The Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) 2001 Benefits Survey shows 58 percent of respondents' organizations offering flextime and 31 percent offering compressed workweeks. Compared with last year's numbers, flextime is up 7 percentage points and compressed workweeks are up 4.

Worklife Initiatives 2000, a study sponsored and conducted jointly by Bright Horizons Family Solutions and William M. Mercer Inc., reported 45 percent of organizations surveyed offer flextime within a two-hour band (arrival between 7 and 9 a.m. for example). That's up from 36 percent in 1998. Twenty-three percent of Mercer's respondents offer flextime with a four-hour band; just 17 percent offered it in 1998. Mercer's study also shows a jump in compressed workweek schedules: 50 percent of respondents make it available compared with 42 percent in 1998.

But for managers shy of flextime, guidelines may make the difference between implementing the practice or not. The most important feature of a flextime program is some element of employee choice, said Kenneth H. Pritchard, a member of SHRM'S Compensation and Benefits Committee, but "that doesn't mean you have to give the employee all the choice."

Pritchard, author of an SHRM white paper on flextime, says the employer can allow total freedom or allow very limited freedom. Without guidelines, "the average supervisor might not be aware that there are simple controls."

Seventy-six percent of managers and 80 percent of employees report that a flexible working arrangement (traditional flextime, daily flextime or telecommuting) had a positive or a very positive impact on retention, according to Boston College's Center for Work & Family. The center's two-year study of the impact of workplace flexibility also showed a positive or very positive impact on both productivity and quality of work among a high proportion of both manager and employees.

Source: SHRM'S HR News, June 2001

Margaret M. Clark is associate editor for HR News

A shortage of qualified employees, restructuring and downsizing, market competition, global expansion, and the information revolution are all affecting the way businesses structure the work environment. Nonprofits are not immune.

To cope with these trends, progressive organizations are developing new work arrangements to help recruit employees in a tight labor market, increase productivity, and retain valuable staff.

Source: Not-for-Profit Advisor

Survey Shows Increase in Telecommuting

 The number of employees working from home or another remote site increased by almost 3 million people in 2000, according to a new study by the International Telework Association & Council and the Behavior Research Center. The survey, comprised of 1,877 in-depth telephone interviews, found that 2.8 million more employees were telecommuting in late July 2000. The report said that more than half of those telecommuting reported they had been doing so for at least three years, while the 2.8 mllion new telecommuters had been doing so for one year or less. This puts the growth rate at 20.6 percent for the year.

International Telework Association & Council

Source: Workspan Magazine, January 2001

The most successful compressed workweek programs are those that have employee buy-in, give employees plenty of notice, offer flexibility within the schedule and are not mandatory. If you have these elements in your plan, you probably have a good reason to offer it. If you don't, maybe you should think of other flextime options, HR managers say.

Nancy Hatch Woodward is a freelance writer based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and a frequent contributor to HR Magazine.

Source: HR Magazine, July 2000