuting and an expected increase in the number of employers adopting the practice.
A national survey from Robert Half Technology, released July 25, found 34 percent of 1,400 chief information officers think telecommuting has improved retention and morale among their information technology workforce. Twenty-eight percent also said it increased productivity by reducing commute time. Robert Half surveyed CIOs at organizations with 100 or more employees.
In fact, some employers are encouraging workers to telecommute as a way around traffic congestion and unprecedented gas prices, according to a July 19 CNN.com report . Tax breaks to encourage telecommuting and car pooling are being proposed in New York . And some employers use it as a way to attract and retain talent.
"The culture of families has changed, and the political pressure on organizations to embrace the return to work for women means organizations must be more flexible in their working arrangements," Dobbin said, adding that telecommuting plays a role in that for men as well as women.
