Trip Saver Tools - Flexible Working Options

About Us: Perspective

Three decades of development
Rupert & Company’s principals began wrestling with workplace flexibility in 1972. Since then we have fused exhaustive research, best practice review and hundreds of hands-on flexibility projects into online flexibility packages that set the industry standard. When it comes to conquering the many barriers and challenges to telecommuting and compressed schedules, we have done it all – many, many times and with notable success. To do compressed schedules or telecommuting well, there are dozens of small and large mistakes to avoid and numerous design and mechanical features to include. We have built the TripSaver Tools with these requirements in mind. One result: these universal tools work equally well in start-ups and global corporations.

Your results, your customers
Our flexibility clients are quick to say that we approach options like telecommuting and compressed workweeks as an integral part of the business, of how a company manages its people. We do not see any flexible work arrangement as a program or a free-floating employee benefit. We understand that companies may offer an option such as compressed workweeks to groups of employees out of a concern for equity. But we have seen the negative impacts on companies’ internal and external customers that can result from this strategy – and have developed more individualized approaches that can better serve all key stakeholders.

Your satisfaction
In the end, the most important goal in providing the TripSaver Tools is your complete satisfaction. We believe you will be impressed by the same thorough, comprehensive design and execution in these systems that mark all our online tools. When you lease the telecommuting or compressed workweek option, you are getting the integrated toolkit with our superior guidance system, proposal-and-decision framework and interactive training. And while the system is ready to install as is, we can fully customize it to meet your unique needs.

About Us: Principals

Rupert & Company has strong leaders in its key capabilities. They bring decades of vital experience to the challenge of developing superior research, consulting, training and web-based tools for our clients.

Paul Rupert is the president of Washington, DC-based Rupert & Company. He combines thirty-five years’ general management, consulting, coaching, training and research experience with expertise in the development of flexible leadership skills and online systems. Paul started managing flexibly with his first start-up in 1972. He pioneered the development of explicitly business-based approaches and tools for creating the flexible workplace.

In his previous work as Associate Director of New Ways to Work and Flexibility Practice Leader of WFD Consulting, he directed national flexibility advocacy efforts and served a broad and distinguished client list of more than a hundred companies ranging from Aetna and AOL to Wal-Mart and Xerox. Mr. Rupert speaks widely about organizational flexibility and is quoted regularly in the national media, including the Wall Street Journal, ABC World News, CBS News, NPR, Marketplace and Newsweek. He is a graduate of Stanford University.

Steve Goldfarb is the New York-based Research Director of Rupert & Company. He has more than thirty years’ experience in research design, administration and training for organizations and their employees. He held research and consulting roles at Citibank, Opinion Research Corporation, Foster Higgins, Towers Perrin and William M. Mercer. He began the firm Goldfarb Research in 1997, and later merged it into Rupert & Company. He has conducted a range of flexibility studies, and major projects have included ALCOA, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, Johnson & Johnson and University Hospitals of Cleveland. His research has been featured in Compensation and Benefits Review and Across the Board and he was a major contributor to IBM’s landmark study on human resources, Priorities for Competitive Advantage. He has been quoted in The New York Times, USA Today and The Chicago Tribune, Mr. Goldfarb earned a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.A. in Organizational and Industrial Psychology from Columbia University, where he also completed advanced work in evaluation research, psychometrics and statistics.

Michele Lamond is Rupert & Company’s Webmaster. She brings to the position a broad background in financial and professional services and web design, hosting and maintenance. Prior to developing her own web services company, Michele spent more than a decade in the investment management business. She later shifted to marketing and communications roles in the nonprofit sector. In all these settings she developed her web design and development capabilities. She began her own comprehensive web services company in 1998, offering South Florida businesses website development, Internet communication strategies and online training vehicles. After numerous training and website collaborations, she joined Rupert and Company as Webmaster in 2002. She is responsible for all client website customization and development, for building the FlexWise™ suite of interactive online training tools and for maintaining all hosted sites. She is currently involved in creating our Leading through Mutual Respect training suite.

About Us: Principles

Our core Mutual Respect framework is built around seven key leadership principles that underlie our customer approach and the orientation of our TripSaver Tools. We believe the Mutual Respect principles offer solid guidance for respectful relationships with our clients and assure that all of our work is delivered in an exceptional, as well as professional manner. And they define the character of the collaboration we embed in our online tools.

We avoid assumptions
Our tools do not assume an outcome and do not presume that fairness equals the “same thing for everyone.” A rigorous, equitable and continuous process assures high-quality outcomes

We always pay attention
The aphorism that “the devil is in the details” holds especially true for online flexibility. We are obsessed with execution and ongoing innovation to ensure superior results.

We listen attentively & speak directly
Strong communication is vital in an online product and in all forms of the consultant–client relationship. Our development process is marked by constant and attentive listening.

We seek feedback consistently
We do not believe in surprises. We are happy to give and get comment about a job well done. We are even happier to hear about problems early.

We cooperate regularly
Collaboration is the essence of our work. As one client described our blend of cooperation, flexibility and responsiveness, we are “contortionists.” We do not back off from that label.

We delegate and develop fully
Our tools are designed to share a broader perspective with our clients. We are constantly looking for technologies and content that will provide clients and end users with deeper learning.

We do what we promise
Keeping promises is the essence of Mutual Respect. We strive for – and regularly achieve – full satisfaction on the deliverables, outcomes and processes we promise.