Posted on: Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Flexibility works — for workers and businesses
By Carol Kleiman
Chicago Tribune
Companies with 50 or fewer employees often struggle with the issue of work/life accommodations for their employees. But it is possible for companies to offer flexibility to workers without lowering productivity — or going broke.
Take Mann, Weitz & Associates, for instance, a certified public accounting firm based in Deerfield, Ill. It has 23 employees, and of that number, 10 women and two men with school-age children are allowed to vary their work schedules according to need.
At the CPA firm, one employee, a mother of three, works from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. four days a week during tax season and three days a week the rest of the year. A male employee with two children also works four days a week, but from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., which allows him to be home when his children leave for and return from school. Another working parent has a schedule of one to two days a week but is available to work more hours when necessary.
Not just for parents
Parents aren't the only ones to benefit from flexibility: A full-time employee takes "significant" time off to take his elderly parent to doctors' appointments or to fill in when his caregiver has time off.
The payoff from these policies to employees is apparent. What is the payoff for the firm? According to Leonard Weitz, a founder of the firm, the retention rate is 95 percent.
Give and take
"A network functions precisely because there's recognition of mutual need ... an implicit understanding that investing time and energy in building personal relationships with the right people will pay dividends," according to Keith Ferrazzi, co-author with Tahl Raz of "Never Eat Alone, And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time" (Currency/Doubleday, $24.95). "But to do so, first you have to stop keeping score. You can't amass a network of connections without introducing such connections to others with equal fervor."
The juggling act
Trying to take care of your family responsibilities, holding a job and going to school all at the same time can be daunting to working parents. And what this adds up to is that colleges and universities have to be just as aware as employers that employed students with children need some extra services to make it.
And that's why the very wise Joyce Foundation, based in Chicago, has given a three-year grant of $300,000 to Opening Doors, a program of MDRC, a nonprofit social policy research group based in New York. Opening Doors will study the services low-income young adults receive at two Ohio community colleges.
The research is to ascertain what makes a real difference in the students' success at school, work and home — and ultimately to suggest strategies "to engage them in the educational process ... and to boost their employment and earning prospects."
The study acknowledges that if you go to school, you often have to work fewer hours or go from full-time work to part-time work — resulting in less income. It also means you have fewer hours at home.
How can you possibly do it?
"When you're juggling school, work and kids, there just aren't enough hours in the day to fit it all in," said Melissa Wavelet, senior operations associate at MDRC. "We hope this research can provide some answers."
Work/life balance Even the media worries about work/life balance, according to a recent survey of 750 journalists by The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. These issues are "real and troubling" to the media, said Poynter's Jill Geisler.
The study uncovered an aspect of requests for flexibility that doesn't come up in most surveys: Are people who ask for work/life accommodations passed over for promotion?
In response, 58 percent said yes. And if they were just working stiffs — not managers — 62 percent predicted there would be trouble if they asked. It was even higher for newspaper employees: 64 percent said asking for flexibility could be perilous.
