Flexible Work Options
A flexible workplace allows employees to live balanced lives
while making employers more competitive
by Kim Bush
One of the articles in It's About Time! (IC#37)
Winter 1994, Page 39
Copyright (c)1994, 1996 by Context Institute
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Flexible work alternatives may be the single most important factor in
allowing us to create the lives we want for ourselves and our families.
Longer work hours have robbed us of irreplaceable hours with our families,
depleted the energy we need to be fully contributing members of our community,
and drained away the time it takes to be fully informed citizens.
While some are running out of time from overwork, others are hurting financially
and emotionally from lack of work. At least some flexible work options serve
to spread existing jobs further, creating a model for a saner, more humane
work system.
The following article and table draw on the work of Barney Olmsted and Suzanne
Smith of New Ways to Work . Particularly helpful was their book, Creating
a Flexible Workplace: How to Select and Manage Alternative Work Options,
the revised edition of which will be published this fall by the American
Management Association.
Hardly a month goes by without a major corporation like Xerox or IBM announcing
a layoff or downsizing. According to Barney Olmsted and Suzanne Smith, this
trend could go in one of two directions:
Our work structure could move further into a core-ring configuration, in
which a small core of full-time employees receives most of the training,
benefits, and relative job security, while the ring - short-term contractors,
temporaries, and leased staff - have little job security, few benefits,
and receive minimal training.
The alternative is to move toward a three- way stretch, an approach
that requires flexibility on the part of work organizations, employees,
and society at large. The areas of flexibility include a variety of schedule
options, on- and off-site work possibilities, and staff cross-training.
Which of these two directions will prevail is yet to be seen, but the options
available to both management and labor in the next few years are as diverse
as the employees who might take advantage of them. We're no longer talking
about the few determined teachers and nurses who pioneered job sharing in
the '70s and '80s. Today, entire companies in a number of fields are offering
a wide variety of options.
Large corporations have gradually acknowledged the cost effectiveness as
well as the importance to staff morale of working cooperatively with employees
to make new working arrangements. Among the bottom line advantages they've
recognized are: 1) reduction in the cost incurred by losing an employee,
especially the costs associated with recruiting and retraining; 2) the positive
role that flexible work options play in recruiting new staff; and 3) the
capacity of a flexible work force to respond to a rapidly changing, almost
volatile, economy. In short, creating a flexible workplace may be one way
in which firms can gain an advantage over competitors in both domestic and
international markets.
Hewlett-Packard, for example, has initiated flextime, job- and work-sharing,
as well as flexible time-off programs combining vacation and sick-leave
benefits. Pacific Bell is experimenting with allowing management-level employees
the option of telecommuting.
FLEXIBLE WORK FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Authors Smith and Olmsted have made flexibility a watchword by introducing
the concept of equitable flexibility or "equiflex." In simplest
terms, equiflex means combining options in a way that benefits both labor
and management.
Children's Hospital at Stanford University is an encouraging illustration
of this trend. With the help of a full-time computer-assisted dispatcher,
nurses at Children's Hospital can choose to participate in a wide variety
of flexible work programs, including a relief job-pool system, job-sharing,
a wide variety of leave options, and a compressed schedule.
Even more encouraging is the hospital's statement of goals in offering these
options: "to help the staff fit together the sometimes irregular pieces
of a modern lifestyle: family demands, professional requirements, personal
needs for decompression, variety, and even adventure."
Flexible Work Options: A Summary
FLEXITIME
Combines "core time" when all are expected to be at work and "flexible
time" when employees may or may not be present. Employees are usually
expected to work 40 hours/week. Variations include length of day, and starting
and quitting times.
- Current Status
- Available to 15.1% of the work force; 54% (up from 38% in 1988) of
US businesses have implemented it. More common with managers, professionals,
technicians, and sales staffs than manufacturing and service workers.
- Examples
- * IBM: Most of IBM's domestic employees are eligible for flexitime.
Includes variable, customized and staggered work schedules.
- * Auckland, New Zealand City Council Offices: Have a
long core time, with fewer flexible hours.
- Effects
- Advantages: Improves employee morale; accomodates the needs
of employees with children and other outside demands.
- Disadvantage: Lack of supervision during some work hours.
COMPRESSED WORK WEEK
Usually a 40-hour work week is compressed into less than 5 days. The two
most popular condensed weeks are four 10-hour days, and the "9-80"
model, which is five 9-hour days in one week followed by four 9-hour days
the next with every other Friday off.
- Current Status
- 36% of responding companies report use. Fields where it is most commonly
used are entertainment/recreation (42%), health care (31%), and government
(29%) - especially police and fire departments.
- Examples
- * Shell Canada Ltd: Converted from 8-hour shifts to 12-hour
shifts, giving employees 3 days off per week.
- Effects
- Advantages: The number of worker trips to the plant are reduced
by one-third; employees have longer blocks of personal time.
- Disadvantage: Difficult to adjust to 10-12-hour days for some
workers.
ANNUAL HOURS or HOURS AVERAGING
Labor and management agree on total number of hours per year and then establish
a schedule to fit; a variety of schedules result.
- Current Status
- Most common in round-the-clock production; pioneered in Finnish, Swedish,
British pulp & paper. In UK spreading to service organizations like
finance and health care.
- Examples
- * Pedigree Petfoods (UK): A contract of 1,739 annual hours
was established and joint management/ staff councils drafted options for
employee approval.
- Effects
- Advantages: Establishes annual framework within which flexibility
is possible. Has broad potential application.
