Flexible Workforce Discussion Forum

A discussion forum for all your questions and commentary on flexible work arrangements, family friendly business, and work life balance has been established at the QuickTopic discussion site. Join the discussion by posting a suggestions or comment about your experiences in the workforce or by posting a question or topic of your own.

Discuss Flexible Work

The successful mentoring relationship

A mentoring relationship can be incredibly informal but must include three aspects of accountability. The less experienced of the pair establishes goals, while the more experienced provides training and evaluation.

• Goals: the goals are yours to set, but as always when establishing goals, your goals should be well defined, measurable, and have a set timeframe. For example, if your schedule leaves no time for exercise, an appropriate goal would be to learn to incorporate more activity into your daily routine. More specifically, by the end of the month, I will schedule fifteen minutes breaks into my day, 3 days a week for a short walk.
• Training: the mentor in the relationship should provide insight into how to achieve these goals. For example, providing advice into the best time of day to fit in these breaks or the best way to ask your boss to accept your new schedule.
• Evaluation: the mentor in the relationship will be responsible for providing evaluation and praise when goals are met. This is the mentor’s opportunity to provide feedback and continued guidance or reevaluation of your goals along the way.

The mentorship relationship works well because one (the mentor) can provide formal or informal guidance toward common goals they have already achieved, along a familiar path. The mentor can help you to foresee bumps in the road and appropriate diversions, all the while providing necessary support.

Do you need a work-life mentor?

With all the roles we tend to juggle -- mom, employee, fitness guru, and friend -- there is often little time left to be most importantly a healthy, relaxed individual. Managing multiple roles can leave you feeling pushed to the brink of sanity. Although there are innumerable resources available in the form of books and websites, a personal resource can be a very effective solution. Any counseling relationship between two people with differing levels of experience is a mentoring relationship. This helping partnership, even as informal as two friends, can be very effective in transferring skills and coping mechanisms to help one better balance multiple roles.

If you are looking for an informal mentoring relationship, you probably already know your potential mentor. Consider your own challenges in life and begin to look there for your mentor. Remember, each person’s roles and challenges in life are different. You are not looking for someone just like you to solve your problems, but a successful role model, who has faced similar situations as you having achieved optimal results. Look for someone with similar roles, challenges, or priorities as your own.

• Roles: a mentor juggling similar roles as your own can speak to how they have found balance in their own life. Look for other parents at work or other volunteers at soccer practice who may share other roles in common with you.
• Challenges: a mentor who has faced and surmounted similar challenges as your own will be able to guide you toward successful coping mechanism and problem solving techniques. Determine where you struggle the most and look for others to build a relationship. There are likely other moms at your child’s daycare who have struggled with the guilt of leaving a child. There may be others at work that have negotiated a flexible schedule to fit their needs.
• Priorities: a mentor with similar priorities will be able to help you find solutions that honor your values and priorities. There may be someone you run into often at the gym that has struggled to find time each day to exercise. Or look for someone from church to help you honor your spirituality throughout life’s other roles.
  

Once you have identified a like minded individual strike up a conversation, ask questions about their experiences juggling multiple roles and finding appropriate solutions. Ask them directly if they are willing to support you in your own efforts to manage life’s challenges. The helping relationship will benefit each of you as your mentor revisits and reevaluates past successes and current coping skills.

Creating a Culture of Flexibility in the Workplace

Advice for employees interested in working to foster a culture of flexibility in your own workplace is published on Work It, Mom!

Several organizations exist whose solution to the rigidity of workplace productivity standards is legislation that would include employers to provide paid maternity, paternity and adoption leave, paid sick leave, increased vacation leave, and limits placed on overtime hours. Such requirements could be harmful to some employers who are already able to offer great flexibility. Additionally, these requirements are increasingly difficult for employers to offer part-time employees.

The solution we advocate is in itself one of flexibility. The goal is to find the right schedule, the right balance, and the right fit for each individual. Not every employee functions well as a teleworker. Not every position lends itself well to flex hours. But a flexible workplace culture works for everyone.

We advocate this culture of flexibility – an environment where the needs of an employee and the employer can be mutually met. The process is simple, resulting in a changed workplace culture, happier, more productive employees, and a greater sense of balance for all involved.

First, initiate open and meaningful communication with all levels of employees. Start with an assessment of the needs and priorities of the workforce including issues of work and life, health, family, and satisfaction with current scheduling options. This can be done as one-on-one meetings, a lunch and learn discussion group, or using a company-wide questionnaire. Maintain this level of communication to monitor progress and evaluate success.

Next, evaluate the information received and outline changes to be made. Remember, the information received represents the diversity of needs of many employees. Determine what changes align with your own values and the mission of the business. Further, consider what changes are worthwhile to make in order to please a maximum number of employees. Create a menu of flexible options and benefits your business will be able to implement.

Then, with upper management, align your business strategy to reflect the newly adopted culture. This includes marketing the changes made and building a structure that will sustain these changes. Start by rewriting the company mission statement to reflect the value placed on flexibility. Rework the employee handbook to include procedures for employees wishing to take advantage of newly instated benefits and the assessment and review processes eliminating antiquated measures of productivity. Update job postings to include information about flexible scheduling options and benefits. A reputation as a flexible and family friendly employer is a powerful marketing tool.

Finally, maintain the standards set forth by your new vision. The changes made will need to be dynamic, as each employee and each position has differing needs. Establish a mentor program that will serve to maintain the open lines of communication and allow for constant reappraisal of needs.

Remember, a culture of flexibility in itself necessitates flexibility. Remain open to new suggestions and you will find the balance that works best for employees and the company.

For additional information or assistance instituting a process for change at your company, please contact us at flexibleworkforce@gmail.com.