More Companies Allow Employees Flextime

May 10, 2004 -- Some days, Annette Winkelman works a few hours, heads to a personal appointment and works more in the evening. Others, she works extended hours so she can take off later in the week to attend her children's school activities.

At professional services firm Deloitte & Touche, where she is Chicago technology leader for information technology services, Winkelman has been able to arrange her own schedule for more than five years.

"It's taken some creativity, and now I successfully can do my job, take care of my children and have some personal time, amazingly enough," she said.

In the world of flexible work, the traditional 9-to-5 no longer means working in an office — or even during those times. Increasingly, employees can set their own hours, work from home and take some time for their families during regular business hours.

Employers claim flexibility helps them retain their best workers by keeping them happy, and those who take advantage of such allowances say it makes the balance of work and home lives easier to attain.

A Growing Trend

The Families and Work Institute recently studied American businesses and rated them as "effective workplaces" based on such criteria as job autonomy and learning opportunities. It found 43 percent of U.S. employees have access to traditional flextime, up from 29 percent in 1992. Managers, professionals and people in higher-paid jobs are more likely to have the option, but other jobs can be flexible as well.

"You couldn't build an airplane in your living room, but there is more flexibility than people think," said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute.

In addition, 23 percent of employees have access to daily flextime, in which they can select their start and quit times within a range of hours on a daily basis, which is up from 18 percent in 1992.

At Deloitte, flexibility has been a goal for more than 10 years since the company tried to hold on to female employees who had been recruited at the entry level.

"It's an important way to retain talented people, both men and women," said Stan Smith, the company's national director of employer choice next generation initiatives.

The most popular innovation has been "informal flexible work," in which employees can work anytime, anyplace and anywhere.

Currently, Deloitte has about 1,100 people utilizing its formal flexibility, which requires more of a formal process and requirements, including 22 partners, 15 of whom are women. Thirty-eight are firm directors, 31 of whom are women. And, Smith noted, in 2003, two women were admitted to partnership and three were promoted to firm director who were on formal flexible work arrangements.

The results of such policies have been dramatic. By polling Deloitte employees over the years, "80-plus percent said they were with us because of the flexible working relationship that they could develop with the firm," Smith said.

Count Winkelman among them. "I need to work, not only financially, but also I really like to work," she said. "I don't think I would have left the firm, but I don't think I would have been a happy employee [without flextime.] My role as a mother is very important."

In June, Deloitte will launch a new program, Personal Pursuits, which allows employees to leave for up to five years but remain connected to the company through training and career coaching, and the firm will pay to keep their professional certifications current.

"For a very small amount of money this costs to administer, we ultimately re-recruit someone to the firm," Smith said. Replacing someone can cost more than 1½ times their salary, he said.

Changing Attitudes

In order for more companies to offer such programs, long-held beliefs about work and effectiveness need to be challenged, according to Galinsky.

"I think that flexibility bumps you up against a lot of assumptions that came out of our fathers' workplaces — presence equals productivity, how do we know they're working if we can't see them … or the assumption that there are bad apples out there and you have to really manage for the bad apples," she said.

At the same time, with agreed-upon results and good communication, companies may find they're actually getting more out of their workers, even if they're not physically in the office. People tend to be more motivated to be efficient and feel more rewarded when they're "not being measured by the coat on their chair or their car in the parking lot," Galinsky said.

Winkelman added that employers should realize savings from such policies in areas ranging from real estate to medical costs due to employees' lower stress levels. "It's definitely a cultural change, the fact that I am getting my work done, just because you can't see me here," she said. "It's still something people are afraid to do … it's going to just take time. People are doing it. People are getting their job done.

"A lot of people may be in the same situation as I — they really can't afford to leave," she said, "but they certainly get more productivity out of people when they're happy."