Business benefits:
• Effective tool for retention and recruitment.
• Increased employee satisfaction.
• Improved coverage.
• More teamwork, cross-training.
• Reduced absenteeism.
• Enhanced employee work/life balance.

Statistics:
• Work options offered: 1996
• Flextime used by: 60%
• Compressed workweeks used by: 40%
• Telework used by: ~ 75 employees.

The number one challenge of work options within a service organization is also the biggest opportunity – ensuring coverage."
– Ed Cooney, Senior Vice President of Human Resources

Work options for corporate staff
Alternative schedules are not new to the retail industry. The 7,000 regional Macy’s retail store employees in over 50 stores across five states work a wide variety of shifts and hours per week to accommodate a mix of business and personal needs. However, in 2004 as many as 178 employees at Macy’s Seattle headquarters also did not work a typical 8 to 5 schedule. Just how unusual is it for a retail organization to allow large numbers of corporate staff to take advantage of work options? "Very unusual," says Mary Ritzman, Vice President of Human Resources. "Most prospective employees are surprised and pleased when we tell them we have flextime and alternative schedules."

Low cost, high return benefit
Macy’s cares about employee attitudes and in doing so conducts an annual work/life survey of the 620 corporate staff. Survey results indicate work options are an advantage that increases employee satisfaction. "It makes good business sense to acknowledge that people have lives and families," says Senior Vice President of Human Resources Ed Cooney. "We've invested a lot in our people. When we offer work options, it's not totally unselfish. We know it results in more loyalty and less absenteeism."

Flextime, compressed workweeks and telework are benefits that employees value second only to pay and medical insurance, plus they are inexpensive to offer, Cooney says. Offering work/life flexibility helps retain employees at their full potential when their children are small, their parents require care, or they face other personal pressures and demands.

"When you have people with skills that are sought after, you need to figure out how you can help them work their job around their life," Ritzman says. "That's what it's all about – getting people to decide, ‘No, I don't even want to consider going to a competitor because I have a schedule here that works for me and my life.’"

Work options promoted
In 1994, Macy’s charged a work/life committee with researching and responding in depth to work/life issues. The committee presented a proposal to management that called for promoting work options. As a result, compressed workweeks are offered February through October, but limited during the fourth quarter, when many salaried employees are asked to work extra hours and longer days because of the high demands of the holiday season. Since senior management has bought into the program, work options have become embedded in the corporate culture at Macy’s. There are qualitative benefits derived from the availability of work options, according to Rob Campbell, Corporate Communications and Media Relations Manager. Employees are trusted to do their jobs, are happier in their work and performing better.

Coverage: More opportunity than challenge
"The number one challenge of work options within a service organization is also the biggest opportunity – ensuring coverage," Cooney says. "When your shippers, New York suppliers and the rest of your industry work five plus days a week, you can't say, ‘Sorry, Macy’s is closed on Fridays.’" The most common type of compressed workweek at Macy’s is 9/80s, in which an employee works 80 hours in nine days and has every other Friday off. Most departments stagger the days off, so half the staff are present every Friday.

Because so many tasks involve communication with people on the East Coast, employees who start work at 7 a.m. have just as much to do as those starting at 9 a.m. With some planning, compressed workweeks actually can increase department coverage to more hours of the day – a plus for communication with vendors and customers in other time zones. Management emphasizes the importance of partnerships between people who use work options. An assistant buyer might cover for a buyer on his or her Friday off, and the buyer would in turn cover for the assistant the next Friday. Improved teamwork and cross-training are resulting benefits.

Powerful retention tool
Ritzman knows first hand how powerful work options can be in retaining valuable staff. She was able to successfully retain a valued employee by implementing a telework arrangement.

"When I told my supervisor that I was moving out of the area," said Special Projects Manager Jeff Carlson, "she suggested that we talk about the possibility of teleworking. It was somewhat of a radical concept in 1997, as no one else in the company was working from home 100% of the time. I have been teleworking for nearly 8 years now, and it has worked out wonderfully for everyone. All of the technology (internet connections, lightening fast and safe networking capabilities, phone conferencing) is widely available and easy to use. My commute is simple and parking is free. I buy about a tank of gas a month. Am I happy with the way all of this has worked out? Wouldn’t you be?"

"Corporate retail positions – buyers, planners, accountants, marketing – can be very intense jobs. We are trying to find ways they can produce the same results, but we can relieve some of their stress by building in flexible options," Cooney says. "When managers report that employees come to work more refreshed and rested on Monday morning, I think we are well on our way to a win/win situation."

Lessons learned
While Macy’s continues to refine how to manage work options and implement them consistently in a large organization, Ritzman cites a few lessons the retailer has learned: 1) It is best that new employees complete a probationary period before they can choose flextime, work a compressed workweek or use telework; 2) It is also important to promote the long-term benefits, such as employee retention, to managers; and, 3) it helps to educate all levels that work options are often customized arrangements for individuals or departments that benefit the organization and do not need to be the same for everyone.

Revised April 2005 by Commuter Challenge. Original version © 1999 Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Program. This publication contains material written and produced for public distribution. You may reprint this written material, provided you do not use it to endorse a commercial product. Please reference by title and credit Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Program and Commuter Challenge.

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