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for Businesses
FAQs for Businesses
What is a “flexible workplace?”
In a nutshell, a flexible workplace embraces many different workloads,
schedules, and locations for work with the primary objective of
creating a WIN-WIN for both the employer and the employee. Flexibility
means being creative about how work gets done and focusing more
on results than location and schedule! Here are some of the
flavors of flexibility on the continuum from low flexibility to
extremely flexible:
- Low Flexibility –programs like flex-time
that allow full-time employees the ability to vary their start
and stop times
- Moderate Flexibility – in addition to
flex-time, having some members in an organization that work a
reduced hour schedule (part-time or job-share) or telecommute
- Extreme Flexibility – a few companies
have taken flexibility to the extreme and have benefited tremendously! Examples
include Best Buy’s Results Only Work Environment (corporate
employees work where and when they want as long as they get the
job done) and Deloitte’s Mass Career Customization (employees
can change their pace, workload, restrictions and role throughout
their career). What were the benefits? Best Buy saw
a 35% increase in productivity and improvements in retention
and customer satisfaction. Deloitte estimates that they
save $27M a year in avoided turnover costs from flexibility! Want
more examples? Give us a call!
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Why foster workplace flexibility?
We thought you’d never ask! It’s one of our
favorite subjects because there’s a lot to talk about…
- It’s the top benefit that many of today’s workers
value AND it’s one of the cheapest benefits that an employer
can offer (which means small companies with small budgets can
compete with Fortune 100 giants when it comes to offering a very
valuable benefit!)
- It improves productivity, and isn’t that what every employer
wants? The logic goes something like this: Joe Worker has
the flexibility to juggle the demands of work and life; Joe Worker
is happy (or at least sane) and more focused at work because
he has the flexibility to manage the day-to-day challenges that
life deals him; Joe Worker’s happiness promotes healthiness
(think good sleep, time to exercise, lower stress); his increased
happiness & focus combined with better health make him more
creative and productive -- a good thing for everyone!
- You can access new pools of talent you might never have been
able to access without flexibility. Who are these talented
people? Retiring baby-boomers who would rather work
part-time than retire altogether; on-ramping moms (and dads)
who value flexibility while they raise a family; the next generation
of workers who value authenticity and balance more than they
value climbing a career ladder.
- You can reduce turnover costs. Happy employees are loyal
employees which means they stay on the job. Most turnover
cost estimates put the expense of replacing an employee at 1.5
times that employee’s annual salary. Less time on
recruitment and re-training flows directly to your bottom line.
- You can have a positive impact on your community and the environment! How? Telecommuting
reduces highway traffic and CO2 output; telecommuting also lets
you optimize your building use and delay/avoid the need
for more space; and flexibility allows your employees better
work-life balance which allows for increased time and energy
to volunteer in their communities.
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If I allow some people to work in a part-time
schedule, won’t everyone want to go part-time?
The answer is a simple NO. The majority of people want
a full-time job because they want a full-time paycheck! We
can look across the Atlantic Ocean for a little reassurance from
Holland, England, and Germany who passed laws in 2000 and 2002
to facilitate workplace flexibility. After 5-7 years, what
they found is this: (1) the flood gates never opened because
most people were content with their current work schedule, and
(2) of the requests they did receive for a modified schedule, they
were able to accommodate the majority of them because they could
create a win-win for employer and employee.
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What does Balancing Professionals do?
