by
Barbara
Parus, WorldatWork
Submitted by Tammy Goins
To make work/life programs strategic to the organization,
companies should look at the conflicts employees face
by not being able to lead a healthy, balanced life.
Life is a balancing act. The person who originally
coined that phrase did not realize these words
would ring so
true in today's workplace. Work/life programs are becoming
prevalent in organizations nationwide to help employees
strike a balance between their jobs and their private
lives.
"Work/life practices, or people-supported
work practices as they're often called, help promote
a balance between
your work life and the rest of your life," Sandra
Burud, Ph.D., Principal, Bright Horizons Family Solutions,
told attendees at the WorldatWork 2000 International
Conference and Exposition in Seattle. At the annual
event, Burud shared, with attendees, her 20 years
of experience showing organizations how work/life
initiatives can attract and retain the best talent.
She emphasized her point by alluding to a quote by
Eddie Bauer: "Never confuse having a career with having
a life."
Providing a brief history of work/life initiatives,
Burud explained that the genesis of the work/life
field revolved
around child care benefits and slowly evolved
into work and family benefits programs to help
employees
with their
family responsibilities. Employers, concerned
with the distractions their employees had at
work due
to lack
of care for their children, established child
care benefits. Child care actually started 100
years
ago in hospitals
that offered child care facilities, Burud noted.
Work/life programs
have made the transition from being programmatic to
involving how work is
scheduled. Flexible
work arrangements are implemented to solve
family issues, reduce commuting expenses for
employees
and real estate
costs for employers. Work/life programs also
have been expanded to include personal, health
and education
issues,
and support employees' opportunities to volunteer
in the community.
"Work/life initiatives are changing the work culture and
the relationship between the employee and the employer," Burud
said.
The Committed Employee
A study funded by the Ford Foundation focused
on whether the career-primary employee
is the most
successful employee. "Traditionally,
the career-primary employee, not the home-primary or
career-secondary employee, is the kind of employee most
organizations want," Burud said.
However, organizations are starting to
question this line of thinking. "Is the employee committed because
he never missed a game, or is he committed because he
helped achieve organizational goals, but not necessarily
in the traditional nine-to-five mode every day?" Burud
queried. "There's no question there is an urgency
today for measuring the return on investment (ROI) of
work/life initiatives.
"For more than 25 years, I've been told that these programs
can't be measured," Burud said. Defying the Doubting
Thomases in her past, Burud's session focused on strategies
and tactics for measuring work/life initiatives, especially
for programs already in place. Burud said it's important
to build a business case that includes why companies
should measure data, how data should be measured and
identify the steps in the measurement process.
The Fab Four
Why should organizations measure ROI? Burud said
the four most important reasons for measuring
data linked
to the effectiveness of work/life programs are:
-
To evaluate whether work/life initiatives are an effective
use of an organization's resources. "I believe some
of the most valuable initiatives to the business are
the things that cost a chunk of change," Burud said, "so,
you need to be able to justify those dollars."
Companies should ask:
- What are the business problems resulting from
people not having a balance in their work and
personal lives?
-
What are the business problems resulting from
people not having a balance in their work and
personal lives?
-
What's the risk or pain to the business and what
does it cost to fix it? That should be the price
tag.
- To ensure access to concrete data when decisions are
made to create, expand or contract work/life benefits.
- To permit work/life initiatives to be considered strategically
rather than as a commodity. Strategic initiatives,
according to Burud, are key to business. Business cannot be done
without them. A strategic approach has less cost
sensitivity. Discuss with management the approaches, processes and
examples of what other companies have done.
- To build an accurate understanding of work/life issues
throughout the broader organization.
The Measurement Process
Burud said the first question organizations should
ask is: "How do we measure ROI for our existing work/life
programs?" The following are key considerations
in establishing a measurement process:
-
Consider the audience: Who will the information be presented
to, whether it's a proposal for work/life or evidence
that a program has been valuable? Consider their background
and personalities. What do they consider valid? What
kind of perspective do you want to build? Is it quantitative?
Is it tied to the strategic goal of customer satisfaction
or becoming an "employer of choice"?
