Flex Work - keeping people employed and maintaining profitability
Did anyone here remember President Obama referring to job-share as an alternative to someone losing 100% of employment. Take a look at the link below as flexibility continues its return to the business section of the New York Times. We saw this over the summer when high gas prices incented municipalities to move to a compressed work week and as some corporations questioned whether to keep their office buildings open on Fridays given its half day status. Flexibility can and does make a difference to the bottom line and can keep our workforce employed. In fact, flexibility is probably the most effective mechanism to stabilize the day to day work environment particularly in these most volatile of circumstances.
I think a great way to keep
I think a great way to keep employees happy is to offer them some kind of a rewards program so that they get bonuses with performance. Some kind of incentive for them to stick around is needed in my opinion.
Volunteers?
The NY Times article talks about fairness and how difficult it can be for some people to have their pay reduced. No question. Still I can't help recalling the story of the investment firm that invited people to voluntarily reduce their working hours and saw a rash of volunteers...people who had wanted to work a more sane pace but never raised their hand to offer for fear they'd be branded as wimps and forever sidelined. The company's invitation made it legitimate and so many people volunteered that the company never had to go further. It kept everyone -- and with them, all their valuable customer relationships and knowledge and reduced its overhead -- and most importantly survived a very tough time. It came out the other side with an appreciative, motivated, and less exhausted talent force.
In these challenging times,
In these challenging times, it's great that the media and employers are seeing the 'light' re flexibility as part of the solution, and companies are creating more flexible work options as a way to manage their staffing needs and cut costs. However, in the past when there was a major event -- think hurricane, 9/11, bridge collapse, etc. -- and organizations and individuals found that working flexibly was the only way to get work done -- when the crisis was over, some of the momentum was lost. The question is, this time around, as the economy improves, will there be a realization that working flexibly is a long term solution to meeting both business and personal needs. Let's hope so!
Karol Rose, FlexPaths Chief Knowledge Officer
Employers should adopt a social conscience:
newly laid off employees will have a difficult time finding new employment, as well, collecting unemployment is only a temporary solution not to mention increasing taxpayer burdens. Working flexibly from job sharing to reduced work week to redesigning how work gets done is a solution that employers should consider before risking their employees' livelihood. Asking for volunteers is a great way to start, and employees could use that additional time off for retooling to becoming an intern to reinvent themselves.
Barbara Vigilante, Work/Life and Women's Initiatives LLC