Although American and British families can take some comfort in the recent reforms to flexible policies at work there seems to be a familiar rumble coming from business on both sides of the Atlantic.
Over the last week business groups have written to Yvette Cooper, the UK's work and pensions secretary, warning against further legislation to force companies to accept flexible working requests.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) are concerned that a white paper, expected to be published this week, will outline more flexible working rules that would further burden companies, especially small ones.
Burden? What burden?
In January, the accounting giant KPMG, looking for a way to save payroll costs without losing valued employees, introduced an initiative called Flexible Futures. This new programme offered the 11,000 professionals in KPMG’s British operations the following options: They could go to a four-day workweek and take a 20 percent pay cut; they could opt for a mini-sabbatical at 30 percent base pay; they could opt for both of the above; or they could stick with their current arrangement.
The programme was hugely successful. Over 80 percent of KPMG’s professional employees (men and women) volunteered to take one of the flexible options. This allowed KPMG to achieve its goal of retaining jobs while cutting costs.
Because Flexible Futures positioned shorter workweeks and mini-sabbaticals as a strategic response to the downturn rather than a “benefit” for working mothers, it has gone some distance to legitimising flex time. Taking this option has become an honored choice — a way to save jobs. As a result, overloaded men as well as overloaded women have felt free to vary their schedules.
It's all about the method of application. I've written before about fathers' fear of asking for flexible hours because of the perceived worry it will be detrimental to their careers. But in these cash-poor days business needs to find a way to cut costs without cutting jobs and flexible policies work - they just need to pitch it right.
More Resources Showing Flexible Policies Work...
Simple policy tweak improves workers' health, productivity ...
Implementing flexible policies can add years to your employees' lives, according to a three-year nationwide study released by the Work, Family and Health Network. The following findings for the study were compiled by eight ...
S&C Chair Credits Flexible Policies for Women-Dominated ...
Rodgin Cohen told the New York Law Journal that the high-percentage of women is due to policies such as flex-time and maternity leave that are designed to retain more women lawyers. "I think hopefully as we have more and more women ...
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