FAQs for Employers
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 estimated savings of $27 million in only one year from avoided turnover costs attributed to 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 TRU Flexibility AssessmentSM) |
...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’ TRUE Flexibility AssessmentSM?
Our TRUE Flexibility AssessmentSM helps companies figure out where they are and where they need to go to create a flexible workplace that benefits their employees, their communities and their bottom line. Learn more by clicking here...
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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 types of workshops and trainings are offered by Balancing Professionals?
Want more information on why workplace flexibility is an important business strategy? Need help identifying and implementing the cultural and organizational changes needed to enable true flexibility? We offer workshops, presentations, and focus groups to help with these issues. Here are some sample topics, but we are happy to customize for your specific needs.
- The Culture Shift -- True flexibility can’t flourish in an organization without a culture change -- Industrial Age workplace attitudes that have been with us for over 100 years can be hard to shake! What aspects of your company culture are impeding flexibility? This workshop will help teams identify the underlying and often subconscious attitudes and practices that are preventing them from becoming truly flexible and will offer strategies to promote a flexibility culture shift.
- Managing in a Truly Flexible Workplace -- Managers play a critical role in promoting workplace flexibility (management resistance is often cited as a top flexibility obstacle!) and they need new tools and strategies to succeed. This workshop will educate managers about the strategic benefits of workplace flexibility and will provide them with important cultural, communication and performance management techniques for effectively managing in a truly flexible workplace.
- Workplace Flexibility: A Sustainable & Economic Strategy – (This is an HRCI approved workshop that can provide 3 hours of strategic credit) Tough economic times may have organizations seeking new strategies to cut costs while doing right by their people and their organization’s mission, but most organizations miss one strategy that gives them a lot of bang for very little buck: making their organization truly flexible. The benefits of a truly flexible workplace are numerous, offering strategies to help not only the bottom line, but also employees’ productivity and job satisfaction, the community and the environment. Learn about TRUE flexibility (think way beyond flex-time) and how it can be a solution to many economic woes.
- The People Strategy Most Executives Overlook and Why It Matters -- Flexibility is a top priority of today’s workers (yes, studies show it’s true even in this economy!), making it important for executives, not just HR, to view flexibility as a critical business strategy. This workshop looks at: The 4 workforce change-factors that are driving the need for new people strategies; how flexibility can be a win-win; why flexibility must be much more than an HR program; and the top ways an organization can capitalize on flexibility.
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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 TRUE Flexibility 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 TRUE FlexibilityAssessment 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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