PERMANENT PART-TIME WORK
Most positions require more than 20 hours/week but less than 40 and include
job security as well as all other rights and benefits but often on a pro-rated
basis.
- Current Status
- Between 65%-85% of companies have some part-timers.18% of all non-agricultural
workers were part-time in 1990. Major increases have occured in health services,
banking/finance and insurance.
- Examples
- * Levi Strauss & Co, San Francisco (corporate headquarters):
Most part-timers are in accounting and secretarial positions, but opportunities
are growing in professional-level jobs.
- Effects
- Advantages: Flexibility in work hours; trained-employee retention;
improved recruitment.
- Disadvantages: Increased benefit costs; less chance for advancement.
JOB-SHARING
The voluntary arrangement in which two people share a single job with salary
and benefits pro-rated.
- Current Status
- Increasingly popular option. Only 11%-18% companies reported its use
in 1986; by 1991, 47% of firms were implementing it, and 22% more expect
to offer it by 1995. Especially popular in health, education, and legal
sectors.
- Examples
- * Sheffield City Council (UK): All posts are eligible; benefits
and holidays are divided among job sharing "units."
- * Rolscreen Co: Available to all 1,700 employees; sharers work
out own schedules while company serves as clearinghouse for future sharers.
- Effects
- Advantages: Allows employee attention to non-work related concerns;
retains valued employees; higher productivity through creative scheduling.
- Disadvantages: Disproportionate production of "partners"
in work unit; difficulty in supervision.
PHASED AND PARTIAL RETIREMENT
Phased: Provides for gradual retirement through reduction of full-time
work in phases (over a number of years).
Partial: Senior employees are given part-time employment; retirement
income and salary may be combined.
- Current Status
- Increasing number of employees want to combine part-time work and
partial retirement; most surveys indicate a growing number of early retirees.
- Examples
- * Polaroid Corp: "Tapering-Off" program allows older
employees to reduce work hours gradually - on daily, weekly, or monthly
basis.
- * Aetna Insurance: "Graduate Retirement" plan allows
reduction to part-time status 2-3 years prior to retirement.
- Effects
- Advantages: Retains talented senior workers, while reducing
burnout; expense of health benefits and pension phased in over time.
- Disadvantage: May be abused in corporate downsizing efforts.
VOLUNTARY REDUCED
WORK TIME (V-TIME)
Either ad-hoc or part of a formal program whereby employees are given the
option of reducing hours (from 2%-50%) and compensation for a specified
period of time
(6 or 12 months, for example). At end of agreement they can either return
to full-time work or renegotiate V-Time.
- Current Status
- Option is used by 2%-5% of employees in organizations where offered,
and often by those with young families. Rarely available as an option in
the private sector.
- Examples
- * New York State: V-Time available to 70,000 of employees through
reduction in worktime from 5%-30% in 5% increments, the most popular being
a 10% reduction.
- * San Mateo, California: All county employees are eligible
for V-Time.
- Effects
- Advantages: Return to full-time status guaranteed and reduction
of time is flexible and negotiated; reduced labor costs.
- Disadvantages: Possible reduced commitment to job by employee
and abuse by employer as way of gradually getting rid of full-time jobs.
LEAVE TIME
An authorized absence from work that may or may not be paid but does not
risk loss of employment rights. There are varying policies about the continuation
of benefits during the leave period, reasons for which range from family
or education to need for personal or leisure time.
- Current Status
- The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) extends the right to unpaid leave
for medical and maternity reasons to employees in companies with more than
50 people. Sabbatical/career break offered by 24% of firms (1991), another
15% expected by 1995.
- Examples
- * Wells Fargo Bank (Calif): Social Service Leave allows a 1-6
months leave to any 3-year employee whose proposal is accepted by a selection
committee; their decision is based on the community service content of applicant's
goals.
- Effects
- Advantages: Employee retention, expansion of skill base, reduction
of burnout, ability to fulfill family responsibilities.
- Disadvantages: Difficulty in managing workload during employee
absence; tight guidelines can be a problem.
WORK-SHARING - STC
(SHORT-TIME COMPENSATION)
In order to avoid layoffs, most or all of an organization's workforce will
agree to a reduction in hours and pay.
- Current Status
- STC and V-Time widespread in Europe as alternative to layoffs. 17
states have passed laws, based on California model allowing partial payment
of unemployment.
- Examples
- * State of California: Work Sharing Unemployment Insurance
(WSUI); employees whose wages and hours are reduced receive unemployment
insurance benefits as a temporary alternative to a permanent layoff.
- Effects
- Advantages: Unemployment "shared" by all employees
and costs of layoffs are avoided; preserves affirmative action gains.
- Disadvantage: Possible loss of unemployment and fringe benefits.
FLEXIPLACE
Applies to any number of arrangements where the employee works off-site,
either at home or in a satellite office, commonly known as telecommuting.
Also known as "virtual office"; staff are supplied with all necessary
equipment.
- Current Status
- Rapidly expanding option in both private and public sector. In 1993
- 41.1 million were homeworkers (doing 8 or more hours a week
at home) versus 9 million in 1985. 6% of labor force are "telecommuters,"
4.5% are "pure telecommuters," up 22% from 1992.
- Examples
- * JC Penney: Employs a telemarketting staff of around 10,000.
Customer service reps work "on- line" from their homes with company
equipment.
- * AT&T, PacTel, US West: All creating working models.
- Effects
- Advantages: Reduction of employer cost; maximum flexibility
for employee with family or other obligations.
- Disadvantages: Loss of esprit de corps/community aspect of
company; supervision problematic.
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