Human Assets

Implementing Flexible Work Arrangements

Both flexitime and working from home have been introduced to help organisations win the talent war.  However, an article published in the current issue of Personnel Psychology cautions against the blanket application of flexible work arrangements.  Their appeal will depend upon the conflicts people face between their work and home lives.  Flexitime and working from home are not to everyone's taste and might actually dissuade some people from joining your organisation.  Furthermore, people who are attracted to one type of flexibility might find another type off-putting.  The article by two US business school researchers, Barbara Rau and Mary Anne Hyland, was based on a sample of some 150 job applicants with MBAs.  The authors started from the premise that people prefer to maintain clear boundaries between work and home.  People also prefer to minimise interruption from work when they are at home and equally to minimise interruptions from home when they are at work.

Their findings were as follows:

The findings and conclusions fit in well with the model Human Assets adopts in helping you attract and retain talent. It is put forward by Charles Woodruffe in his book Winning the talent war: a strategic approach to attracting, developing and retaining the best people (John Wiley).

In a nutshell, we advocate that you:

1. find out what the needs of your staff are
2. audit how well you are meeting those needs
3. take the necessary action to close any gap between what people need and what you are offering.

To find out more about our approach:

• You can obtain details of Charles's book by clicking here
• Or contact our consultants at enquiries@humanassets.co.uk