Generational shift and new technology are changing employees’ expectations and challenging employers to move with the times.

It wasn’t long ago that “working 9 to 5” was so ingrained in office culture it inspired a hit movie and song. Now, though, Gen X and Gen Y workers bring with them an expectation that work schedules will be flexible tools that grow out of the mutual needs of employee and employer alike.

With the rise of the work-life balance movement, buzzwords have entered the lexicon to describe these new relationships, including flex time, compressed workweeks, job sharing and telecommuting.

The advantage of these arrangements to workers is obvious: greater control over one’s schedule and more—or better-quality—personal time. But what about employers? Is an employee’s “face time” in the workplace too valuable to lose? Does flexibility come at the expense of efficiency and cost-effectiveness? Will offsite workers slack off without direct supervision?

Current evidence indicates that the answer to these anxious questions is usually “No.” In fact, wisely employed flexibility can benefit employers through increased efficiency as well as worker acquisition and retention. But embracing flexibility means moving away from a “face-time” business culture to a results-oriented one, which requires replacing old habits with new ones.

To that end, the Alliance for Work-Life Progress reports that the most productive and profitable workplaces share the following research-proven practices:

• Maximizing job autonomy by allowing employees to exercise a level of control over their own work conditions
• Creating learning opportunities that provide continual growth and opportunities for advancement
• Providing high levels of supervisor support, recognition and feedback for successful project completion
• Ensuring high levels of co-worker support through teamwork and collaboration
• Involving employees in decision-making
• Minimizing status distinctions
• Optimizing flexibility as a core business strategy

What’s more, implementing workplace flexibility has few associated direct costs, so it is a remarkably inexpensive power tool for creating higher levels of attraction, retention, engagement, productivity and wellness.

Click here to go back to the main page.