Soaring Cost of Fuel Drives Flexible Work Schedules
Public sector turns to 4-day week while companies lag, survey shows

HR executives at major U.S. companies are reluctant to adopt the compressed work week even in the face of soaring fuel costs for their employees’ daily trips to the office, a new survey shows. This view contrasts with widely reported adoption of these schedules in the public sector.

Rupert & Company, a Washington-based consulting firm, surveyed 39 HR executives to arrive at the results.  Half represent large companies employing from 5,000 - 100,000 employees in finance and banking, healthcare, telecommunications, computer services and pharmaceuticals.

Rising gas prices are fueling the rapid growth of demand for a 4-day work week and telecommuting. Many government offices, universities and small businesses have been quick to respond with various plans.  Yet the corporate sector has been much slower to respond, the survey documents.

According to survey author Paul Rupert, “The current difference in attitude toward the compressed work week is rooted in a deep-seated concern in the private sector about flexibility’s negative impact on productivity. While government agencies and universities may offer compressed schedules and some telecommuting across the board, major companies are far more inclined to leave these decisions to individual managers.”

While nine of the ten survey respondents say their companies offer telecommuting and remote work (full-time work at home), around one-third (32%) do not offer compressed schedules at all.

How companies decide about these options varies by arrangement and company. Telecommuting is offered by 68 percent of companies at manager discretion or informally; another 21 percent of companies use a more accessible formal proposal process. Fewer companies – 50 percent – offer compressed schedules at manager discretion, while only 18 percent use a formal process.

As a long-time flexibility consultant, Rupert has watched companies and governments wrestle with flexible work options over two decades and through major crises such as the San Francisco Bay Bridge collapse, the Los Angeles and Atlanta Olympics, and now the shock of the current gas price escalation.

“It is likely that gas prices will stay at more European than American levels and that employee demand for flexibility will keep growing,” Rupert added. “But unless both public and private employers master how to do flexibility well, it will end up frustrating both participants and customers. This summer citizens will accept compressed schedules for whole groups of government workers; but when service declines, there will be a backlash. And the private sector is so nervous about customer blowback that it has a very constrained approach to allowing flexibility. There are better, proven ways to proceed.”

To get an indication of changes in employee demand for flexibility, the Rupert survey asked, “Due to the recent increase in fuel costs, are employees now requesting greater work schedule flexibility?” The respondents at 29 percent of the companies said “many (employees) are” and at 47 percent of the companies “some are.” Only 24 percent of companies reported that “none or only a few” employees are requesting greater work schedule flexibility.

Senior managements are often removed from flexibility issues or slow to show awareness of them. To test their current engagement, the survey asked “Due to the recent increase in fuel costs, has senior management shown more interest in offering flexible work arrangements?” Surprisingly, 59 percent answered “some” interest, while only one-third indicated no or very little senior management interest. Three companies reported “a great deal” more interest on the part of their senior management.

Is there any difference in the types of flexible work arrangements that employees and senior managers most want to see? And is there any gap in their enthusiasm for these options? According to the survey respondents, senior managers are equally interested in seeing telecommuting and compressed workweeks – 38 percent for each. By contrast, 67 percent of employees are interested in telecommuting and 38 percent in the compressed work week. Over 60 percent of responding HR executives predict that these options will be offered, but on a case-by-case basis.