WORK FROM HOME & Execs think flexibility makes workers worse at their jobs, but the latest Future Forum survey tells a completely different story.

by Jane Thier, Fortune, 2/15/23.

…A consortium under the Slack umbrella, the Future Forum has continuously run surveys of 10,000 desk workers around the world each quarter since summer 2020, and each installment has shown that flexible work positively impacts productivity, builds worker-boss trust, and reduces employee turnover.

The latest findings reveal that flexible workers were 57% more likely than fully in-person workers to say their company culture has improved since that flexible policy was implemented. That’s no coincidence; they said flexible work policies are the primary impetus for workplace culture improvement—despite the fact that bosses seem dead set on believing culture itself is reason enough to force an office return.

“Executives say, ‘Because I grew up in a certain way and have certain experiences of workplace culture, I feel uncomfortable doing other things…going forward,’” Brian Elliott, executive leader of Future Forum, tells Fortune. “Executives are worried about retaining culture with flexible work, but our data shows a completely different story.”

Culture can be cultivated entirely virtually, Elliott says, but “it really comes down to trust at the end of the day—give people the flexibility to work where and when they’re at their best.”

The worst mistake bosses can make is focusing on presenteeism-related metrics, like who shows up early or stays late, rather than on outcomes. That’s an example of proximity bias—preferential treatment for the people you see most often—and it usually comes at the expense of minority and parent workers.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Working From Home: 53% Of Remote Workers Are Quitting Due To Outdated Benefits.

by Jasmine Browley, Essence Magazine, 6/15/22.

Working remotely has become heavily favored by many workers over the last few years for many reasons that include better work-life balance, money saved on daily commutes and comfortable work environments are key factors that come to mind.

But according to a new study, this isn’t enough to keep workers around.

Paychex survey more than 1,000 employees across the U.S across various leadership levels about what they’re looking for in benefit packages. The participants also discussed how important these benefits are when considering the viability of the companies they’re working for.

While 88% of employees reported satisfaction with their benefits while working on-site, and that number dropped to 71% when they switched to remote work. That number rose to 77% for those participants whose companies offered upgraded benefits workers.

The survey also asked which benefits were most important. The most common benefit updates for remote workers included flexible working hours and performance bonuses. When asked which additional benefits were most important, employees said they valued a home office stipend (31%) and reimbursement for internet costs (30%).

The full report can be found here.

And read more from Essence Magazine here … https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/remote-workers-importance-of-benefits-workplace-morale/

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & How the Great Resignation is turning into a great opportunity for leaders.

by John Connors, Fast Company Magazine, 4/27/22.

… The facts are straightforward: 68% of employees are rethinking what they want from their career.

… The Great Resignation is an opportunity to more aggressively advocate for new working models that enable new talent pools, improve company performance, and encourage people’s well-being.

As we all know, the office model for success has been relatively static since the inception of the knowledge economy post-WWII. Too many companies have abused the model and treated employees as resources to control rather than as people and lives to be optimized. But as we are learning now, the average American daily commute of 56 minutes per day, while perhaps balancing a family or caregiver responsibilities, was not high-motivation strategy.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Study Shows 74 Percent of Introverts Don’t Want Full-Time Remote Work. They Want This Instead

by Jeff Steen, Inc. Magazine, 4/12/22.

… In a recent study detailed in The Wall Street Journal. In fact, they found something quite different: 82% of extroverted workers would prefer a hybrid work model, with 15% actually preferring full-time remote work. Self-described introverts, on the other hand — a whopping 74% of them — said they wanted to be in the office at least part-time.

CEOs and people leaders who are navigating our new normal should see a lesson here, namely that employee preferences aren’t as black and white as management would like.

As one introverted employee, quoted in the article, noted: “At the end of the day, I want to be home by myself, but it doesn’t mean you can’t crave other people’s company.” Indeed, as Myers-Briggs’ head of thought leadership, John Hackston, noted, the takeaway here is that new work models shouldn’t be all or none — or even as highly regulated as some managers would want. The control should land with employees.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & WFH? Do this one thing to retain your employees and avoid the Great Resignation by Bob Whitesel PhD

TELECOMMUTING & Millennials Say They’ll Relocate for Work-Life Flexibility

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: “For your company to improve morale, innovation and impact you must embrace employee flexibility. Read this Harvard Business Review article for more research that shows employee flexibility is especially critical to keep talented Millennials in your work force.”

Read more at … http://s.hbr.org/1cq0da6

TELECOMMUTING & 6 Reasons Remote Workers are Good for Business #IncMagazine

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: “Study after study has shown that remote workers, e.g. employees that work from home, are more productive, effective and satisfied with their jobs. Read this Inc. Magazine article for researched-based reasons why employee flexibility can increase your company’s morale, creativity and efficiency.”

TIME OFF & The Key To Office Productivity: Get Out Of The Office #ForbesMagazine

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: “My fellow professor Dr. Charles Arn likes to remark that he gets more work done from his home in California than he does when he is in our offices in Marion, Indiana. And all of us professors intuitively know that, but now research supports it. Getting off site and away from office distractions and informal powwows allows employees to focus more on their primary work as demonstrated in this research.”

by Kate Ashford, Forbes Magazine, 2/24/15.

