Flexibility: Career & Family - Now you can have it all!

It’s 10am. This morning, I’ve already put together 2 client documents and signed on a new contract for Captivate Talent. After I finish writing this article, I’ll start a load of laundry, head out to yoga class, and stop at the grocery store before picking my daughter up from daycare. During her nap time, I have a few phone interviews with candidates. After she goes to bed, I’ll spend a few hours replying to emails and reaching out to potential candidates.

I’ve found that I am more productive professionally and personally with this sort of flexible schedule.

In fact, I would even challenge that you get more out of a person when they work from home. If an email comes in a 6:30pm and someone is available to talk I will run up to our office for 20 minutes and do the phone screen. If I had to catch a train I would not be able to talk to that person until the next morning.

But not all companies want to optimize on this sort of flexibility…

I know this personally because I left my job of ten years when they wouldn’t offer me any sort of flexible work options.

The Growth Of Flexible Work

Flexible work options are growing exponentially. In the U.S., 37% of employees say they’re able to work from home at least one day per week, according to MIT Sloan. Moreover, the number of full-time telecommuters has grown 103% over the last ten years.

This isn’t just an American trend. Worldwide there has been a growth in remote work and time-agnostic scheduling. Some governments, like Turkey, Japan, and Saudi Arabia, have even started to formalize and regulate remote work and other flex options.

So what’s the cause of this forward-push for remote, flexible work? In the last five years, work-flex has proven a positive impact on employees and employers alike.

Workers report having:

• more control over their schedules.

• more support by management.

• better work-life balance.

• lower stress and burnout.

• decreased psychological stress and exhaustion.

• increased job satisfaction.

• enhanced productivity.

In fact, 45% of telecommuters love their jobs… while only 24% of office-workers are satisfied with their work.

Employers are starting to realize the benefits of flexible work as well. They’ve seen cost savings on recruitment, retention, and lowered absenteeism, as well as increased productivity and return on investment for employee salary.

When companies don’t offer this sort of flexibility, they lose top talent. A FlexJobs survey found that 33% have left and 14% considered leaving because they had no access to flexible work options in their jobs.

I’m in that third of workers who left a job for flexibility.

Bio

So why am I telling you all this?

I worked for Macy’s for 10 years, right out of college and worked my way up. After a decade in various Buying roles, I held the position of Manager of Merchant Development. I would develop our company’s leaders, from one-on-one conversations to training sessions with 400 people.

I absolutely loved my job. I was thrilled and excited to go to work every day. It felt like the right culture and position fit for me.

Then I had my first child. And my priorities shifted. I wanted and needed more flexibility to spend time with my baby girl. So I wanted to “have it all”—the great career and the great family. I knew I could, as long as my employer was willing to make it work too.

Why I Wanted Flexibility

There were two major reasons I wanted flexibility… and I know millions of other working parents can relate. Firstly, I was wasting a minimum of 2.5 hours every day commuting. I didn’t want to commute into work 5 days a week and continue wasting the time, money, and energy.

Secondly, I didn’t want to miss out on seeing my daughter grow up. I had seen co-workers doing back to school conferences from the office on their cell phones and I didn’t want that for myself. I wanted to see her for more than an hour at night and have that work-life balance that I believe all parents deserve.

Moreover, I saw flexibility functioning for my husband, who was working from our home office. I saw it working for my friends, who were able to telecommute or have compressed schedules. Even a friend who is a doctor works from home since he is able to chat with patients online via video chat.

Flexibility Was Working

Before my maternity leave, I worked remotely for 2 months. It went off without a hitch. I could record my trainings in my living room and send them in for editing. I even planned and executed an offsite conference for 700 people… all from home. I discussed with my VP the option to work part-time or remotely after my maternity leave as well. She was on-board.

After my maternity leave, I was excited to get back to the place I’d called home for 10 years. I started using my accrued vacation time (about 30 days) to take off two days per week. It worked seamlessly for three months.

On my days off, I was still able to answer emails and go over my training materials—while also spending time with my daughter. I would then perform my trainings on my three days in office—when the bulk of training happens anyway. Thanks to tech advances, I could even train virtually by webcasting from my house.

As I started running out of vacation days, I had to finalize my part time schedule. My VP was again on-board, however the package was not approved. When I met with HR they told me the company did not want to go down the route of part-time employees or flexible scheduling.

I had proven that I could perform with a flexible schedule. I had worked remotely for two months and part-time for 3 months, but they weren’t willing to make it the norm.

So I left.

Moving Forward

Now I’m a Recruitment Partner at Captivate Talent, recruiting on my schedule. I can work remotely, at home, in one of our co-working spaces or even coffee shops. I can make my own hours based on my home needs and the convenience of my candidates and clients. I love my flexibility and work-life balance that I’ve found in my rebooted career.

Macy’s isn’t alone in the resistance to flexible work. Some businesses still have an old-school mindset that the number of hours in the office correlates to productivity. (When in fact, the opposite is true. 76% of employees report being more productive out of the office, according to a study by FlexJobs.)

But moving forward, more and more positions are going to have to be remote and flexible in order to recruit and retain top talent. With tech advances and the growth of the virtual world, most companies now have the ability to implement flexible work for their employees. Millions of people work remotely full-time or part-time as a way of gaining that work-life flexibility.

Top candidates are demanding flexibility. Only those companies that are willing to offer flexible scheduling will be able to attract that high-level talent.

I believe in flexibility. My company is now built around flexibility. If you’re a candidate feeling trapped in a rigid role or a hiring manager trying to find out more about what your competition is doing to retain their employees, contact us!