We also outlined  four key business strategies that can be supported by flexibility in the organization.  These are:  

1-Employee Attraction and Retention

2-Improved Productivity

3- Improved Customer Service and Satisfaction

4- Effective Operational Management

This third posting will cover the last two strategies.   Why are these strategies key to a business case for building a flexible work culture?…….or said another way…… How will flexible work cultures actually help to accomplish these business strategies?

Improved Customer Service & Satisfaction
Flexibility can improve client service in a variety of ways that include extended hours, deeper bench strength, improved employee engagement and improved back up service. When customers need extended hours of access to service providers this does not always mean that the hours need to be served by one person. Flexibility promotes stronger service by the team as a whole. Putting flexibility in place regarding work hours can be an improvement for customers and teams simultaneously.  This pertains to internal and external customers.  With a little planning and good communication, a flexible work culture can extend the amount of hours we are available to our customers and the quality of that response. For example, a team can agree that one individual desires to begin work very early in the morning and wrap up late afternoon while other team members prefer to begin work late morning and wrap up in the evening. With both of these team members covering customer communication- the customer is covered for a 14 or even 16 hour day on a regular basis while still matching the desired work hours of those on the team.  Multiple time zone issues are also impacted positively by these arrangements.  Flexibility creates a powerful productivity enhancer and barrier to exit within the team while simultaneously improving customer service and building stronger continuity and relationships. In addition, the team members share customer coverage and communication and develop stronger skills for future advancement. If there is turnover in the team at some point, the relationship with the client does not rest in the hands of one person. The team relationship protects the customer relationship and increases continuity which will directly improve customer retention which is a top concern of many organizations today.  Customer satisfaction and retention is a number one concern according to a 2009 PCPS survey. Serving current customers is much more profitable then acquiring and acclimating to new clients. Customer retention is a significant bottom line issue for all organizations and one that can be improved by well executed flexible work culture efforts. Employee engagement is improved when desirable career components such as flexibility are available. Flexibility fit is a powerful predictor of employee engagement for employees of all ages. Increased employee engagement has been proven in research to predict increased customer satisfaction.

Effective Management
A flexible work culture can positively impact the effective management of an organization which is most significantly a bottom line issue and important component of the business case. Flexibility improves organizational management by impacting the costs related to the peaks and valleys of work flow, both predictable fluctuations such as seasonal changes and unpredictable fluctuations such as timing issues, growing and shrinking practices or markets, sabbaticals and absence leaves. Consider the following scenario. An organization requires a 40% increase in hours to complete seasonal work each month for four months. Company #1 deals with the increase by requiring individuals to increase their hours to cover this gap in hours and may be required to pay overtime as a result.  Organization #2 hires additional resources  who work forty to fifty hours per week to cover these additional seasonal hours. Some of these individuals work part time during other seasonal flux periods, others are completely non active in the slower seasons which works with their family and/or personal life considerations. Other team members make themselves flexibly available in the slow period should any periodic project work arise that requires additional hours over and above those available with traditional staffing. In Company #1 most individuals are required to work significant overtime during the seasonal work period which limits the talent pool that is willing to work with Company #1 and increases turnover and burnout among those who do. The turnover, burnout and stress related ailments increase costs in recruitment, training, medical leave, and health insurance. In Company #2 those individuals with traditional full time schedules in the Firm are not required to work significant amounts of overtime unless they wish to do so. Moderate levels of overtime are compensated properly. Unsustainable levels of overtime are not encouraged as this creates poor role modeling and misconceptions about what is required to advance in the organization. In each individual case, compensation is adjusted accordingly to ensure company metrics are met.

Flexibility enables customized career and life integration design while simultaneously providing depth in staffing for planned and unplanned contingencies. Flexibility is a two way concept. Individuals who are able to access flexibility when desired are very often willing to respond when the organization requires flexibility of them to accomplish business needs and/or meet unusual or unpredictable customer needs. Decisions are not static and therefore morph as individuals move through different stages of their lives. This adjustable model increases the number of years of employee retention which decreases recruitment, and training costs. With a flexible work culture and deeper bench strength, changes in practice/market volume and other volatilities in business are more easily staffed at a lower cost with less negative impact to the customer such as delays or poor work due to stress and burnout.

