This article originally appeared on diversityinc.com on February 14, 2006

Beyond Flex-Time

The most prevalent types of work/life options offered by employers are gradual returns to work after childbirth or adoption and time off for education or skills training. While such time-off arrangements are the bread and butter of work/life provisions at a typical company, some employers have concluded that traditional flex-time is yesterday's solution.

"We've studied this notion of flexibility to death," says Cathy Benko, national managing director, initiative for the Advancement and Retention of Women at Deloitte. "You just look at it and you say, 'Where's this thing going?' [Flex-time arrangements] can be helpful in the short run, but they tend to be point solutions ... We actually don't think flex-time is the answer in the longer term."

The next generation of work/life programs scales the idea of flexibility for longer-term separations and new kinds of jobs. They include: off-ramping programs to keep new mothers or other high performers connected to the company; work redesigns that allow employees to combine their efforts as teams so administrative burdens don't fall too heavily on individuals; sabbaticals so employees can re-evaluate their careers; and other concepts being tested around the country.

These are relatively low-cost tools for managing change and time, whether employees are taking a break or even if they're technically no longer working, as in the case of Deloitte's Personal Pursuits program.

Currently in pilot with 28 men and women in 18 cities, Personal Pursuits is Deloitte's answer to the off-ramping problem described in a recent Harvard Business Review article, which found that women who leave jobs because of a change in family obligations—a new child, an aging parent—return to lower-status jobs or work for lesser pay, often for a different company.

Deloitte (one of the 25 Noteworthy Companies for Diversity in 2005) calculates that the cost of replacing an employee is at least two times salary. Personal Pursuits costs only about $2,500 per year per participant. The program pairs participants with senior-level mentors inside the company who keep them informed of networking events and skills-building opportunities for up to five years after their departure.

Kelly Carr's mentor keeps up a siren song of job openings inside Deloitte, shooting the new mother e-mails to tempt her back to work. It's a low-pressure seduction, and Carr, a former manager in Deloitte's training division, appreciates it. "I'm much more apt to go back [to Deloitte] because of the program," Carr says. "I can go to her and say, 'OK, I'm starting to feel the itch again and I want to ... put my name back in the hat.'"

Deloitte also is testing a concept Benko calls the "mass customization" of careers. "You can customize M&Ms, you can customize sneakers or jeans, you can even go to the Internet and customize your own food pyramid, so why couldn't you customize careers?" she asks.

She likens mass career customization to a stereo equalizer, where four key aspects of one's career—role, pace, workload and locale—are manipulated into harmony through careful adjustment of each level in relation to one's team. Unlike traditional flex-time, which makes adjustments based on a single job at a given point in time, mass customization involves working with coaches to design the timeline of one's career—the amount of time one takes to make partner, for instance, or how long one remains in a given job description—to accommodate life events. Five pilots are in progress.

Like Deloitte, PwC is investigating an on- and off-ramps program. "We've heard a lot about the opt-out revolution, and whether or not it's true, there's this whole issue around whether or not it's worth it to come back to work," says Duris. "So to help with that discussion and to help with all of our numbers around retention and women's advancement, it's become clear that it's probably necessary to have some sort of alternative career path."

The challenge is looking at the quality of people's time off. Like professionals at a lot of companies, PwC employees don't always use all of their vacation time, or if they do, they spend their vacations plugged into their Blackberrys. 

"I can have a lot of flexibility and still be working 24 hours a day," Duris says. 

PwC is experimenting with a work-redesign pilot that groups employees into teams that share responsibility for a portfolio of clients. If one employee is away, another steps in. The company hopes the arrangement will help staff members to manage their work load while simultaneously providing clients with better coverage.

"Delivering the highest quality product to our clients is paramount to our success as a firm," says Scott Stevenson, director, human resources at PwC. "Our belief is that people who are happy about their work/life balance, feel connected to their team, understand a common goal and how the team will support each other ... will deliver at their highest potential and highest quality." 

The new program complements a host of other work/life benefits that collectively send a message that the company cares about the quality of employees' time off the job, says Duris. "I think the most important benefit has been qualitative. People send feedback directly to our chairman, and he responds to them directly and publishes them all over the firm. We're hearing much more from our parents about how important these programs are to them and how much they mean to them as an overall picture of what the firm means to them."

How to Design a Successful Program

How you design a program depends on what you want to accomplish. Are you interested in increasing overall productivity? Reducing turnover? Rewarding performance?  

*Decide on Criteria. Probably the trickiest decision to make is "How much?" Too much flex-time and the flow of work dwindles to a trickle. Too little and employees fail to realize any benefits. Some jobs simply aren't amenable to flexible hours. Certain programs can and should be offered to everyone in the firm; others only achieve their objective if targeted to high-performers or at-risk employees. Other considerations include restricting programs to employees of certain rank or tenure.

* In-House or Outsource? Any program can be done in-house but some are easier outsourced. Lactation programs, for instance, typically are outsourced to firms that can provide board-certified lactation consultations. Flex-time arrangements are typically administered in-house but can range from private deals between employees and their supervisors to formal systems in which employees apply for time off or negotiate it with team members. 

* Get Buy-In. "Managers make or break these programs," says Walker. Too many programs go unused because the corporate culture subtly discourages adoption. "It's one thing to have a program out there—it's an entirely different issue to have it accepted," says Duris. "You can't make any program work without your leadership behind you and really getting them involved."

To get buy-in, promulgate written policies and educate leaders. Supervisors need to be comfortable managing remote workers and convinced that flexibility is permissable. CEO commitment and other high-level support is critical to the success of the programs. 

* Communicate the Benefits. Most people don't think about dependent-care benefits or flex-time until they need it. Companies should educate employees about what programs are available through company newsletters and intranets, especially for new programs. Periodic pulse surveys keep the programs on target.

"It's really walking the talk, whether it's through our programs or through our messaging about fostering this flexible culture that respects people's time and how they choose to use their time," says Duris.