|
 Lynn Remmers, an intern architect, and Steve Thompson, an architect with Miller Sellers Heroux Architects Inc. look over plans at the office. (Inertia/for SFBJ)
A flexible schedule may be just the thing to make a company a great place to work. Then again, maybe not. Dan Oakland, owner and human resources consultant at Alternative HR Development, offered these tips for companies considering making the move.
1. Know your employees. “Some individuals might take advantage of the system or are constantly adjusting their schedule, and that gets hard to manage.”
2. Know your managers. “It does require supervisors and managers to be a little more on top of their employees’ schedules and what’s going on.”
 3. Know your business. “It can get a little more difficult in some businesses, retail businesses, more customer-focused. The challenge is meeting customers’ needs.”
4. Know your plan. “One person or co-worker could feel they’re being taken advantage of, so management has to make sure they’re consistent in giving everyone the latitude to use flex time.”
5. Let employees know the policy. “It may be workable in one department and not in another. It can raise some issues. ... Usually it’s just a case of explaining it.”
“The nice thing about it is it helps to accommodate employees’ schedules and helps to improve morale and retention,” Oakland said. In this market, that’s worth a lot.
|
