Flexible hours, sabbaticals keep work force happy, engaged

• Reprints

Ross Talbot zip-lines across a creek at a Sonoma Partners retreat for employees and spouses in Lake Geneva last month.

Related Documents

 Work/life benefits offered by large U.S. employers

Article Extras

Related Stories

• Benefits, perks offered by some companies

Updated: October 20, 2011 12:27AM

Imagine if you could set your own work hours and decide each day whether to work from home or at the office.

How about having the boss spring for a manicurist’s visit to the office or surprise the entire staff with a trip to Vegas?

And wouldn’t a six-week paid sabbatical to do whatever you wish be nice?

The stuff of dreams? Not at all. As recession-wracked companies have tried to do more with less, often leaving employees feeling over-worked, under-appreciated and ready to bolt when the job market improves, some employers here and across the country are finding ways to keep workers happy and engaged, benefiting their bottom lines.

Brendan Landers, the father of 12-year-old twin girls and an eight year-old daughter has no trouble balancing work and family at Sonoma Partners, where he has worked for four years. He typically works two days a week at home, taking advantage of the software consulting firm’s flexible work arrangement benefit, called SWEET.

When he was employed at other companies, he said, if one of his daughters had a play or other activity at school, “I’d either have to take a half day or a day off or just miss it, and frankly I did a lot of that.”

Things have changed.

“Yesterday my wife took one child to the doctor and the other one needed to get to sports camp, so I worked from downtown in the morning, and I left about 11:30, drove my daughter to camp and then worked at home in the afternoon,” he said. “I didn’t have to ask permission or feel guilty or any of those things.”

He says there’s no other place he’d rather work.

That’s the attitude Chicago-based Sonoma Partners was looking to build with its benefits and perks. The firm, out of respect for work/life balance, also encourages staff to work 40 to 45 hour work weeks and to do less than 15 percent out-of-town travel, atypical for many technology consulting firms.

“We believe that happy and motivated employees provide the best possible results for our customers, which is key to our long-term success,” said Mike Snyder, principal at the company, which employs nearly 70 people.

Companies are using technology to give workers greater flexibility to help with work/life balance, said Richard Westphal, North America talent strategist with Accenture, which provides management consulting services and is one of Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work.

“Where and when they work is almost transparent to their teams their clients, and the customers they’re serving,” he said.

That’s the case at Sonoma Partners, which drew $12 million in revenues last year. The company is among four Chicago-area companies named to Inc. magazine’s and Winning Workplaces’ 2011 Top 50 Small Company Workplaces last month. The firm has been profitable every year, Snyder said, adding, about 15 people have been hired in the past two years amid strong business.

Among other perks Sonoma Partners provides are quarterly and monthly outings and celebrations for staff. For the company’s tenth anniversary, the firm treated staff and their spouses to a Lake Geneva trip last month. They enjoyed such activities as a boat scavenger hunt and zip lining.

Morningstar Inc. product manager Melissa Chlopecki said she loves working at the investment research company, where she has been employed for 13 years. She said her jaw dropped when she first learned of Morningstar’s benefits package, which includes a six-week paid sabbattical, a continuing education benefit that covers 80 percent of tuition, books and lab fees up to $17,500 per year; and a policy of allowing employees to determine how much vacation time they need to take. The company, which employs 3,200 people, is on Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For.

“They really try to encourage you to have work/life balance here,” she said. “The atmosphere is casual, and you feel more comfortable bringing ideas to upper management.”

Chlopecki is preparing to take her third sabbatical this fall. She’ll travel to Kenya to work with Habitat for Humanity building homes. On her first sabbatical, she took road trips with friends. On her second, she spent a few weeks in Australia, where she worked with young people from various countries volunteering at a food pantry, doing art work with the mentally disabled and visiting nursing homes, she said. She also participated in a Catholic World Youth event and even tried sand surfing.

“Sometimes you need more than the typical week or two of vacation time to really go and experience something…and let whatever you experienced settle,” she said. “You can let go of what happened at work before you left. Then you can go back to work and say now, I can get back into that rhythm.”

Companies need to focus much more on keeping workers happy and engaged, human resources consultants say. A recent survey by consulting firm Mercer found nearly one in three U.S. workers were seriously considering leaving their present employer, up from 23 percent in 2005. Another 21 percent aren’t looking to quit, but view their employers unfavorably and have rock-bottom scores on key measures of engagement, Mercer found.

The cost of replacing workers isn’t cheap. Aon Hewitt, which provides benefits consulting services, says the cost can be anywhere between 50 percent to 300 percent of the staffer’s annual salary. That includes the search time to find someone and get them up to speed.

“When times improve, dissatisfied workers are going to look to change jobs, and those organizations who have serious defections are going to struggle to cope with the defections,” said Ken Lehman, chairman of Evanston-based Winning Workplaces. Those employers “are not going to be able to fully apply themselves to the opportunities that better times and economic recovery will present.”

Research shows “good workplaces are more profitable than lousy workplaces and more sustainable enterprises,” he added. “If you trust and respect your employees and you realize they have legitimate rights and challenges in trying to balance work and the rest of their lives in the complex 21st century, they they will be loyal and your firm will have less turnover. They will be productive and creative and treat your customers or clients like they are treated by ownership and management.”

He noted of the 50 companies on the Inc. magazine and Winning Workplaces list this year, 40 have increased revenues over the past three years, all but two were profitable last year and 44 have added workers in the past three years. Besides Sonoma Partners, other Chicago area companies on the list are Naperville-based Applications Software Technology Corp., and Gold Eagle Co. and the LaSalle Network, both based in Chicago.

At staffing and recruiting company LaSalle, Founder and Chief Executive Officr Tom Gimbel surprised staff with a Vegas trip to celebrate the company’s seventh anniversary and reward their hard work. He has also treated staff to manicures and brought in a guitarist to serenade them. And when workers had to put in longer hours during the recession, he sprung for a keg at work for happy hours when the work day was done. He said the company, which employs 75 people, has never had a layoff, focuses on fostering collabration instead of competition and encourages open communication between management and staff. The company has been profitable every year since 1989 and revenues grew 14 percent in 2010 over 2009, he said.

Recognizing employees’ contributions is important, benefits experts say, and companies have found creative ways to do so.

At Accenture, a points-based employee recognition program allows employees to select awards from an online catalog. “We’ve had people who’ve bought balloon rides,” Accenture’s Westphal said.

But recognition programs don’t have to be expensive or extravagant.

“So often it’s just a pat on the back,” said Daniel Rubin, vice president for Aon Hewitt’s Talent & Rewards Practice. “Just recognizing that employees in this day and age where everyone is being asked to do more with less, that is so valuable to employees, and it doesn’t have to cost a lot, but really goes a long way.”

It’s important for employers to ask their employees what is most important to them and to align company benefits and perks with the company’s strategy and mission, Rubin stressed.

“It’s sort of like giving a marathon runner a doughnut,” he said. “It may help them for a little while, but ultimately it may not lead to long-term productivity. If you institute a really interesting and cool policy like bringing your dog to work, but if it’s not really in line with what employees want, it really won’t provide the company with the benefit that they’re looking for which is attraction, engagement and retention of key employees.”