Conclusions
Building a flexible work culture is a business tool that supports the accomplishment of other business strategies. The business case for flexibility is supported by a deep connection with many common business strategies in play today in most organizations. The business strategies include: top talent attraction and retention from almost all pools of workers, productivity gains, improved client service & satisfaction and improved business effectiveness. It is not difficult for any organization to create a strong business case for flexibility that is tied directly to its primary business objectives in a very specific manner. The organizations that begin to approach the building of a flexible work culture in a determined, systemic, and strategic manner will be building a strong competitive advantage.

mlbennettconsulting.com

We also outlined  four key business strategies that can be supported by flexibility in the organization.  These are:  

1-Employee Attraction and Retention

2-Improved Productivity

3- Improved Customer Service and Satisfaction

4- Effective Operational Management

This second posting will cover the first two strategies.   Why are these strategies key to a business case for building a flexible work culture?…….or said another way…… How will flexible work cultures actually help to accomplish these business strategies?

Employee Attraction & Retention

As stated above there are very few employees that go thru their entire career without the need for flexibility at some juncture.  In addition we know that there are many groups within our talent pools that require flexibility as part of a desired career package.   Dual income families are the first group that comes to mind.  [1]Eighty percent of all couples in the United States are dual income.  This means that both members of the household work in jobs outside of the home.  Many of us can remember a time when all those we worked with were from single income families.   Many of us may still be members of a single income family; however this is far from the norm.  Only 20% of the population have an adult at home full time managing household tasks .   This percentage is shrinking as we move forward.  Our organizations are still in many ways structured as if everyone has an adult family member at home managing the many things that must be done to run a household.  As a result we may not even be aware of all that it takes to keep a household chaos free.  Most individuals in the U.S. do not have this luxury.  Simple things such as car repairs or maintenance, doctor appointments, home maintenance, financial management, and last but not least child or elder care responsibilities require time to manage effectively.  Dual income families are under tremendous pressure not only to make ends meet but to stay organized and accomplish household and family related tasks in a timely and effective manner.  This pressure often causes significant stress.  In addition, we know from research that the reduction of this pressure can result in a powerful barrier to exit in employees.  For many of our employees, it is high on their list of priorities to establish flexibility that works well for their family unit.  Once this flexibility is in place, it is a very strong and low cost employee benefit and barrier to exit.  

Not only dual income family members are looking for flexibility.  Other groups that are demanding flexibility in their career package are generation x & y, those moving toward retirement, those with increasing outside interests such as hobbies or educational goals, and those serving in the military and working in reserve units.  There are more and more reasons why individuals require flexibility and our competitors are providing it.   The size of the talent pool that will periodically require flexibility in their career is growing rapidly.  The organization with a flexible work culture will be well prepared for the future.   Flexibility is a competitive advantage in today’s marketplace.

In addition to the competitive need to provide flexibility, the bottom line is best served by preparation for flexibility as well.   The loss and recruitment of replacement staff conservatively costs a Firm 150% to 200% of annual salary.  By contrast, a full one year parental leave, or elder care leave costs only 32% of annual salary.    Multiply the savings noted above by the number of employees likely to require flexibility in the future and bottom line impact is evident.                                                                                                                                  

 Increased Productivity

Flexibility, when well executed, will improve productivity within an organization in a variety of ways.   Well executed flexibility requires improved communication regarding roles and expectations.  Flexibility often reduces stress dramatically which can result in increased concentration, improved attendance, morale and improved performance.  Each of these elements is a building block to improved productivity.

A 2007 CCH Survey shows that 66% of absence from work is related to other than personal illness.   In addition, 35% of absence from work is related to stress and family needs with another 18% related to personal needs. [2]   Similar surveys have shown that individuals will often not actually take the day off, but will come into work with these distractions pulling them away from work during the day.  This lack of concentration directly impacts productivity because many individuals cannot use all of their vacation time for these needs yet the issues must still be dealt with using work hours to make calls, and keep appointments. Catalyst cites 76% of managers and 87% of employees reported that flexibility had a positive impact on productivity.

