Job flexibility no longer growing
| • | Firms cut back family coverage |
By Stephanie Armour
USA Today
For the first time in years, companies are taking the ax to programs considered family friendly.
Telecommuting, flexible schedules, job sharing and other programs long championed as critical for making companies responsive to family needs are being scaled back after years of steady gains.
According to a 2003 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management:
- The number of companies offering full-time telecommuting has dropped from 23 percent in 2002 to 17 percent;
- Adoption assistance has declined from 21 percent last year to 16 percent;
- Flextime programs, which give workers a flexible schedule, have declined from 64 percent to 55 percent.
Here's why:
• Labor market. With 9 million out of work, companies no longer need to offer varied benefits to attract and retain workers.
"Benefits went past what the market could bear and now they're coming back into line," says Jim Bird, president of WorkLifeBalance.com, an Atlanta-based provider of work-life balance training.
• Productivity needs. In some cases, employers who have adopted family-friendly programs have found not all jobs are suitable to such arrangements. More than a quarter of supervisors say telecommuting can compromise job performance, according to a 2001 survey by Office Team, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based staffing firm.
• Cost savings. Companies are looking for savings because of escalating health-care costs. While making workers share more health costs, some are dropping benefits and such programs as adoption assistance, scholarships and childcare referral services.
The cutbacks could backfire if productivity gains suffer and could lead to retention problems once the unemployment rate drops.
Eileen Petridis, 42, a mother of two and a media relations specialist in Cleveland, says telecommuting one day a week "is the main reason I'm still here."
