In yesterday’s Advisor, we featured Ellen Galinsky’s imperatives for workplace flexibility. In today’s issue—specific examples of flex programs that are paying off for employers, and an introduction to a unique guide just for smaller or even one-person HR departments.
Galinsky, president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute in New York made her remarks at SHRM’s recent Employment Law and Legislative Conference in Washington, DC. The Institute’s website (http://familiesandwork.org/site/research/reports/2009boldideas.pdf) offers many examples of successful flextime systems, for example:
Albrecht, Viggiano, Zureck & Co., PC
(Accounting firm in Long Island, NY)
“Provided client responsibilities are met and deadlines are kept, we leave it up to most of our employees to adjust their schedules and telecommute,” says Managing Partner Tom Murray. This certified public accounting firm, one of the largest on Long Island, gives staff members wide-ranging options for flexibility right down to helping them cope with the massive traffic jams the local highways witness each Friday as beach traffic begins: employees serving clients on the island’s eastern end work four-day weeks during summer months. And that’s just for starters:
- Parents can adjust their hours to get their children on and off school buses;
- Employees with kids in nearby child care centers can modify their lunch hours to see them.
- Some mothers work part time.
- Even during the busy tax season, the firm has recently moved to a more flexible workweek, letting its professional staff work the required number of hours during the regular workweek most of the time and limiting the number of mandatory Saturdays to just four.
“Work schedule flexibility has become a standard for us, as we try to retain our employees in an ever-increasing competition for the best accounting talent,” Murray explains.
Arapahoe/Douglas Works!
(Government services agency in Aurora, Colorado)
According to data from the Arapahoe County Human Resources Department, flexible scheduling has decreased absenteeism by 41.6% over the past two years. Biannual employee surveys indicate that flexible scheduling is one of the most highly-valued employee benefits.
As a county government agency, the organization has strict guidelines for salary increases and bonuses, so management must use other ways to attract and retain talented people. For example, staff members can:
- Share jobs
- Trade hours between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, or even work some hours in the evenings or on Saturdays
These choices not only increase employees convenience, but they also make the agency more accessible to the community it serves.
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Health Services Ahead of the Rest
Galinsky also points to health services organizations as places where employees have overwhelming jobs and value flexibility a great deal. Health service employers are significantly more likely than other employers to offer:
- Choices about and control over shifts
- Periodic flex time
- Daily flex time
- The ability to move between full and part time while remaining in the same position or level
- Part year work
- Job sharing
- Paid time off for personal illness
- Gradual return to work after childbirth or adoption for all or most of their employees
- Phased retirement
- Sabbaticals
- Paid or unpaid time away from work for education or training
- Extended career breaks for caregiving
- Special consideration when returning to work after an extended career break
How far to go with flex—one of what, a dozen challenges that will cross your desk today? We’re talking about intermittent leave challenges; accommodation headaches; investigation woes; training, interviewing, and attendance; to name just a few. In HR, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. And in a small department, it’s just that much tougher.
BLR’s Managing an HR Department of One is unique in addressing the special pressures small HR departments face. Here are some of its features:
- Explanation of how HR supports organizational goals. This section explains how to probe for what your top management really wants and how to build credibility in your ability to deliver it.
- Overview of compliance responsibilities, through a really useful, 2-page chart of 23 separate laws that HR needs to comply with. These range from the well-known Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and new healthcare reform legislation, to lesser-known, but equally critical, rules such as Executive Order 11246. Also included are examples of federal and state posting requirements. (Proper postings are among the first things a visiting inspector looks for—especially now that the minimum wage has been repeatedly changing.)
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- Training guidelines. No matter the size of your company, expect to conduct training. Some of it is required by law; some of it just makes good business sense. Managing an HR Department of One walks you through how to train efficiently and effectively with a minimum of time and money.
- Prewritten forms, policies, and checklists. These are enormous work savers! Managing an HR Department of One has 46 such forms, from job apps and background check sheets to performance appraisals and leave requests, in both paper and on CD. The CD lets you easily customize any form with your company’s name and specifics.
If you’d like a more complete look at what Managing an HR Department of One covers, click the Table of Contents link below. Or, better yet, take a look at the entire program. We’ll send it to you for 30 days’ evaluation in your own office with no obligation to buy. Click here, and we’ll be happy to make the arrangements.
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