EMPLOYEES & The 2015 Workplace Flexibility Study

The 2015 Workplace Flexibility Study, 2/2/15: “Survey Finds Disconnect Between Employers and Employees On Work-Life Balance”

While 67% of employers feel workers have work-life balance, 45% of employees disagree.

Boston, MA and Los Angeles, CA, February 17, 2015 – WorkplaceTrends.com, a research and advisory membership portal servicing forward-thinking HR professionals, and CareerArc, a global recruitment and outplacement firm, today announced the results of a new study entitled, “2015 Workplace Flexibility Study.” Following a national survey of 1087 professionals, both employed and unemployed, in addition to 116 HR professionals, 67% of HR professionals think that their employees have a balanced work-life, yet almost half (45%) of employees (35% of job seekers) feel that they don’t have enough time each week to do personal activities. One in five employees surveyed spent over 20 hours working outside of the office on their personal time per week – a clear indicator of suboptimal work-life balance.

Technology may be to blame for the amount of work performed outside of the office: The survey found that the majority of workers–65% of employees (67% of job seekers) say that their manager expects them to be reachable outside of the office, 9% by email (7% for job seekers at their previous job), 23% by phone (27% for job seekers) and 33% by email and phone (34% for job seekers). From the HR perspective, 64% expect their employees to be reachable outside of the office on their personal time, 18% by email, 3% by phone and 26% by both email and phone.

Taking work home after office hours may be the norm, but formal workplace flexibility programs–wherein employees have the option to periodically work from home without coming into the office–seem to be benefiting both employees and employers. 87% of HR leaders believe that workplace flexibility programs lead to employee satisfaction, while nearly 7 out of 10 HR leaders use workplace flexibility programs as a recruiting and retention tool.

The study exposed employee and employer preferences on issues of work-life balance, flex programs, and benefits.

Additional highlights from the report include:

Companies are investing more in work flexibility programs in 2015. …

Workplace flexibility is more important to employees than employers think. 50% of employers ranked workplace flexibility as the most important benefit they believe their employees desire, compared to 75% of employees (and 74% of those unemployed) who ranked it as their top benefit. Employees, job seekers and HR professionals agree that paid and unpaid time off is most important to employees (72% of HR vs. 79% of employees and 74% of job seekers). Both employees (61%) and job seekers (66%) ranked financial support, such as tuition assistance, as being most important after time off.

Employers are seeing benefits from their flexibility programs. The top benefits organizations saw in their work flex programs were improved employee satisfaction (87%), increased productivity (71%), and that they retained current talent (65%). 69% use their programs as a recruiting tool and 54% said that their programs positively impacted their recruiting.

Boomers don’t benefit from their flexibility program as much as younger generations. 62% said that the demographic that benefits most is Gen X compared to 35% of Gen Y and only 3% of boomers.

Employees care most about compensation yet employers think otherwise. 37% of employers said that the type of work that employees do is most important to them, compared to the money they make (24%). On the other hand, 31% of employees (24% of job seekers) said that the money they make is most important followed by the type of the work they do (22% of employees and 23% of job seekers).

There is a large opportunity for employers to strengthen their employment brand by offering outplacement and career transition assistance to their employees. 71% of job seekers answered that they were likely to choose a company that offered outplacement (career coaching and transition services for laid-off employees) over a company that did not if all else (salary, role, etc.) was equal. As a benefit, outplacement assistance was more important to potential employees than health and wellness benefits, community volunteer initiatives, tuition assistance, or culture change initiatives such as team building. Outplacement trailed only workplace flexibility and time off for jobseekers evaluating employer benefits. Approximately one-third (34%) of the organizations surveyed with 500+ employees currently offer outplacement assistance to it’s laid-off employees.

FLEXTIME & It Leads to Increased Productivity, But Bosses Prefer Early Birds

With Flextime, Bosses Prefer Early Birds to Night Owls, by Christopher M. Barnes, Kai Chi Yam and Ryan Feh, Harvard Business Review, 5/12/14.

Research shows that in general, flexible work practices lead to increased productivity, higher job satisfaction, and decreased turnover intentions.

(Flextime programs have never been more popular than they are today. Google allows many employees to set their own hours. At Microsoft, many employees can choose when to start their day, as long as it’s between 9am and 11am. At the “Big Four” auditing firm KPMG, some 70 percent of employees work flexible hours.)

Yet the question lingers of whether employees who take advantage of flexible work policies incur career penalties for doing so. As noted in a recent paper by Lisa Leslie and colleagues, the evidence is mixed. Their research explored a potential reason for the widely varying outcomes: managers might look upon flextime favorably when they perceive a worker is using it to achieve higher productivity, and unfavorably when they perceive it being used to accommodate personal-life demands. Leslie et al. make the case that depending on what the manager attributes the flextime use to, the employee may be either rewarded or penalized.

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