Okay, we’ll come out and admit it. We were a bit harsh when the Corporate Voices for Working Families released its new workplace flexibility study focused on hourly workers. In our defense, the information in the press release was expected and underwhelming.
But…hold on! The report itself is a virtual prize packed piñata filled with NEW, real-world examples of how hourly teams are making flexibility work for them. The quantitative data are “ho hum” but it’s the qualitative information that makes this report rock. It’s a solid resource you should download. Now.
Then beat it with a stick until you’ve pulled out every last good cellophane wrapped nugget.
As the study quite correctly points out, the flexibility focus to date has been on management and professional workers, and relatively little attention has gone to how flexibility can work for lower wage employees.
These hourly work environments are commonly production or service businesses where constant coverage is required. The obvious hurdle, then, is figuring out how to offer flexibility when you absolutely need constant physical presence.
This report shares several ways companies are making it happen—through team coverage arrangements, the use of vacation time in hourly increments, just-in-time vacations, and time-off vouchers.
There’s too much to share in a blog post, so we’ll content ourselves with a few highlights:
Employee-Managed Shift Trades
Among the many interesting findings, the study found that most companies allow employee to manage their own shift trades. Benefits of course, are an empowerment, teamwork, faster decision-making and reduced management time. (p10)
Employee-Designed
One of many flex-work examples in the report:
When one company went to a continuous operation, management challenged two teams to develop the work schedules…And in both cases, the employees moved away from seniority‐based scheduling.
One team developed an annual schedule that indicates all an employee’s workdays and days off far in advance. Employees then submit their vacation requests, which get added to the master schedule. Employees still have the opportunity to swap shifts or use flextime as needs for
flexibility come up on short notice. The other production team adopted a “just‐in‐time” time‐off system in which every day, two team members can get the day off. (p10)
Success factors cited in the report include
- Team based solutions
- Manager support
- Cross training
- Technology
Challenges
- Flex as a tool, not entitlement
- Continuity
- Manager support
- Coverage
- Scheduling meetings
- Tracking
Organizations participating in the study represented diverse industries (financial services, hospitality, child care and consumer products) and job types (customer‐facing workers as well as operations
workers).
As we complained in our earlier blog post on this study….the case for flexibility is well established. Instead of more numbers, what companies need is help with implementation, including tools to overcome their own unique challenges. Apologies. This study delivers that in spades.
Posted by Jaime