How to Use Reduced Hours To Win the War for Talent

“I’ve got to find a way off this treadmill! Life is too frantic. By the time I get the kids dressed, fed, and off to school, fight the traffic into town, and scramble for a parking spot, I feel like I’ve already put in a day’s work. And then the whirlwind begins. And then later I have to beg out of those darned 4:00 p.m. meetings, which I know will drag on past 6:00, so I can get back to the day care center by 5:30 to avoid the by-the-minute late charges. But this means rushing home with a full briefcase and working after dinner until 11:00 or so, and then a few hours ’ sleep, and another round begins. If I could just cut back to a three-day week, I’d have time to do more with the PTA, I could join that book club, I could read the newspaper in the morning, and I could be more present with the family. We can live with the reduced income. How much more sane life would be if I just cut back.”—A harried lawyer Workplace flexibility is a major concern in business today. As companies are scram-bling to recruit and retain professional em-ployees and managers with critical skills, us-ing expensive search firms, paying large signing bonuses, and offering bounties to employees whose referrals result in new hires, significant resources are being put into creating attractive employee rewards. The one thing that is becoming clear is that money alone is not enough. Increasingly, with the high incidence of two-career house-holds, and the concomitant need to juggle work, home, community, and other life roles, time is a major currency. For example, one recent online survey conducted by Career-Path.com found that 40 % of responding workers plan to change jobs in the next year, and that they will be looking for “workplaces that allow them to tailor their hours to sui