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5 Lessons from CFOs: How to Make Work Life Flexibility a Biz Strategy, Not Perk/Benefit

We know that the HR community recognizes the importance of work+life flexibility, but what about the people who drive the financial decisions, and write the checks.  Is work+life flexibility on the radar screen of CFOs?  Is it a core strategic lever for responding rapidly to unexpected economic challenges, and for addressing future trends well in advance?  If not, why and how can that change? 

To answer these questions, Work+Life Fit, Inc. partnered with BDO Seidman LLP to co-sponsor the first ever CFO Perspectives on Work-Life Flexibility study.  This national telephone survey of a random sample of 100 top CFOs at companies with at least 5,000 employees was conducted by an independent research firm in May, 2008. 

The key findings from the CFO survey offer guidance into what we can leverage and do differently to make work+life flexibility a more integral part of both the short-term and long-term decision-making process:

• Good news: they get it!:  CFOs recognize the broad, potential business impacts of work+life flexibility, or flexibility in how, when and where work is done.
• Bad news: most can't do much about it because of a lack of formal flexibility policies/procedures and leadership buy-in: Only 13 out of the 100 CFOs report working for an organization with a formal approach to flexibility in place and with a leadership team that sees work+life flexibility as a strategy for managing talent, workflow and resources.   The remaining CFOs either work for organizations without a formal approach to flexibility and/or have a leadership team that considers flexibility to be a perk/benefit.  Both factors seriously limit the CFOs ability to use work+life flexibility as a lever to execute a rapid response to a business challenge.

We need to do a better job:

• "Brand" work+life flexibility upfront as a business strategy for managing talent, resources and workflow within the culture and the day-to-day operating model.
• Involve business line leaders in the development and implementation of formal work+life flexibility strategy from the beginning.  HR can't be the sole champion.  For broad buy-in and understanding, a work+life flexibility strategy must be developed for the business, by the business with HR as a key partner in the process.
• Implement work+life flexibility more effectively, to overcome organizational and personal obstacles that stand in the way.

Work+life flexibility needs to be one of the strategic levers that all leaders pull out of their back pocket to manage short-term crises and long-term trends.  As the recovery simmers, flexible alternatives to labor cost savings can limit additional layoffs, strategic work+life flexibility can be part of the solution. Let's hope the wisdom and experience shared by the CFOs makes flexibility in how, when and where work is done a part of the solution.

(Adapted from Cali Yost , Fast Company, June 11, 2009)