A recent study out of Cranfield School of Management suggests that workers given flexible hours by their employers tend to work more intensely than their counterparts who are keeping more rigid office hours.   The researchers suggest that the reason for this phenomenon is a “kind of payment” to the employer from the worker in exchange for the freedom to choose where and when to work. [3]

Flexibility is not always about personal needs, often flexibility is requested for business reasons that directly increase productivity.  Flexibility requests are increasingly about setting aside uninterrupted time to complete certain tasks , to accommodate urgent work requests and to address the business needs such as the following:

 - To be available to colleagues and customers in other time zones

  -To extend total hours of availability of a team

  -To match uneven and/or seasonal workflows with proper resources

 - To address needs put aside during periods of heavy workload

 - To avoid long commutes of unproductive time[4]

In companies working on building flexible work cultures  there are often questions about how to structure a pro-rata compensation and benefits package for those who have requested some type of flexibility.  The main concern is often the protection of accepted organizational metrics and fairness.  The mechanics of this effort are not the most challenging aspect of the implementation.   Organizational cultures and unwritten rules about what is “normal”often  increase the resistance to mainstream acceptance.   However,as stated previously, many flexibility arrangements do not even involve an overall reduction in hours but involve other types of flexibility that do not impact compensation.  However, complexities seem to remain when implementation is attempted.  The only solution is solid communication of the business benefits to the organization.

Organizations  should avoid removing individuals from advancement and promotion tracks as a result of flexibility.  First and foremost the number of individuals who desire flexibility is increasing and these numbers suggest it is prohibitive to exclude the significant number of individuals from maximizing their potential.  In addition, the lost of talent from reducing the growth of this talent pool is short sighted.  It is critical that outcomes, experience requirements, and role responsibilities are not confused directly with hours worked or departure from cultural norms .  There are positions that are very difficult to execute with less than a full time plus level of hours.  In reality,however, many of these roles can be split or shared if viewed in a new light.  In addition, as has been stated previously, many types of flexibility do not require a reduction of overall hours .   Therefore there is no impact preventing access to full time plus executive roles.   If the team perceives lack of advancement as a consequence of flexibility the competitive advantage and business case is lost.

Stay tuned for Part III in the series on The Business Case for Building Flexible Work Cultures

[2] CCH Absence Survey – 2007

[3] Discovery News, Feb 2010                 

[4] Building a Flexible Workplace, Catalyst July 2009

The women’s movement began quietly with a book “The Feminine Mystique”, moved to bra burning, and gained traction with consciousness raising groups.

All of that seems like it was centuries ago.

We now head large organizations, are in key positions in government, and have a say in just about everything. Yet some of the pleaser and martyr behavior patterns that were handed from generation to generation are still dying a slow death.

Just watch “Mad Men” and remember how it was. You worked if you typed and delivered. No not ideas – merely the coffee to the men. While much has changed, there is more work to be done.

This is a year of both celebrating change and dialoguing about what still needs to change. CELEBRATION: in the next few months women will cross the threshold and become the majority workers in America. CELEBRATION: women professionals are in the majority in this country. CELEBRATION: women have become economically powerful in their own right.

What is the next phase of the revolution toward equality, and even beyond that, toward partnership?

Perhaps we need to regroup and create consciousness-raising groups that mirror the 60’s. Maybe this time it needs to include both men and women. While we need to celebrate the successes, we really need to ask the hard questions that remain unanswered for ourselves, our children, and even our grandchildren.

My daughters are grown, and I am now watching the dilemmas and concerns about what it means to raise children in a world that is going at warp-speed. What does it mean to run a business, run a household, and still have time for the kids?

I believe the dialogues of today are around the unfinished business of the past. The issues are around motherhood, and fatherhood. The issues at the deepest level are about the children. If we have them, then who raises them?  What kind of support is needed to bring out the best in the next generation?

This is where the pleaser and martyr patterns of the past, so deep in the neuropsychology of most women, kick in. Women still appear to be the ones who make the plans for the youngsters, take off the time if they are sick, and worry about grades, friends and drugs. Sure, dads are included, yet it still seems that mothers are carrying the heaviest part of the load. That has not really changed.