- Culture: What are the core cultural aspects of the organization
that will stick through the fads? Does the organization's
culture move fast? What initiatives will compete
with or support the existing culture (i.e., merger, reorganization,
leadership development, etc.)?
- Data: Identify in-house partners who can help with statistics
such as a research department, or consider external
sources, such as consultants or vendors.
- Design the data collection process.
- Integrate findings.
- Quantify
the data and make projections.
"There are so many ways you can gather, analyze and measure
data," Burud said. "According to Thomas Stewart
in Intellectual Capital, ‘enthusiastic
experimentation with
measurements is the best
way to improve
them.'"
Identify the Company's Primary Goals
What are the company's most important ultimate goals?
Obviously, work/life initiatives won't make or break
any of them by themselves, Burud said. The following
comprehensive list captures possible end goals.
- Profitability
- Growth
- Innovation
- Competitiveness
- Sustaining values and culture
- Shareholder value
- Customer value
- New product development
- High-touch service.
If a company goal is to measure high-touch service, an
objective would be to reduce response time, Burud
said. For example, this could be measured by reducing the
response time to bank customers by five minutes.
Drawing laughter from the audience, Burud remarked, "This
reminds me of a Lily Tomlin quote about strategic planning: ‘I've
always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more
specific.'"
Next, it's important to identify the business
challenges, Burud explained. Where's the pain?
There's a connection
between work/life initiatives and all of the
following:
- Restructuring
- Merger integration
- Globalization
- Tightening labor pool
- Organizational learning
- Retention of intellectual capital
- Technology
- Leadership
- Corporate culture changes or clashes
- Regulation or deregulation
- Increased competition
- Speed, innovation expectations.
The Business Fabric
To make a case that work/life initiatives are strategic,
and they're not just a response to employees
because employees want them, it's necessary to measure
or provide evidence that they are part of the fabric of the organization,
Burud said. How pervasive are the initiatives,
not in how many people they touch, but in how many ways they
affect the organization?
"We used to think work is work, and keep your private
life at home. Now, the deal is nobody has anyone at home
taking care of that stuff," Burud said. "It's
all blended into the workplace. People's values have
changed. Traditional workers want more of a life during
their career," Burud said. "In the work life
field, people don't even like using the word ‘balance,'
because it implies tension," she observed.
"We're moving from the view of employees needing extrinsic
rewards to work effectively to being intrinsically motivated
by their work, and that change is how we view them as
being productive," Burud continued.
"We have a different view of human nature now. In the
past, employees couldn't be trusted to work unless a
manager was standing behind them beating a drum. Now,
there's a different view of human nature. Employers are
realizing that work should be intrinsically interesting
and satisfying to employees, and these are the folks
who produce the best work. The manager's job is to get
out of the way. The move from extrinsic rewards to intrinsic
rewards has an impact on work/life initiatives. This
field is about that shifting view," Burud said.
Because
work/life initiatives are so much a part of the total business
fabric,
they
have
an ultimate
impact
on
business results, concluded
Burud.
What's Fair?
Equitability
is a major concern when proposing work/life
initiatives. Is it fair to establish
programs that
benefit only parents or employees
with elderly parents?
"Life cycles are another consideration. People need different
things at different times of their lives. In the factory
days, everything was standardized and synchronized. Everybody
worked 9 to 5. That's when the original benefits package
was designed. It doesn't fit anymore," Burud said. "We're
in the computer age and everything is individualized
and so the benefits package is more individualized. That
speaks to the issue of equitability."
Burud cautioned: "If
you're trying to evaluate whether to implement work/life benefits, there
are a variety
of tools you can use.
But don't just look at employee needs or interests. It's a very limited way
of looking
at it. If you want to
make these strategic to the organization, you have to look at the conflicts
employees have by
not being able to live
a healthy balanced life and the company's ability to function effectively."
What Can Companies Measure?
Recruitment and retention
are the key concerns
of most organizations.
How
important are
work/life programs
in employees' decision
to accept employment?
Companies
also
can measure how important
these benefits are
relative to salary,
job content
and location.