We do... |
We don’t... |
...Help your organization change the way you think about
and do WORK through our advisory services (workshops, assessments,
custom consulting) |
...Encourage the status-quo in the workplace |
...Help you capitalize on workplace flexibility and alternative
work arrangements (part-time, job share, flexible schedules,
and telecommuting) as strategies for making you an
employer of choice (see our Work Smart Assessment) |
...Think that workplace change is easy. After all,
the full-time, on-site model of work has been used for over
100 years (though we think you’ll find that increased
productivity, access to new talent, and reduced costs make
workplace change very worthwhile!) |
...Act as a conduit, connecting employers to a growing
pool of experienced part-time professionals in the Raleigh
/ Durham / Chapel Hill area through our Talent
Bridge program |
... Act as a staffing or recruiting agency, actively recruiting
candidates outside our pool for your specific position (this
keeps our costs significantly lower) |
...Connect you with people seeking part-time (we know
we said it above, but we thought it was worth mentioning
again!) |
...Connect you with people seeking full-time positions |
...Work with professionals who are typically experienced
in “core business” areas such as marketing, human
resources, public relations, legal, project management, sales,
finance/accounting, writing, etc. |
...Work with professionals seeking purely administrative
positions, I/T positions, or highly technical positions |
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How does Balancing Professionals’ Talent
Bridge connecting service work?
If you are looking for a part-time professional, we might be able
to help through our Talent Bridge program
which connects you to a pool of part-time professionals in the
Triangle area of North Carolina. Our goal is to make the
best use of your time, our time, and our professional’s time
so here is what you can expect to happen:
- The Initial Conversation - We’ll talk
with you (either face-to-face or on the phone) to learn a bit
about your company, your culture, and your part-time position
- Defining the Perfect Candidate - You’ll
complete our online job-description template to help us determine
if any of our candidates may be a match
- A Sneak Peek - We’ll query our database
and provide you with a “thumbnail” sketch of any
candidates in our pool that hold potential
- Ready, Set, Go! – If the thumbnail sketches
interest you and you are ready to take a closer look at our part-time
candidates, we’ll ask you to sign our “Let’s
Get Started” contract and pay a $250 fee. This fee
covers our time to screen and interview potential candidates
and will be waived if there are no candidates to present to you
in the next step, plus it will be subtracted from any matching
fees should you decide to work with one of our candidates.
- Show Me the Talent – We’ll interview
potential candidates (either face-to-face or via the phone) to
assess their background and skills before sending you their resumes
for consideration. We’ll also coordinate interview scheduling
with the candidates that you’d like to meet.
- It’s a Match! – If you decide
to work with one of our candidates, you and the candidate are
free to settle on whatever type of working relationship is suitable
for the situation (e.g., employee, independent contractor). We’ll
check-out two to three of their references and conduct a criminal
background screen. You’ll be charged a one time matching
fee less your $250 “Getting Started” payment.
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What is Balancing Professionals’ Work
Smart Assessment?
Is your approach to WORK sustainable? Is it meeting
the demands of your organization, the changing workforce and your
community for long-term health and stability? We’ll help
you take the human capital temperature of your organization and
identify sustainable strategies that capitalize on workplace flexibility
and alternative work arrangements (part-time, job-share, telecommuting). Our Work
Smart Assessment provides a general overview of:
- What Employees Are Saying -
We’ll survey employees and find out what they value in
a workplace structure and what contributes most to their productivity
(e.g. flexibility, supportive culture, onsite perks, telecommuting,
reduced hours)
- What Your Workplace Is Offering - We’ll
take a look at your workplace culture and your HR policies to
provide a snapshot of how your organization works
- Opportunities for Improvement – We’ll
suggest opportunities for you to improve the productivity, retention,
access, and turnover of your human capital by re-thinking work
(and we’ll show you the research and case studies that
support these changes)
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What is Balancing Professionals’ Talent
Watch program?
If you view TALENT as the ultimate ingredient for your company’s
success, you are always on the lookout for talented professionals
to add to your team. You know that building a work team isn’t
always a simple matter of matching a specific job opening to a
specific skill set – it’s an ongoing and thoughtful
process of identifying top talent who will be an asset to your
team. It’s also a process where timing is everything
and you can’t afford to miss the small window of time during
which some professionals are available. That’s where we can
help be your eyes and ears.
