By June Wayne

Caring for an elderly parent, volunteering in the community, raising children, taking care of a sick family member or attending a child's school program are only a few of the commitments employees must manage on a daily basis. Balancing workplace and personal responsibilities often is difficult.

Employees still face major challenges and barriers to success.

One of the greatest challenges continues to be the misconception that employees who focus on their families can't meet the needs of their employer.

Business owners are realizing how critical it is to support employees with flexible workplace options because it makes good business sense. The overwhelming results are that flexible work arrangements and other work-life initiatives contribute significantly to positive business results. Business owners are increasing their competitive edge by offering flexible work options that help employees be the best they can be on and off the job.

National Project
The Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor has launched a Flex-Options project in Kansas and Missouri to help business owners and managers develop or expand workplace flexibility practices, polices and programs. The project offers a local resource to assist business owners who are interested in improving their bottom line and increasing employee satisfaction. There is no cost to the business owner to participate in the project.

Flexible workplace options can help businesses stay competitive in attracting and retaining quality employees. For many college graduates, achieving balance between personal life and work is their primary career goal when finding employment.

Workplace flexibility is a top driver of employee satisfaction, recruitment and retention of the best talent. According to recent surveys, creating family-friendly workplaces is "extremely important" to business success.

Program to Build Awareness
The Flex-Options project focuses on building national awareness of the benefits of workplace flexibility and the importance of resources and the benefits to obtaining work/life balance. In addition, the project encourages local business owners to create supportive, flexible and healthy workplace cultures.

Workplace flexibility is positioned as a powerful management tool to help businesses get work done efficiently, while caring about the needs of the employees and bringing strategic value to the organization. Flexible workplace arrangements are intended to create a workplace culture-a way of life-where employees and managers determine a variety of creative ways to manage personal responsibilities and accomplish workplace success and performance.

Participating in flexible workplace arrangements can result in:

• Increased retention of quality and talented employees
• Improved work performance and attendance
• Enhanced recruitment opportunities
• Greater employee satisfaction, morale and engagement
• Meeting financial, professional and personal goals
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Increased business effectiveness and productivity

Employees who have flexible work arrangements have more:

• Job satisfaction and increased team work
• Commitment and loyalty to their employer
• Willingness to work hard to help the employer achieve success
  

Policy Development Assistance
The Flex-Options project assists businesses with creating policies and procedures that may include flextime, compressed work weeks, paid time off policies, part-time arrangement, job sharing, telecommuting, informal flexibility policies developed on a case-by-case basis or flexibility that makes it possible to manage career breaks and opportunities.

Employers can develop policies to enable employees to care for a sick family member, scale back work hours to ease the path into retirement, reduce a long commute, accommodate a college schedule, accommodate a disability or long-term illness or work at times of the day when they can be most productive.

Resources Provided
Participating in the Flex-Options project offers business owners a combination of resources to share success, challenges and best practices. These resources include:

• National teleconferences featuring presentations by workplace flexibility experts and business owners, along with questions and answers
• Local and regional events with networking, panel presentations and best practices sharing
• Web site resources that include flexibility tools for employees and managers, as well as articles, teleconference transcripts and best practices (www.we-inc.org/flex.cfm).

Flexible work options are mutually beneficial for the business owner and the employee.

June Wayne is president of Wayne Enterprises and is the contract consultant in Kansas City for HR Systems and a regional representative for the Flex-Options project. You can reach her at (913) 721-0002 or .