By HRDA Editor Stephen D. Bruce, PHR

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At SHRM's recent Legal and Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., Claire Shipman (senior national correspondent for ABC's Good Morning America) and Katty Kay (Washington-based correspondent for BBC World News) discussed workplace flexibility, as revealed in their recently published book, Womenomics.

Diversity Boosts the Bottom Line

The authors bolster their claims by noting that "the more senior-level women a company has, the more money it makes." They further note that research shows that "companies with three or more women on their corporate boards outperform those with fewer or no women on their boards."

Women control 85 percent of consumer spending. You need women involved in creating and marketing your product. It is a diversity theory, says Kay. "Research done by the University of Michigan shows that diverse groups always make  better decisions."

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Kids vs. Career

If you make employees choose "kids vs. career," and women choose kids, you're going to lose talent. You have to think about how you're going to keep those women in the pipeline, she says. Careers have to be redefined. They can no longer be necessarily a narrow line of boxes to check off. There has to be a broader set of possible backgrounds that can take you to the top.

Can You Afford Not to Do This?

Companies that have embraced flexibility in a big way have achieved extraordinary results, says Kay. Typically they start with a retention problem and that leads them to say you can work from anywhere at any time. And when they do that, she says, first retention improves, and second, unexpectedly, so does productivity—up 40 percent in one case.

Can you afford not to do this? she asks.

The key is that the new focus is on output, not input—not on hours at a desk. We need new ways to measure results, Kay says. Time is the new currency. Especially with Gen X and Gen Y, it's all about a different way of working, about quality of life. And it's true for both men and women, says Shipman.

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“This issue is top of mind for most corporations,” Shipman says.” We've been asked to speak at a wide range of places, from Credit Suisse to Walmart.”

Recommendations from Womenomics:

1. Start with the numbers that show that the more women, the more diversity, the better the results. Flexibility equals productivity.
2. Recognize what has worked and what has not worked. (For example, some employers prefer a system for all, some for high-performers only.)
3. Use benchmarks to measure performance.
4. Engage in retraining managers, teaching them how to manage remotely. What should they measure, what should they do? This is a challenge, Kay and Shipman admit.
5. Put your commitment in managers' job descriptions. Tell them they’ll be measured on diversity, flexibility, and retention.
6. Set communication channels and protocols—how often will you communicate and how and when. IT may have to work to create pathways that facilitate communication.

The Shipman/Kay presentation stood in contrast to Jack Welch's presentation at the same conference last year. He (ironically, interviewed by Shipman) said that there is no work/life balance, only work/life choices. If a women takes years off for childbearing, that's a choice, he says. Not a bad choice, but one that means no shot at top management.

Shipman and Kay clearly disagree.

Where's your company? How about you? Has your company implemented or is it considering a highly flexible approach to work? What have the results been? We'd love to hear. E-mail sbruce@blr.com or use the "Comments" button below.

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