Jim Woodward read an in-flight magazine article 16 years ago that changed the way his company, Official Airline Guides of Oak Brook, and perhaps others in Du Page County, does business.
The article was on a German company using gleitzeit-gliding time. It raised Woodward`s eyebrows because the flexible working hours provided an employee incentive at no extra cost to the company.
In 1973, Woodward, then division general manager, introduced the concept to the firm`s management.
Like other flextime plans used at other companies, Official Airline Guides asks employees to work core hours, in their case 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Employees have the freedom to complete full work days as long as they meet the core requirement.
”There`s absolutely no question in my mind that it`s a great employee benefit and doesn`t cost the company anything to do it,” said Woodward, who considers his former company the Chicago-area pioneer of gliding time.
Whether flextime is given to employees as a benefit or used as a tool to reduce traffic, as some do, its popularity is growing in Du Page County. But only among firms that are not service oriented or that don`t rely heavily on production.
”Without a doubt it`s something that helps with the transportation conjestion,” said Bonnie Wood, executive director of the East West Corporate Corridor Association, a not-for-profit organization made up of companies and organizations along the East-West Tollway`s Illinois Research and Development Corridor.
”If everyone released their employees at 4:45 at night we would have instant gridlock,” she said.
Corporations have consulted with Wood prior to moving into Du Page County. She said they like to know who their neighboring companies will be in the immediate area and what affect it may have on before- or after-work traffic.
”We started investigating flextime in the early 1980s for a couple of reasons,” said Carl Blesch, spokesman for AT&T Bell Labs in Naperville.
”One of the big reasons was the growing traffic problem here in Du Page County and realizations that the traffic problems would cause employees difficulties for those with fixed working hours.
”Secondly, we saw it as something mostly for employees. A way to make the workplace more suitable for employees.”
Workers at Bell Labs are required to put in 40 hours each week, including the core hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. At Travelers Insurance Companies in Naperville, ”both the employee and the company benefit by having flextime,” said Ralph Schulz, assistant manager of corporate personnel and administration for the 900-employee firm.
”Naperville is becoming a very booming community and it helps the traffic.”
Most Travelers employees can start between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. and leave between 3:30 and 5:30 p.m., working 7 1/2 hours a day. Their schedules can be altered on a day-to-day basis.
”(Flextime) gives the family the flexibility of handling things first thing in the morning before coming to work,” Schulz said. ”A majority of the people establish themselves with a regular starting and quitting time and they use it (flextime) for emergencies or to accommodate some personal need. Maybe it`s to see the doctor first thing in the morning. Maybe it`s to have a closing of a house.
”By the company`s point of view it enables the employee to put in the full day at work,” Schulz added.
But more than just an immediate benefit for employees, some companies reap other benefits.
”It allows us to attract employees who are highly qualified for very technical jobs with really a minimum of recruiting expense,” said Susan Doctors, general manager of human resources for Official Airline Guides.
”Employees come to us.”
Official Airline Guides, publisher of travel-related information, has an employee turnover rate of under 15 percent a year, which Doctors credits in part to flextime: ”I think it`s an excellent retention tool because people hate to leave.”
The Great Lakes regional office in Aurora for Metropolitan Life Insurance has used flextime since at least 1976, said Joyce Parsze, senior personnel specialist.
”We started it really for two reasons, and I think we continued it probably for two reasons,” she said. ”First of all, for the convenience of our customers.” Flextime provides expaned hours in which customers can file claims The other reason was for the employees, as an added convenience.
Employees report each morning at staggered hours of 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30. Shifts vary between 7 1/2 and 8 hours, depending on the department.
”It`s definitely a very favorable benefit to have. . . . It`s a convenience to the employees because I think it helps with child-care arrangements, getting children off to school, coordinating with spouses schedules,” Parsze said.
”I think the employees see that as another benefit and advantage to working here and feel that, if we`re flexible in allowing them to work the schedule that is best for them, they`ll be willing to be flexible when we need them to work overtime.”
Nalco Chemical Co. in Naperville, also has staggered starting times of 7:30 a.m., 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., but employees cannot frequently change their schedules. Once an employee chooses a schedule it becomes permanent, said Ellen DeLordo, employee relations specialist.
Even though Nalco calls it flextime, DeLordo said, ”It`s just a day-to-day thing; it`s just their schedule.”
She said a more flexible policy wouldn`t work because because employees work in groups in the corporate office and research center. ”One person`s flextime can affect the other people in the group, and if that`s always changing it makes it kind of difficult to coordinate schedules,” she said.
Flextime, therefore, doesn`t work for all companies. The most common types of firms that stay away from flextime are mostly service-oriented, where a direct employee-customer relationship is always needed.
”Flextime, as a classic thing, we haven`t done it,” said Graham Harper, director of public relations and advertising for CBI Industries, an Oak Brook business contracting and industrial gases firm.
Harper knows flextime combats traffic problems, but ”we haven`t seen much of a need to do it. Right here where we are in Oak Brook there seems to be different quitting times up and down the street with different companies.” From Memorial Day to Labor Day, however, CBI employees work 7:30 a.m.-to-4 p.m. shifts, with 30-minute lunch breaks. The rest of the year, employees work from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
”Gives the golfers more time in the afternoon, or for the gardeners . . . ,” Harper said.
Donnelley Marketing, of Oakbrook Terrace, doesn`t use flextime for its 165 workers, but Patricia Peto, of Donnelley`s human resources department, said it is being evaluated by upper management.
”They could save money because a lot of people take a whole day off when they only need a few hours,” she said. Quite a few people inquire about flextime, she said, ”especially working mothers with children because they need personal time when the child is sick or when the child needs something. And they run out of their (allotted personal) time usually faster than anyone else. I would think the greater majority would like that. They would consider that to be a major benefit.”
