2 posts tagged meryl rosenthal

The first week in May is Flexible Work Arrangement week, promoting experimentation with rearranged work schedules and locations outside of the conventional office setting.

To celebrate, members of the FlexPaths team offer their ideas for flexing your work arrangements this week.  We hope that these will inspire you to embrace flexible work this week if you don’t already.  And if you are already a flexible worker?  We hope you’ll take the opportunity to encourage others to flex their work this week, as well.

  Meryl Rosenthal, CEO:

Encourage managers to extend on site coverage of their teams while promoting flex work. Every Friday, have team members decide if they want to start two hours earlier or later to avoid peak commute times. Promote it as a win win for the company and its customers.

  Clare Flynn Levy, Managing Director, UK:

Ask your team to each spend an hour thinking about what their ideal work arrangement would actually be, assuming that their role didn’t change, but if “face time” wasn’t an issue and/or there was no concern about career progression being jeopardized.  How would their work be affected? How would the team be affected? Then sit down, as a team, and spend an hour reviewing them together. Are any of the “ideal world” scenarios actually both possible and win-win for the team member and the company? If so, why not give them a shot?

  Sandy Burud, PhD, Principal:

Pick some jobs that seem ‘inflexible’, like administrative assistant positions — and think about how they can be restructured to make more flexibility possible.  Better yet, have the people in those jobs – not just the individual, but the team as a whole — think about how to use technology, restructure responsibilities and how to collaborate in new ways, to allow for flexible scheduling and remote work.  The process itself – besides leading to good ideas – helps the whole team buy in to the solution.

  Meryl Rosenthal, CEO:

Be proactive.. If you have an employee who you believe can work well in a flex arrangement and it will be a win-win for him/her and the business, suggest it. The increased productivity, engagement and simply goodwill will be well worth it.

  Karol Rose, Principal:

Try a flex simulation as a way to help managers and employees get comfortable with managing/working remotely. Invite employees who would like to work remotely some or all of the time and their managers to participate in a remote work simulation where they work away from each other in another part of the building or different office for one month. The ‘rule’ is  they cannot have ‘face time’ during this period. Managers need to provide guidance about deliverables and performance without seeing their employees. Employees need to decide what kind of support they need and how best to do their jobs without the usual office resources. Both need to figure out what’s required to make remote work a success in terms of technology and business ‘etiquette’ for things like meetings, client or co-worker needs, etc. They should debrief during the month to determine what’s working and what needs to be fixed. The simulation is a way to practice remote work before committing to doing it all or some of the time.

  Kelly Gouteix, Sales:

Flexibility doesn’t have to be an “all or nothing” proposition. Sometimes just working flexibly once or twice a week might be all that you need. With a strong action plan in place for how you will get your work done, you can reassure your manager that you’ve thought through the company’s best interests as well as your own.

  Meryl Rosenthal, CEO:

Attention all CEOs. We just had ‘Take Your  Sons & Daughters To Work Day’. Follow that up by encouraging parents to visit their child(ren)’s school so the experience can be shared in the classroom and have the parents use the rest of the day to work offsite. Have them share the experience with you.

  Robin Roschke, COO:

We know you want to flex … but cross the chasm and improve productivity through flexible work.  Start by test driving your company’s tools. Here are some ideas:

•  Set aside a half of day and declare NO emails unless you need to send an attachment.  Want to reach a colleague?  Send an IM.
•  Schedule a meeting- a VIRTUAL one….insist that everyone be in a different location and turn the video webcam on; share a document and collaborate in real time.
• Got wikis? Identify a topic that you want the team’s weigh in and capture it via online discussion threads, encourage folks to tag their content too!

  Jessica Smith, Marketing:

Try rearranging your schedule to avoid the longer commute times.   Arrive 1-2 hours earlier and leave 1-2 hours earlier.  If you have a meeting later in the day, try calling in during your commute home (using a hands-free device) or video conference once you’re home.

Today we’re introducing a feature we hope you will find both valuable and insightful.  It’s called “Ask the Founders” featuring our founders Meryl Rosenthal, President & CEO and Robin Roschke CTO & COO and they’ll be providing answers to your burning questions about flexible work best practices, telecommuting policies, the legalities related to the flexible workplace, and workforce productivity.

Meryl (left) describes her flexible work style as “flex time all the time…in other words, always being flexible- at work, at home - at life.”

Robin (right) describes her flexible work style as “Virtual Worker: no place is off limits.”

Today’s question came through via a Direct Message on Twitter.  We were given permission to post this question, however, we are honoring their request for anonymity.

Does “flex work” really work for the employer and the non-flex work employees?

MERYL:

Flex work doesn’t really work if there isn’t a common definition, commitment, and gameplan to make it work, both from the employer and employee standpoints.  Getting on the same page is key.  Once there is movement in that direction the sky is the limit.  For those who choose to limit themselves by technology, trust, stigma..it won’t work.

ROBIN:

Flex Work, if done appropriately, benefits all the flexers, non-flexers, managers, and executives. The trick is defining “appropriately”.  Really, the word “appropriate” should be replaced with “effective” and/or “productive”.

Furthermore, the subjectivity and personal aspects of flexible work should be removed.  After all – who cares if I need to flex my  job because I want to earn an MBA versus care for a parent versus adopt a baby a China…the reality is that the EVERYONE needs to flex as a result of a broad spectrum of personal and professional change. 

MERYL:

This truly changes the dialogue to a business dialogue.  It level sets.  It isn’t just about when, where, how much, and how the work gets done, but it is about getting the work done.

ROBIN:

The kicker is that companies benefit from employees “flex’ing” their jobs.

How?

By removing subjectivity and creating an operating environment where flexers, non-flexers, and leaders are clear on definitions, assumptions, and “rules of the road”.  When this happens, you actually create and environment of trust and respect NOT one based on line of sight and water cooler chat.  Trust, respect, wellness, work-life effectiveness are all soft benefits that drive quantifiable benefits including but not limited to reduced expenses and increased revenues.   From a corporate perspective this means greater productivity plus the ability to engage across multiple population segments. 

MERYL:

Opening the dialogue is key - across teams, direct reports, manager to manager.  And ensuring that managers and employees have the resources, confidence, and competencies to do it well.

ROBIN:

The question each company should be asking is…What is the specific business case for flex? …and realistically build a flexible work model that addresses that. 

MERYL:

And make that case relevant to the business and work environment you are in - and update it as situations change.  For our corporate clients, the importance and linkages to flex work morph - they may start with retaining top talent and expand to more bottom line business benefits like real estate cost savings.

ROBIN:

So assuming employees and managers want flex and the company wants to utilize flex, the next step is providing fair access, optimizing utilization and creating a collaborative and engaged workforce. 

MERYL:

While flexible working has been talked about and companies are rallying around it, these are the next steps requiring systemized solutions and tools to truly take flexible work from foundational to functional.

We invite you to submit your questions via the “Ask Us Anything” link in the sidebar.  You can also ask via any of our other social channels including our Facebook page, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

Every once in a while, we may bring in one of our partners to weigh in, as well.