Posts Tagged ‘research’

Flex Time Reciprocity

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Great piece over at Discovery News late last week, highlighting research that shows flex workers work harder and often longer.  The reason, researchers suggest, is that workers who feel like their employers have given them something special, work hard to give something extra special in return.

Among the findings highlighted, flex workers…

  • Work more intensely
  • Have higher job satisfaction
  • Have less stress
  • Are more loyal

One of the article’s sources attributes the phenomenon to social exchange theory–a sort of voluntary and informal repayment system between individuals.  From the piece:

Over time, a series of positive social exchange transactions lead to strong relationships, whether it’s between individuals or an employee and a company. These transactions provide individuals and institutions alike with a way to build trust, since these exchanges usually aren’t obligatory.

Build trust and productivity at the same time?  We’ve found it!  Flex time–the holy grail of employee engagement.

(Well actually we found it several years ago.  But we’d like to help you find it too.  Call Life Meets Work at 1-888-462-LMW1 and we’ll point you in the right direction.)

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Posted in Fostering Flexibility | No Comments »

Keeping Your Top Talent

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

A newly released report from CareerBuilder and USA Today reveals six employment trends. Among them:

#2 – Upgrading Talent Rosters – Twenty-three percent of employers said they are taking this time, when hiring has slowed, to replace lower-performing employees with top talent that may not have been available in a healthier economy. Job seekers who stand to benefit the most include those operating in sales, accounting/finance, retail and customer service.

Bad news for poor performers and bad news for companies that aren’t doing anything to keep their top staff engaged. Your best performers are also the most mobile. Do what you can now to keep those employees connected and engaged.

Don’t believe it? Check out this story from World at Work:

The fast growing biotech company offered a sweet package: higher pay, a move up the corporate ladder and great career building opportunities. But Bill MacGowen, senior vice president of human resources at Sun Microsystems, said it still wasn’t enough to land one of his key employees. She turned the company down flat when she learned she’d have to trade her flexible work schedule at Sun for one that kept her in the office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week.  “Once you have a taste for it, you don’t want to go back,” said MacGowen.

Work-life options appeal to every demographic. Now is the time to trial telecommuting, contracting, job sharing, flexible hours and even sabbaticals. Use these tools as an alternative to layoffs and then leverage them for workforce retention once the economy turns around.

Posted by Jaime

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Posted in Business Growth, Fostering Flexibility | No Comments »

Work Life Conflict is Gender Blind

Friday, March 27th, 2009

Work life conflict is not just a woman’s issue. That’s according to new findings from The 2009 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW), which polls 3,500 U.S workers at all professional levels.

The NCSW shows that 45% of men report some level of work life conflict, compared to 39% of women.  What’s more, when you examine just those parents in dual-income households, the conflict-factor for men goes up to 59% (45% for the moms).

Men, the study shows, are taking on more of the household responsibilities than their predecessors—including childcare, cooking, and cleaning.

Those trends are particularly prominent in Millennial men when it comes to childcare. Today’s Millennial fathers spend an average of 4.3 hours per workday with their children under 13, significantly more than their age counterparts in 1977 who spent an average of 2.4 hours per workday with their children—a dramatic increase of almost two hours.

Attitudes about gender roles are changing, and Millennials are a driving force behind the shift.

For the first time, young women and young men don’t differ in their desire for jobs with more responsibility. Among Millennials (under 29 years old), women are just as likely as men to want jobs with greater responsibility.

Likewise, the NCSW found no difference between young women with and without children in their desire for more responsibility at work: 69% with kids, 66% without.

Implications are manifold:

  • It’s no longer logical (never mind legal) to discriminate against women or mothers, assuming they’ll be more distracted or less committed than men
  • Work/life initiatives (on ramping, flex scheduling, off ramping) should be designed with both men and women in mind.
  • Family leave policies should provide equal treatment of both fathers and mother (i.e. get beyond ‘maternity’ leave)

Highlights of the study and the full report available from the Families and Work Institute.

Posted by Jaime

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Posted in Fostering Flexibility | 3 Comments »