I am not suggesting we demand that our men vacuum and make the oatmeal. That discussion belongs to each couple to sort out. I am thinking way bigger than that. I am wondering if we can look at the countries that have offered families more help, looking especially at Norway and Sweden.

What do we need to do to change, so the next generations grow to be the best they can be? When do we as women take the pleaser and martyr parts of our personalities and transform them into their positive opposites – the truth teller and the integrator? What are the questions that need to be asked to sort out the dilemma of what we can do, what our businesses can do, and what government can do?

I’d love to hear from you with ideas about creating life-enhancing programs that can deter so many of the social problems connected with the new world of work we have helped create, and the burdens of parenting at every level of our society.

Let’s start a 21st Century rendition of consciousness-raising, and keep the revolution for healthy and balanced evolution at the forefront of our lives.

Nancy Pennebaker, a senior consultant with our organization, Creative Energy Options, Inc. (CEO) sent this to me for both the humor and the depth of the message. Our company motto, “we are all connected and no one wins unless we all do”, is embedded in the following short article. It shows that this issue of image is one that is a world issue.

Notice that the sign in the window of an exercise studio and the answer are from France, where the image of gorgeous models in clothes by Yves St. Laurent, Chanel et a.l became the standard of beauty.

This is a time for us to say what really matters and stand for changes, so that the future is not trapped in the girdles of the past.

Often the best way to say “vive la difference” is through humor. Stephen Kapustin, a lawyer in Philadelphia is a graduate of our Total Leadership Connections program. He is a seeker of truth through humor,  and has sent me so many funny articles to get my laughter valve open on many a dreary day.

The following has so many elements of deep truth. Women love to explore the emotions of a situation, while many men want to get to the solution quickly and move on. Let me know if your male business partners remind you of this guy. I must admit that my business partner, who is also my husband, would respond like the man in the column.

In fact, when I showed this to Herb, he looked at me and said “So, what’s funny about that?” What answer would you give to that question???

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A vital question for all of us, and especially women in business who tend to be caretakers and pleasers is “What do you do to renew your spirit?” I’d love to hear responses that can give all of us some new ideas or even underline what we already know. Some I’ve asked say a long soak in a tub at night helps, others are runners and bikers, still others put on hot music, close the door and dance till they fall in a heap on the floor.

The New England Journal of Medicine found that those who engaged in social dancing at least several times a week had a 76 percent lower risk of dementia than those who did not.  So, find a partner and get to it!

For me a cup of tea is a powerful stress reliever. A recent study in Britain had groups either drink water or tea and then were measured on stress related tests. Those who had a warm cup of tea were less prone to give in to anxiety than those who merely drank a glass of water.

The research indicated that drinking tea was less about the nutritional value and more about being part of a long standing ritual, thousands of years old. Interesting thought; I know when I take a cup of tea in my hands the first sip makes me feel calm and surprisingly content.

Years ago my husband and I were fortunate enough to travel to China with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hahn who was being permitted to bring his Buddhist teachings to the people in Beijing and various outer monasteries. One of the most endearing memories I harbor was sitting on the floor of the airport waiting for a flight between cities. We were all tired and the tendency was to be crabby and complain.

Instead, we all sat in small groups, all 180 of us and sipped tea. We cradled the cups like precious bowls, modeling the way this beautiful Zen Master sat; calm and still. The Vietnamese name for teacher is Thay, and that moment of having “Tea with Thay” is still comforting when the business of the day begins to overtake me.

Leadership is about being a model of behaving in ways that create cooperation and collaboration. Please share some of your best practices for reducing stress and renewing your spirit. We can all learn from each other while waiting for spring.

The women who represented the major pharmaceutical and biotech companies were key players, with long resumes down to the newbies just starting out. There was a sense of “we’re all in it together”, a desire to mentor and an equal desire to learn from the “elders’.

