It’s an employer’s market these days, whether you’re job hunting or trying to hold onto the job you have.
Not exactly an ideal time to ask the boss–or the prospective boss–for a flexible work arrangement so you can tend to family needs, right?
Not necessarily.
Although many companies may be cutting some of their showier work/life benefits programs, all is not lost for employees who can make a good case for such flexible work arrangements as telecommuting, compressed workweeks or job sharing, industry experts say.
In fact, unlike such pricey benefits as on-site child care or concierge-type services, flexibility can be one of the most cost-efficient ways for companies to show you that they still care.
“Flexibility doesn’t really cost a company anything,” said Sharon O’Malley, publisher of Work/Life Today, a College Park, Md.-based newsletter for work/life professionals. “But some of the big companies are putting more of the burden on the employee to come up with a plan to show how the work will get done without you.”
Recent research by the newsletter and the Alliance for Work/Life Progress found that more companies over the past few years have been combining their work/life programs with human resources or employee assistance programs and cutting back on the number of work/life staff members.
But that doesn’t always translate into a decrease in flexible work arrangements among the 55 percent to 60 percent of companies that offer them.
For instance, at New York City-based Merrill Lynch & Co., the company’s Telework Lab for training new telecommuters closed last year, but the program remains available to workers online, said Selena Morris, a spokeswoman for Merrill Lynch.
“The lab had kind of served its purpose at a time when technology was not as sophisticated, and people were not as sophisticated,” Morris said. “Eighty percent of the lab instruction was [learning how to set up a computer at home], and the rest was learning how to work remotely.”
Today, she said, such technology as pocket-size computers and wireless communication enables telecommuters to make the switch from office to home without as much face-to-face support from the company.
Industry research on the number of companies offering family-friendly flexible work arrangements shows mixed results. Some studies suggest a slight decline, and others report no change at all.
When companies do pull the plug on flexible work arrangements, though, the blame usually falls squarely on the economic downturn rather than a corporate change of heart, industry experts say.
“Many times when people are being laid off, somebody else [at the company] has to take over, and then you get jobs that can’t be done from home or with flexible hours,” said Lori Rosen, workplace analyst for CCH Inc., a Riverwoods-based provider of human resources information.
“Some of the flexibility gets taken out when you end up having to span more than one job with one person.”
John Dooney, human resources manager for the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va., agrees.
“In slower economic times, there’s more stress on organizations as they’ve had to lay off people. And the [flexible work arrangements] might be the easiest benefits for companies to change, because they can make very logical arguments: `We had five people in the department, and now we have three, so we need you to be here every day,'” he said.
Rosen added that during the economic boom times of the 1990s, office space was at a premium in many companies, and flexible work arrangements helped conserve the number of desks needed.
“Now, with layoffs and the workforce shrinking, they have plenty of desks,” she said. In addition, some employees may feel it is important to put in face time at the office in the wake of layoffs.
Even at companies that welcome family-friendly work arrangements, however, it’s usually still up to the employee or job seeker to take the initiative. Here’s what you can do to boost the odds in your favor:
– It may seem obvious but be willing to ask for a flexible work arrangement. “At a lot of companies, these work/life benefits are on the books, but people don’t take advantage of them,” O’Malley said. “Employees can be reluctant to ask for the benefit, especially men.”
– If you’re a job seeker, do your homework about the company’s approach to flexible work arrangements.
Evanston lawyer Karin Anderson, 37, is job hunting after being downsized out of her four-day-a-week position at a small Chicago law firm in August. Because she wants to continue working a flexible schedule so she can spend more time with her two young children, Anderson said she researches a company’s work/life philosophy before she even sends out a resume.
She adds that asking about flexible work arrangements “is not something for a first interview. Instead, I use buzzwords, I ask about quality of life at the firm.” When job negotiations get serious, that’s the time to bring up your specific flexibility needs.
– Be prepared to show your company how it can benefit from letting you work more flexibly.
“Ask yourself, `If I do this, is it going to cost the company money, cost us in terms of customer satisfaction, create problems for my supervisor?'” O’Malley said. Then, map out a plan that shows exactly how your arrangement will work on a day-to-day basis and how you’ll address any problems that come up.
“Most times, it’s not the company in the way, but the manager,” O’Malley said. “If they think it’s going to be too hard, they’ll say no. Everything right now is about the bottom line. If you can solve a problem or show how you’re not adding to a problem, your chances of getting what you want are better.”
– Even if your company turns you down, don’t give up on the idea of a flexible work arrangement forever.
“I think [companies cutting back on work/life benefits] is more of a temporary situation,” said Dooney. “If the economy picks up, I think some of it is more likely to come back.”
