Flexible Work Arrangements: For Supervisors
Tips for Supervisors
1. Consider the potential improvement of business/department needs when assessing flexible schedule proposals from employees. Develop systems and structures that allow employees to respond to ever-changing work demands, such as having a back-up plan for coverage and communication. Communicate consistently about standards for accountability, quality, and timeliness.
2. Make sure to include employees in the development and improvement of the department’s flexibility offerings. When arrangements are made, clearly communicate them with all employees, so that they fully understand their role and how their work lives will be impacted, as well as the flexible work options available.
3. Decisions should be based completely on the employee’s ability to achieve required business outcomes in the context of the team and ongoing business requirements. Decisions should not be made based on the life responsibilities for which the employee is requesting the arrangement. Agreements are more successfully managed when the supervisor is not placing a higher importance on certain life responsibilities over others.
4. Supervisors should consider redefining staffing success by job design and outcomes; hours, visibility (face-time), process, and location are not measures of success. Business outcomes, employee productivity and engagement are what make a difference in the work environment.
5. Managers should find creative ways to promote an environment in which all employees feel supported to request flexibility.
6. Management of poor performance should be addressed in a timely, constructive and ongoing way, not as a newly-introduced reason to refuse a request for flexibility. Performance-related concerns should be addressed separately, if the cause of the problem is not related to the flexible workplace arrangement.
7. When granting flexible work arrangements, focus on objective eligibility
criteria (e.g., position, seniority, discipline history, performance record),
rather than the reason for the request, to avoid unconscious decisions
that may have legal implications, such as giving mothers more flexibility
than fathers. Beware of sending mixed signals. Do you inform employees
of the company's flexible hours, but then criticize an employee for not
working 9 to 5? Document work deficiencies without focusing on the cause.
Record that an employee was 30 minutes late; do not add it was due to
driving a parent to a doctor's appointment
(Adapted from the WFC Resources Newsbrief, July 2008)
Caregiver Responsibility Discrimination
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued written guidance on its approach to discrimination claims, including caregivers, providing examples of employer conduct toward pregnant employees and male and female caregivers that the EEOC will treat as sex, race, and/or disability discrimination.