At one point, I stood on the side watching the buffet lunch line take shape and loved the musical sounds of people connecting with each other. The male manager of the hotel happened to stop next to me and we had a brief conversation. I was curious, so I asked what was it like to be surrounded by 800 women? His answer was telling. He said there was something different than many past meetings he had witnessed. He was not sure he could name the difference. I urged him to give it a shot.
 
“Well, for one thing” he began tentatively, “these women seem to really like each other”. He stopped to analyze his statement. I prodded with “How can you tell?” and he continued, almost in a stream of consciousness, “not sure….I always see women as one upping each other…..looking at what they are wearing and talking about that or where they got the dress or shoes….these women…..they seem focused on wanting to make a difference ….I don’t mean to listen in, yet can’t help hearing them…..they are talking about not just healthcare in general…..they are really talking about how to make their work settings better for everyone…. I even stopped in yesterday morning and there was session about how to develop trust at work…. They were in small groups and they were really working the issue, not just giving it lip service….I thought about it last night, women are really making a difference in the workplace and somehow, I just saw the power of what they, you, all can bring to the table from a deeper perspective.”

He stopped, embarrassed and excused himself to check on the wait staff. I saw him later and he waved, still embarrassed by the amount of self disclosure. He made sure not to get too near, for I might ask another open-ended question that would get him going again.

I thought about this male perspective in a women’s conference. There were a few men in attendance, certainly no more than a dozen at most, and I hoped they had a similar experience. We have come a long way and we certainly are on the road for bringing trust into the work setting as well as compassion and a sense of camaraderie. As women, we excel at relationships and mentoring and we can be partners to help our male colleagues pay attention to and benefit from our natural abilities.

 
I believe that female leaders in the work world can lead the way in positive and exciting ways. It struck me, and with pride, I acknowledged our successes to date. While we have a rocky road ahead, any transformation worth its weight means twists and turns and boulders to be confronted. Yet, if we stay centered with our eyes on the goal of male/female partnership, we can and will change the world for the better.

 
Here is what happened as I dove into some dusty, old boxes. I found a journal, like really old. One my daughter wrote as a teenager. I did call and ask permission to read before I sent it to her in San Francisco. I remember learning my lesson about snooping a long time ago!

 
She is now married with two children. After balancing work and kids, she made the decision to close her business and be a stay-at-home mom till they were “launched”.  That meant two years at home and I believe it was in part a reaction to the fact that I never stopped my career when she and her sister were little.

 
She is now ready to re-enter the work force and is keeping all options open. That means changes on the home front. I have watched as she and her husband have negotiated the unavoidable – the car pools, doctor’s visits, and yes, even folding the laundry. It will get more intense, and so what!

 
Now back to her journal. What struck me was the tone of her teen writing. I was surprised that there was so much of the old model from my own adolescence. There was still a quality of letting the male take the lead, of waiting for the phone to ring, of obsessing over the extra few pounds.

 
That was twenty plus years ago. I asked her what has changed. She seems much more willing to say her piece, to stand her ground. Here is what she said, “The great things you and your female colleagues did to stand up against “second class citizenship” for women both at home and at work really did rub off. I don’t worry about my daughter growing up with limited choices. I do also want her to see parents who talk about what is fair. That is what was missing from your generation”.

 
I agree. We are entering a time when one key is adaptation. New models of what it means to be a female and what it means to be a male are emerging. How are we going to create the dialogues that will lead to   integrated ways of working and playing together? Can football and beer survive? Can frilly clothing and spa days survive?

 
The other side of adaptation is resistance. How many Dr. Laura’s  will be needed to beat down the intended changes? How must the media rethink its role in selling the old stereotypes? We need some educated discussions about “Mad Men” and what we can learn from those days. What my daughter said is what the world needs now, enhanced discussions about fairness and partnership as we all walk the rocky, winding road of this teen decade.

My lab partner had the opportunity to make the list for me and vise-versa. We knew each other just well enough to figure out some of the trigger words that would send the skin meter sky high. I must admi, the word “marriage” won the off-the-charts award in those days.

What was super interesting for me was to observe the pattern that developed from the string of words. We did not even have to push a button. We just sat in a darkened room and heard words told to us over a microphone in a neutral and non invasive manner.

