Discrimination in the Workplace Related to Workplace Flexibility

To minimize the risk of improperly implementing flexibility, use the following best practices:

1. Individualize flexibility rather than assuming one type will work for everyone. Offer many types and combinations, limited only by genuine business needs.
2. Assume that any job can be done flexibly, including supervisory jobs.
3. To create fairness, make flexibility available to everyone, not just parents or high-performers. This avoids issues of backlash and putting an unequal burden on other employees.
4. Apply a principle of proportionality to jobs that are less than full time--e.g., proportional pay, benefits, and bonuses for employees on reduced work schedules.
5. Ensure that people working flexibly have equal advancement opportunity.
6. Ensure that people working flexibly have equal job security.
7. Measure and reward the quality of performance, not face time.
8. Pay attention to the behavior and signals sent by mid-managers and supervisors.

(Source: Better on Balance? Center on WorkLifeLaw, 2003)

The following are examples of the practical issues and systems that need to be taken into consideration when employees work flexibly. Often, they are not very different from systems required in any complex organization with multiple locations.

1. Workplace safety and ergonomics ? e.g., policies and training for remote workers and telecommuters
2. Communications protocols ? expectations, systems, and training for effective communication across teams and units working over different times and locations
3. Systems infrastructures ? e.g., for knowledge and information sharing and work distribution
4. Protocols for response to customer and company problems
5. Security systems and protocols, e.g., strategies and specific policies for handling security issues
6. Equipment and resource distribution policies
7. Team relationships--e.g., team cohesion
8. Manager roles and skills
9. Gauging performance among dispersed teams or individuals working not in sight of supervisors
10. Business conduct guiding principles and protocols

Policies will need to be established for working in a flexible environment and managers and employees will need to be trained and held accountable for adhering to them. Attending to these areas of risk can be seen as more than an opportunity to avoid risk, but also a catalyst for improving business systems and ultimately benefit the organization is other ways.