Co-founder of MomsRising.org Joan Blades and award winning writer and blogger Nanette Fondas, were kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions about their insightful and eye opening book The Custom-Fit Workplace: Choose When, Where, and How to Work and Boost Your Bottom Line.
Nanette Fondas and Joan Blades utilize the latest in workplace research to describe how the traditional place of employment no longer works for people and their lives. In place of the outmoded workplace environment, the authors provide the revolutionary and practical twenty-first century solution of the custom-fit workplace.
Thanks to Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas for their time, and for their interesting and informative responses to the questions. They are greatly appreciated.
What was the background to writing this book The Custom-Fit Workplace: Choose When, Where, and How to Work and Boost Your Bottom Line?
Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas: From work with MomsRising.org we are painfully aware that vast numbers of parents are struggling to do right by their kids and be great workers. Fact is everyone needs a job that fits, and when jobs fit workers it is good for an employer's bottom line. There is an ever-expanding menu of best practices for management to draw from. Not every custom-fit practice works for every job but every job can benefit from some of these practices. We are working to expand the discussion beyond just flexibility because flexibility tends to be too narrowly defined. Custom-fit work opens the door to outside-the-box thinking.
It asks leaders and organizations to shed the constraints of traditional management approaches and ways of organizing work to focus on two questions:
1. What does it take to accomplish the job at hand?
2. How can we best accomplish that task while respecting and valuing the worker doing the job?
The modern workplace is in a time of rapid transition and change. What are a few of the important changes taking place in workplaces today?
Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas: Recent Brigham Young University research revealed that IBM workers who had the ability to work virtually and flexibly worked 57 hours a week before reporting work/life conflict while workers without this kind of control over their work reported conflict at 38 hours. There is now extensive research underscoring the value of giving workers more control over their work lives, workers are happier, and employers get better work outcomes. Also antiquated expectations of a linear career path are being replaced by career paths that better suit the realities of the modern work force. This is stemming the loss of talent for businesses and that is a good thing.
Joan Blades (photo left)
Today’s workplace is a 24/7 part of peoples' lives. How has this always available for contact technology affected people, families, and communities?
Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas: 24/7 connectivity can be used for good or evil. It is supposed to free us and make us more effective as well as spend more time with our families and participate in our communities. That said some employees don't feel able to set limits and even when they do some employers don't respect those limits. Ultimately that is bad for everyone. Technology has created a new way for us to connect; now we need to establish norms that are good for everyone.
Are people seeking a deeper alignment and balance between their working life and their personal life, despite the demands of modern employment?
Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas: Yes. We are using the term “custom fit” because balance sounds precarious to some people or it implies that you must take from one to give to the other. We believe work that fits is a win/win.
What are some of the innovations being made in workplaces to become more friendly to working women and their families?
Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas: Accounting firms like Deloitte and Universities like University of California, Berkeley recognized that they were losing valuable employees due to rigid career tracks. Deloitte introduced the ability for employees to customize their career track and choose a 40 hour work week, or choose not to travel for some period of time. University of California, Berkeley made it possible for faculty to take longer than 7 years to attain tenure. Careers may be slower but they fit the realities of workers’ lives. Some companies have even implemented formal babies-at-work programs where parents are able to bring infants to work until they are 6 months old or crawling.
Nanette Fondas (photo left)
Many business people argue that concepts like work-from-home, telecommuting, on site child care cost too much money. You disagree with that thinking, and consider these changes to be financially beneficial for everyone, including the employer. Why do you say that?
Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas: There is a great deal of evidence that enabling employees to work from home can save companies a great deal of money. In New Jersey, AT&T saved 5 million dollars in real estate costs alone when they went virtual. Companies typically benefit from higher productivity and lower turnover as well when they take advantage of virtual work opportunities. As for on-site child care costs, companies that do this typically see that they benefit in terms of worker productivity and retention. Child care facilities can also be powerful for recruitment.
What tactics can employers and employees consider to enhance their flexibility in today's changing work environment, for a win-win outcome?
Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas: Bottom line: there is a rich menu of opportunities for work to better fit employees now. Our book includes descriptions of the basics of flexibility (scheduling, job sharing, compressed weeks, and part-time), virtual working, job and career lane changes, contract work, babies-at-work programs, results-only work environments, and also thoughts about implementing all these in union and low-wage jobs.
Research shows that workers who are empowered to meet their responsibilities both at work and outside work are going to be contributing most effectively to a company’s bottom line. The evidence is so persuasive and we document it extensively in Chapter 2that the case is essentially closed.
You also have a new website CustomFitWorkplace.org. What features and benefits does that site provide?
Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas: CustomFitWorkplace.org is a rich resource for anyone who wants to explore the menu of workplace practices we describe in the book. We also have a blog and growing body of stories about how these work practices are changing work culture.
Are the rapid changes in the workplace only going to continue to accelerate in the future?
Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas: Yes, because for American business to remain competitive we need to embrace these opportunities to improve our work models.
What is next for Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas?
Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas: We've got a lot of work to do. Work culture change does not come about without some serious effort, ideas, and participants. We welcome stories and suggestions from individuals and companies. We are looking forward to increasing the understanding that the custom-fit workplace is an opportunity that businesses can't afford to ignore.
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My book review of The Custom-Fit Workplace: Choose When, Where, and How to Work and Boost Your Bottom Line by Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas.
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