Recession took bite from flex time, other benefits

Technology and a changing workforce have reshaped the traditional office in many ways, but they haven’t gotten rid of it.
While many companies embrace flexible work schedules, telecommuting and the home office, other employers want their workers where they can see them – on the job 9 to 5. This has slowed a shift toward a less-regimented workweek that many human resource professionals say could improve efficiency and employee morale.
“I am seeing two competing schools of thought and it really depends on the employer,” said Diane Buerger, president of the Human Resources Management Association of Rhode Island about the push for a flexible workplace. “Some are embracing the opportunity to work as flexible as possible, while others believe that their employees are working when they are in the workplace, but not at home.”
Workplace flexibility takes many forms beyond telecommuting and variable hours.
Both the national and Rhode Island chapter of the Society for Human Resources Management support workplace flexibility and are working with groups including the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce to raise awareness of its advantages.
But according to survey results from SHRM’s 2011 Employee Benefits Research Report, over the last five years the percentage of American companies offering benefits such as flex time, shift flexibility, a compressed workweek and even casual dress days have remained flat or declined slightly.
Human resources managers say this could at least partly be a result of the recession, which forced many companies to shed workers and force longer hours out of those that remained.
In fact, over the same 2007-to-2011 period, a wide range of primary and fringe benefits were cutback as companies desperate to reduce costs looked first to ways other than layoffs, pay cuts or furloughs.
“They look to cut the nonhuman stuff first,” said Lisa Kilduff, vice president of the SHRM Rhode Island chapter, about why benefits have been slashed since the recession. Kilduff said one unusual result of widespread benefit cuts is that now when companies recruit new workers, they actually place more attention on the primary, fringe and work-life-balance benefits they do offer and highlight the differences with their competitors.
“It used to be just, this is the salary,” Kilduff said. “Now they are talking about all the other stuff you have to pay for and what they can offer.”
One Rhode Island company that has made workplace flexibility a central part of their culture is technical textile manufacturer Hope Global in Cumberland.
At Hope Global, the standard shift is 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but the company allows each worker one hour of leeway to decide when they want to start and end their day, so they could work 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Hope Global human resources manager Dorothy Mattiello said the company started moving toward a flexible work model around 10 years ago when it realized that many of its employees were mothers or parents with significant child-care demands.
“The needs of the organization changed and we added flexibility for those morning and evening hours to help with day care, getting kids on the bus and school,” Mattielo said.
The company also allows exempt employees and senior management to work from home, offers tuition reimbursement for any employees pursuing a degree or certificate program and further schedule flexibility so they can make it to those classes.
Mattielo says the program has worked well for Hope Global, as employees have taken it upon themselves to keep it working.
But despite its success, Mattielo says the company remains relatively rare in the manufacturing world to have embraced flexible schedules.
“What makes us unusual is we are not a service-related industry,” Mattiello said. “In manufacturing, you need to be running all the time or you lose money.”
Considering advances in information technology and the tendency, especially among Internet companies, to try to increase productivity and work hours by dangling perks and a relaxed environment, it is surprising how many firms appear to be squeezing fringe benefits. In the SHRM Employee Benefits report, the percentage of companies that said they offered executive club memberships, travel-planning services, English-as-a-second-language classes and travel per diem had all declined between 2007 and 2011.
In workplace flexibility, the percentage of companies offering flex time went from 58 percent to 53 percent, compressed workweek declined from 38 percent to 35 percent, job sharing declined from 20 to 13 percent and ad hoc telecommuting declined from 48 to 45 percent.
Some of the largest perk declines were in the miscellaneous benefit category: employers offering free tickets to entertainment events declined from 42 percent to 26 percent, those offering take-your-child-to-work day dropped from 37 percent to 25 percent and company picnics declined from 64 percent to 55 percent.
Carrie Beers, a human resources consultant and leadership coach in North Kingstown, said she has watched client companies cut Thanksgiving turkeys and holiday gift cards to employees with sometimes unpleasant results.
“I was surprised by the reaction of employees at one company,” Beers said in an email. “They felt cheated and couldn’t understand why they weren’t receiving this token of appreciation. Morale was affected to a point where the employees felt it was an ‘us against them’ culture.”
Beers said last year the company brought back the holiday gift cards and, even though there were no raises and health-insurance premiums were going up, the workers were thrilled.
Buerger, at the Human Resources Management Association, said many companies turn to flexible workplace policies after struggling to find the right mix of benefits.
“I think a lot of companies realize it is not a one-size-its-all package,” Buerger said. “Regardless of what you offer, there will be some portion that wants a different option.” •

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