Click on a question from the
list below to "jump" to the answer:
1. Why should I consider hiring someone on a flexible schedule?
Answer:
Bottom Line Results:
• Flexible employees are the most productive and we have the statistics from managers to prove it;
• Flexibility enables companies to tap into the vast virtually untouched workforce of professionals who seek non-traditional work arrangements;
• Using contract executives on a reduced schedule is more cost-effective than hiring a consulting company;
• Maintain productivity and avoid costly layoffs and re-hiring by using temporary part-time professionals to efficiently handle fluctuating workloads;
• Job-share arrangements provide greater coverage plus two talents for the price of one;
• Part-time professionals allow employers to hire better skilled, higher level talent while satisfying budget limitations;
• Flexible scheduling minimizes the high cost of turnover. Our research proves that the majority of working moms will quit to obtain a flexible arrangement.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the No 1. cause of absenteeism today is not sickness, but personal needs. Flexible arrangements recognize that people have lives outside the office and allows them to fulfill those needs on their own time, not company time. In return, management gets employees who are more productive, committed and focused, as well as building a loyal workforce who can position your company against the competition.
Back to Top
2. Just what is a “flexible” job?
Answer:
We define “flexible” as anything outside the traditional 9-to-5, five-day-a-week job, including:
• Permanent part-time - A salaried position, often including some (fringe) benefits, in which the employee works fewer than 40 hours a week;
• Telecommuting - A full- or part-time position in which the employee works some or all of the time at a home office;
• Contract assignments - Can be short- or long-term from one to five days a week, and the employee is assigned to handle skill specific tasks;
• Job sharing - A position that is divided between two people, with either similar or complementary backgrounds who team up to create a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts.
• Flex-time - Employees set their own hours, both in the office and at home within a 40-hour workweek.
Back to Top
3. What kind of jobs do you handle?
Answer:
We have arranged positions for professionals in the areas of:
• finance
• human resources
• marketing
• sales
• public relations
• advertising
• promotion
• law
• training
• technical writing
• information technology
Back to Top
4. What is Job Sharing?
Answer:
Job sharing is when 2 people share a job typically held by 1 person. It is an ideal solution when full-time coverage is required as well as a great retention tool. We have helped many companies hold on to key people who wanted to go part-time by finding a suitable partner for them. Job sharing also enables management to staff for the 24/7 global workplace. Two people energize the position with their talents and experience, creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Back to Top
5. What are some new job-share options?
Answer:
Here are just a few examples of job-share partnerships developed by Flexible Resources, Inc®:
• Skill sets - A team composed of two people, each of whom offer skills and experience in different but complementary areas. Together they meet every expectation and fill all roles of the position, creating the most complete package. One example - a good people manager teamed with a behind-the-scenes numbers cruncher.
• Mentor-subordinate - A team with a superior and a subordinate, each of whom exclusively handles the tasks to which their skills and experience are better suited. This way, the superior isn’t bogged down by lower-level tasks and is free to strategize and manage. And management only pays for each team member to do the job they're best suited for. This is perhaps the most cost-effective job share. It’s also an ideal mentoring relationship, in which the subordinate is trained to take over when the superior is promoted.
• Geographic shares - The best way to ensure complete regional coverage, or to staff across various time zones is to assign tasks based on territory. Two or even three people can cover the world with an energy and focus not possible by one individual. The team needn’t even work in the same office.
Back to Top
6. How do I manage and evaluate a job-share team?
Answer:
• Managing: As with any management position, you need to set goals and establish a written plan for meeting them. Create a sensible plan for communication, between the job-share team and between the team and the department. Clearly define responsibilities and make your expectations clear - just as with the rest of your staff. And remember that job-share teams offer another advantage - they can take up the slack when one partner is out, covering vacations and sick days. That means work doesn’t pile up.
• Evaluating: If you make your expectations of the team clear and know they have a plan to fulfill them you can then determine first if each member of the team is living up to expectations. Only then can the team concept work - no different from evaluating the performance of an entire department.
Back to Top
7. Many of my employees are asking to work at least some of the time at home. How can I make telecommuting work and is the company responsible for the home office environment?
Answer:
The recent outcry over an advisory from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) saying it would hold employers responsible for the safety of employees working at home died quickly when OSHA withdrew its ruling. But there are ground rules that companies should set to assure that this highly productive relationship works best for both sides.
