Incentive - March 2008 - (Page 50)

IN HER SHOES Affordable Motivation Flexible work options offer value to boss and worker BY TORY JOHNSON PROFILE TORY JOHNSON, CEO, WOMEN FOR HIRE Career-savvy expert Tory Johnson is the founder and CEO of Women for Hire, which offers a comprehensive array of recruitment services for women. She is a contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America and a business and career coach for AOL. She co-authored Take This Book to Work: How to Ask for (and Get) Money, Fulfillment and Advancement. t’s hard to find a manager who isn’t interested in the smartest ways to keep employees motivated, productive, loyal and engaged. When those best practices don’t require a steep financial investment, even better. Flexible work options fit this bill. Most companies find that workplace flexibility increases employee morale and improves retention. Knowing that their companies trust them to work on their own, employees have greater confidence in themselves and stronger company loyalty. There are many forms of flex to consider, depending on the size of your company, nature of individual job functions and the varying personal needs of your staff. Here are a few options: Telecommuting: Employees work fulltime from home, away from the corporate office. Some may even be in another city or state. Workers maintain regular hours, and all of their communication is handled remotely. Travel is done as needed to meet with clients, coworkers and bosses. You save on office overhead and real estate costs. Compressed work week: Some employers—from retailers and grocery chains to banks and corporations—allow employees to work a compressed week. Instead of working five days for eight hours a day, for example, they’ll work four days at 10 hours each. This frees up an extra day each week to focus on personal and family needs or to save on childcare costs on that fifth day. I Altered workday: Sometimes employers allow workers to devise alternative schedules for start and stop times. A mom who wants to see her child off to school can choose a start time that’s later than her company’s standard 8:30 a.m. By delaying her start to 9:30 a.m., she can put the kids on the bus herself, and save the cost of morning child care. To make up for it, she stays an hour later at the end of the day. This benefit works well for employees take off the hour or two he needs, and then return to work. Vacation time works like a debit account—hours are deducted instead of days. This allows people to take care of family or personal matters without missing a day’s pay. The company benefits because it doesn’t lose out on a full day of productivity. Last-minute understanding: Another form of flexibility relates to the management style of your leaders. Some people can call in at 8 a.m. to say they are “A mom who wants to see her child off to school can choose a start time that’s later than the standard 8:30 a.m.” who live in congested cities. By avoiding the rush hour—either by arriving earlier or later—employees get to work faster and avoid that dead time on the road. Vacation by the hour: This offers flexibility for people paid by the hour. If they miss a day, their vacation time is docked. It’s also ideal for small businesses, because it’s easier for them to track than it is for larger companies. For example, when your employee must take his child to the doctor, instead of missing the entire shift, he can running late and the boss allows them to make up the time on their own terms. An understanding boss is for many people the most beneficial form of flexibility. None of these benefits have to cost a fortune to implement, and yet the rewards to your department or company can be priceless. Start by asking employees what forms of flexibility matter most to them, and build a program that meets their needs by staying true to the business realities as well. s 50 | Incentive | March 2008 | incentivemag.com http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - March 2008

Incentive - March 2008 Contents Editor’s Note: Delivering on Diversity In The News Cover Story: Leveraging Diversity in the Workplace Incentive Interview: Paul Levesque on Why Awards Fail Case Study: AEIS’ Max!-imum Incentive Program Mine Employees’ Creativity with Innovation Incentives Incentive Must-Reads The Third Annual Gift Card Roundtable My Turn: Motivation or Bribery? Everybody Get Together In Her Shoes: Why Bosses Should Be Flexible Incentive Primer: Passport Problem-Solving potentials Here and Now Is CES Electronics Heaven? China and Crystal: More Than a Pretty Face Travel News Florida: What’s New on the Beach? Smooth Sailing for Incentive Cruising Come To Hawaii And Take It Fast Last Word: But Enough About You

Incentive - March 2008

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