What are
the turnover rates, tenure and
intention to
stay associated
with work/life
issues
and programs? There
will be a halo
effect for
people who have
used the programs,
employees who will
use the programs
in the future and
people who
like working
for an
organization
that supports
work/life programs,
Burud said.
Is the company
more effective because
it offers
work/life
initiatives? Other
important questions
are:
- Does the size of the applicant pool or the quality of
the applicant change with work/life initiatives?
- Do work/life
programs affect the time it takes to fill positions?
-
Is the organization rated a better place to work by employees
and applicants? (Companies rated as the "best places
to work" excel in revenue growth, new income, net
income per employee and have fewer customer complaints,
according to Contented Cows Give Better Milk.)
- How does the company compare with other organizations
regarding work/life initiatives?
- Do work/life programs increase employees' performance
(i.e., speed and accuracy)?
- Do the work/life programs promote teamwork, loyalty and
commitment?
- How much do current work/benefits resolve conflicts?
In deciding whether to implement work/life programs,
Burud advised
attendees not to survey employees about new initiatives because it could
raise expectations. The organization should
do
a
demographic analysis first before letting the cat out of
the bag about possible work/life programs and the
employee segments they would benefit.
Information
Sources for Measuring Return on Investment
HR records.
Employee records, including performance records and attendance information,
provide hard data that can be used to measure employee performance
before and after the initiatives were implemented.
Company
records. If an organization implements work/life initiatives, what
happens? For example, a bank measured loans and the speed of the loan
process. Another company measured the on-time release of a product
after doing a big work/life intervention. It's important to compare
how work/life programs affect performance before and after their implementation.
Interviews.
Ask recruiters about trends in demand for work/life programs. Are people
asking for these programs as a condition of employment? In today's
labor market, people expect these benefits and their employment decisions
hinge on them. Look at employee referrals, which tend to be a higher
quality job candidate. Count the number of referrals from employees
who use the work/life programs.
Participant
data. Ask participating employees how valuable the programs are to
them. Is this why they're staying? Use survey or focus groups to roll
out these programs. Ask them how the programs affect their work performance
and team relationships. Burud explained there is a networking effect
among people in focus groups using these initiatives, which helps to
grease the wheel in the way the organization works.
Program
records. Get vendor data. Increase the level of data received from
vendors, including time saved. These records provide information regarding
who is using the programs, what their jobs are, if they're hard to
recruit and their tenure. Also, make a comparison between tenure and
overall turnover rate.
Case studies.
How does company support for work/life programs affect the quality
of work and the relationships within a department or work team? For
example, a work group was able to write a land grant under tight time
constraints by being able to telecommute and write it off-site because
there were no distractions.
Internal
assessments. A company can look at the data it already has; for example,
employee satisfaction surveys or performance reviews. Compare managers
who are highly supportive to managers who are unsupportive and compare
that data to employee satisfaction surveys.
Creative
Sources of Information
Post-hire
orientation. Ask employees for information after they're hired. How
competitive was the company in attracting them? How much did the company's
work/life programs affect their decision to accept employment?
Interviews
with peak performers. Sit down with peak performers and ask what part
the programs play in their ability to be a top performer. Do they stay
at the organization because of the work/life initiatives?
Cost data.
Does the company receive stress claim data from its benefits provider?
This data can be combined with other survey data. Identify highly stressed
employees who have work/life issues and compare them with the cost
of stress claims. |
Reprinted from
workspan, September 2000, with permission from WorldatWork, 14040 N. Northsight
Blvd., Scottsdale, AZ 85260; phone (877) 951-9191; fax
(480) 483-8352; www.worldatwork.org. © 2003 WorldatWork. Unauthorized
reproduction or distribution is strictly prohibited.
--return
to top--
|
I
can’t believe it’s already June, the beginning
of summer. And that means it’s almost time for
two big events within the Indiana HR community. The
first is the national SHRM conference, which will be
held in New Orleans on June 27th – 30th. The
second major event is the Indiana State Conference,
which will be held in Indianapolis on August 23rd – 25th.
I look forward to seeing many of you at each of these
events – they are always well attended by HRACI
members. 
This
program has been approved for 1 recertification
credit hour toward PHR and SPHR
recertification through the Human
Resource Certification Institute
(HRCI).