We tell our clients, from small-business owners to the Fortune 500, to "pay attention to the home office situation. When that happens, safety becomes a common-sense issue."
Here’s what Flexible Resources® advises businesses who have employees who telecommute:
• Management should insist that the home office is indeed a proper office - with a door that closes. Forget the dining room table. The telecommuter needs a clean, quiet uncluttered space to be productive. The company may agree to purchase home-office furniture, but usually, the employee makes their own choices and common sense has always been the rule here.
• The company should ensure that the home office is equipped with the type of technology the employee would have in the office, including computer with modem, voice-mail, fax, etc.
• The company and the telecommuter should go over a set of ground rules establishing specific hours the employee is expected to be at their desks, and how and when both sides will communicate.
• Management should also lay down ground rules about child care. We advise all candidates who are telecommuting for the first time that the arrangement is not a substitute for child care.
Back to Top
8. “If I give a flexible arrangement to one person, everyone will want it.”
This rarely happens, but when it does, consider it a positive result of introducing flexibility to your workplace and a way to avoid costly turnover. In the past, good people would simply leave. Now, they are given the opportunity to work out an arrangement suitable to both management and the employee.
Back to Top
9. “Professionals who want to work part-time aren’t committed and I can’t give preferential treatment to a select few employees.”
Our research, with more than 50 managers who employ staff on a flexible basis, say their flexible professionals are more productive, focused, committed and motivated than their conventionally employed staff and exhibit less absenteeism.
Back to Top
10. “I can’t get along without full-time coverage.”
Answer:
Today’s global, 24/7 workplace requires staff to be available anywhere, anytime, and now we have the technology to make this happen. Having everyone side by side in the same office is an industrial revolution model that no longer makes the most sense. One of the most effective ways to staff positions that require near round-the-clock attention is job-sharing. We invented new categories of the job-share that provide companies more than full-time coverage for the cost of one person (see What are some new job share options?).
Back to Top
11. “How can I manage someone who isn’t here?”
Measure their results, not their face-time.
A person who is doing even part of their work outside the office is under the same performance pressure as anyone - perhaps even more so, because they have an enormous personal interest in making this work. As long as you establish rules for communication and make your expectations clear, a professional will put in as many hours as necessary to get the job done. The bottom line is, if you get the right person, it isn’t a problem.
Back to Top
12. “We tried it - we didn’t like it.”
Did you sit down with the person and ensure that the position was properly constructed to answer your business needs? Did you plan for regular communication between the flexible staffer, superiors and subordinates? Did you adequately inform other staff so the person didn’t feel the need to hide the arrangement? Did you get your managers on board to explain the benefits? When we asked managers in our survey what kinds of problems they faced with flexible employees, they said “None” or “The problems were no different from other HR problems.”
Back to Top
13. How do your clients’ customers react to having staff who aren't always in the office?
Answer:
“We are able to demonstrate that our flexible people are always available and are able to accomplish their work from remote locations instead of in offices.” J.A. Ryan, senior specialist, Bell Atlantic.
Back to Top
14. What can I do to make flexibility work for my company?
Answer:
Here’s what you need to think about:
• Educate your managers. They need to understand that non-traditional staffing is the way of the present and we will see more of it in the future. You gain access to an untapped source of talent; a powerful means of retention; a more productive, focused staff, and are in a better position to attract the best people away from your competition. It’s win/win.
• Help your managers understand that hiring, managing and evaluating flexible staff - even those who telecommute - is no different than for conventional employees.
• Remember what your colleagues are saying: our client survey with managers and HR directors at J.P Morgan Chase, NASDAQ, Prodigy, Playtex, GE Capital, and United Technologies consistently rank their flexible people as ‘the same or better’ than conventional employees on key issues like focus, commitment, morale and productivity.
• Remember the psycho-graphics and personal priorities of younger professionals and understand that attracting and retaining the best talent of this generation means accommodating their demands for a more complete and sane life.
• Finally, take a look at the big picture. Technology, globalization, demands for a more balanced life, and concerns about how we best use our natural and human resources will create a new workplace for the 21st century based on giving people the greatest opportunities to do their best work.
Back to Top