Balancing Professionals’ Talent Watch Program
lets you keep an eye out for critical talent with little
effort, no cost, and no obligation. When
you participate in the Talent Watch program,
you are opening up your recruiting efforts to a pool of talent
that most employers miss – the pool of highly educated
and experienced professionals in the Triangle who seek part-time
positions.
Participating
in the Talent Watch Program can involve as little as 5
minutes of your time and won’t cost you anything. To
participate, all you need to do is fill out a short online
form relating to the kinds of professionals you’d like
us to watch for. We are happy to discuss our services
and your needs via phone or in person as well, but this is
not required. There is no cost to you for being in the
program. We only charge a fee if you decide you’d
like to learn more about some of our candidates. If you are
interested in the professional, either for a specific position
or generally, you can engage in our Talent Bridge service.
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Explain how your pool of talent has professionals
that we “won’t find elsewhere?”
Simply put, our professionals don’t job hunt
in the usual ways. Because they
are experienced professionals seeking part-time positions in
their field, because such jobs are hard to find, and because
most companies use recruiting methods that revolve around (and
advertise for) full-time positions, our professionals are unlikely
to a) contact employers directly, b) search for or find
jobs on the web and in publications, or c) contact traditional
staffing agencies or recruiters. We provide a bridge
which allows these professionals and progressive employers
to find one another. Professionals who come to us say time
and again how pleased they are to have found out about us and
how they simply don’t have other reasonable avenues for
finding part-time career positions.
What workshops does Balancing Professionals
offer?
We offer several workshops including the ones listed below and
are happy to customize workshops for your organization. Pricing
is based on variables such as the size of the audience and the
length of the workshop.
- “Sustainability: What's ‘Work’ Got
To Do With It?” - Many of today’s
sustainability initiatives focus on manufacturing processes,
supplier sourcing, and becoming more energy efficient. Often
overlooked, yet critically important to sustainability, is
taking a closer look at how your organization accomplishes
work. By re-thinking “how we work,” organizations
can create long-lasting benefits for themselves, their employees,
their community, and even the environment. This workshop
will connect the dots between sustainability and “how
we work” and will offer participants a list of priorities
in making your workplace structure more sustainable.
- “Winning the War for Talent: New Strategies for
a New Workplace” - In an information and service
age, people give a company its competitive
edge — getting and keeping the right people for your
work team can be the key to your success! So how can
you win the human capital war and become an employer of choice
for the best and the brightest?
- “Accessing Top Talent on a Budget” -
The early stage of a company’s life is a tricky one – how
do you build a team of top notch talent with a very limited budget? While
stock options have been the traditional way to bring talent to
the table, significant changes in the workforce are enabling
other strategies.
- “The Business Case for Work-Life Balance” -
Work-Life balance will continue to be a growing issue as we move
into the workplace of the 21st century. This workshop will
look at what innovative companies are doing to address the issue
of work/life balance, thereby enabling them to attract and retain
some of the brightest workers to their team. From Best
Buy’s “Results Only Work Environment”
to Pfizer Pharmaceutical’s Vista RX sales program, we’ll
highlight some companies that have created a win-win solution
for both employee and employer.
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What are Balancing Professionals’ fees?
Our Talent Bridge program
has two different fees:
- “Let’s Get Started” is a
$250 flat fee when you are ready to take a closer look at some
of the candidates in our database. If we can’t provide
you with any resumes after screening potential candidates, this
fee will be waived.
- If you decide to work with one of our professionals we’ll
charge you an “It’s a Match!” fee. Once
we’ve received specific information on the job opening
we’ll be able to give you a better idea of this fee.
- We believe that your company’s culture has a
significant impact on successfully integrating a part-time
professional into your team, so if you use our Work
Smart Assessment to take a temperature of your
human capital culture, we’ll waive our fee for your first Talent
Bridge connection to one of our professionals.
The fees for our Work Smart Assessment and
workshops vary based on the size of your organization and your
needs. Call us for pricing.
There are no fees for our Talent Watch program.
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