Companies Still Don't Get It

A recent survey from by Monster.com shows a disconnect still exists between employees’ desire for flexible work and the priority that companies place on offering such options. The Work/Life Balance survey (read article here) found that 89 percent of the employees surveyed believe work/life initiatives are important offerings to consider in the job search, while only about half of the Human Resource professionals surveyed consider work/life initiatives important. Further only 29 percent of employees viewed their current company’s work/life offerings as good or excellent.

Why don’t companies know what employees want? Part of the problem is that few companies take the time to collect information from their employees on their satisfaction with company benefits. Further, employees are clearly not vocalizing their needs. I wonder how many employees that responded to the Monster survey have asked their employer for a flexible work option? My guess is not many.

Companies are not going to invest the time and effort into developing work/life initiatives until they see the bottom line value in doing so. When companies start losing employees and having difficulty recruiting talent to fill those openings, they might start considering ways to improve retention.

If you truly want flexibility in your work, and are considering leaving your current employer to find it, help your company out and ask them about flexibility. In fact, build a strong business case for a more flexible schedule and then demand it. Once more employees step up and ask for what they want; we will start seeing a shift in the work/life options that companies offer.