One of the words that was a real eye opener for me was a simple one – one that we all hear everyday, more than once. It was the word “NO”. The list went like this: table…scarf….television….no…..butter….daffodil and so on. Every time a “yes” was said I stayed pretty neutral. “NO” always went to the top of the meter.

For the following nights I became sensitized to this simple two letter word. It even invaded my dreams. I could not figure out why it was causing so much tension in me.

Fast forward to my research on my book, “Don’t Bring It to Work”. As I looked for information about the various behavior patterns that come from childhood and play out at work, my mind traveled back to that early research project. I had identified one of my behavior patterns as a rebel –  I did not like to be told what to do and I did not like to take no for an answer. That seemed to make sense, until I came to the part about the pleaser.

I prided myself in NOT being a pleaser; I much preferred the excitement of being classified as a rebel. Yet, as I dug down into my underlying truths I realized that, in fact, I had been programmed as a pleaser from a very young age. It was both a family thing and also a cultural thing.

What I realized is that I was trained to be polite and, ee-gads, proper. As all kids do, I learned by imitating. I watched my mother, my aunts, and the female neighbors. I learned that to be accepted it was proper etiquette to go along with the status quo. “Yes” was acceptable and “No” was censored.

The rebel pattern certainly seems to be in conflict with the pleaser pattern. Rebel, for me, is more lively, more action oriented. And then I got it! I was a rebel so long as it was a philosophical issue, one that could be debated in the classroom. Yet, when it came to making people happy, doing what was asked of me, responding to my family mantra of “always do the right thing”, it became a matter of absolutely, positively, making sure other people were happy, even if I had to stuff my own feelings.

“No” was a word that had entered my nervous system at an early age as a danger word, one to use very carefully. It is interesting that I love to teach in our executive leadership program that “No”, is a complete sentence. Everyone laughs and that sure feels good. I teach that conflict resolution means telling the truth, no matter what.

I teach that the pleaser morphs into the truth teller, and that it is healthy and appropriate to say “No” and stick to it. Yet, I bet if I ever did my word test from graduate school again, the subconscious programming from the past would have “No” still at the top of the chart on the emotionally-charged side.

Money that was formerly spent in the for-profit sector is now being spent by government entities.  If your business is not prepared to tap into this fertile source of contracts, it is time to pay attention.  Of course you need to start by educating yourself on the stimulus package and the types of things that are being funded and will be funded.

But beyond that, I offer you ten tips to access stimulus-funded contracts:

1. If you are a woman-owned or minority-owned (WBE or MBE) company, be sure that you have signed up to receive notification of federal, state, and local government Requests for Proposals (RFPs) in your key areas.
2. Pay attention to large nonprofit organizations, locally and nationally, many of which are partnering with government entities to administer stimulus funds.  If you do not subscribe to a notification service, you should consider doing so.
3. Understand that public school systems and public colleges and universities are public agencies who will administer some of these funds.
4. Attend local, regional, or national workshops and seminars being held to advise small businesses and WBE/MBE businesses about the contracting processes.
5. If you qualify as a WBE or MBE but you are not certified, apply now to begin the formal certification process.  You can start in your state and request reciprocal certification, or work through a national service that is recognized by a number of states.
6. Be certain that your financial statements are accurate and up-to-date.  You will need excellent financials in order to win public sector work.
7. If you have not previously done business with public agencies, get some training and/or counseling about how to prepare to win a contract and to deliver on it.
8. Explore the possibilities of developing a strategic relationship with a larger company (one experienced in government contracts) that is looking for reliable subcontractors.
9. Learn how the RFP process works and what it takes to win.  If the process is new to you, engage a coach, consultant, or trainer.
10.  Have a clear-cut process for determining which opportunities are a good fit for you and assessing the probability that you can win.

This is not an easy path to follow.  But if you have been “meaning to” explore working in the public sector, or if you have had contracts with local or regional entities, it is a very good time to prepare your company to be successful in a new arena and/or at a higher level.

The Whale Hunters® are experts in helping small and midsize companies do business with much larger customers.  Visit our website for more information and many free tools to help you plan.