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In the war Maintaining technology skillsbusinesses are rethinking what employees want and need.
As of June, nearly two-thirds of IT workers said not being able to work remotely was a deal-breaker. Report of Eden, It surveyed 1,000 full-time American workers in the technology industry.
Respondents who value flexible work environments cited domestic and caregiving responsibilities as benefits, the report said.
For tech workers, flex time and slack time offer the flexibility they need. And for technology leaders, flexible work initiatives keep employees happy and productivity high.
Claire Rutkowski, SVP and CIO of infrastructure engineering software company Bentley Systems, is a big proponent of flexibility in the workplace. She defines free time on a project schedule as time when another job prevents a person from moving on to the next job.
This can happen when one team member finishes his part before others or waits for his teammate to finish.
“Traditional lag time in project management parlance is a little unpredictable because it depends on how critical path tasks are progressing,” Rutkowski said in an email. It is possible.”
Flexitime, on the other hand, allows team members to work whenever they want until the job is done. While different, both strategies offer flexibility and improve productivity.
“As CIO, I always allow and encourage flex time and plan for downtime,” Rutkowski said. “Delivering IT services outside of business interruptions often requires evening and weekend work. Colleagues must flex their time to meet these after-hours demands without becoming overwhelmed and burned out.”
Implementing flexibility
Flexibility in the workplace can come in many forms. When Google went public in 2004, He introduced the world The rule of 20% time, which gave employees time to think about what would benefit the company more than doing daily tasks. The company has given credit to startup Adsense and Google News.
David Seidl, COA and VP of IT at the University of Miami, adopted a different kind of 20% rule for meetings. He said his leadership sometimes involves taking his employees’ calendars and reviewing what they’re doing that week or month.
“Almost everyone who works for me can have 20% fewer meetings,” he said.
This allows employees to have more time to think about the big picture and new creative ways instead of being busy with irrelevant calls.
CIOs and technology leaders seeking successful flexibility strategies must have clear lines of communication and expectations for employees.
Amrut Laxman, founding partner at 4Voice, a provider of business phone solutions, has found that employees are happier and “incredibly” productive after implementing flextime.
However, it is not a free-for-all. Laxman expects employees to complete 40-hour work weeks; Communicate flexible time schedules to managers and HR; And complete projects according to deadlines.
Laxman said in an email: “When you’re leading a team in a dynamic environment, I can tell you that it’s difficult to allow everyone a lot of flexibility without experiencing a lot of chaos.” “You should have some time for everyone to work together or discuss a project.”
Coordinating team efforts can be taxing if everyone is on their own schedule. To combat this, Laxman devised a more rigid schedule for the morning while allowing the afternoon to be used for flexible time. Some of the workers spend the day at home, while others choose to work in the evening.
Employees use flextime to go to doctor’s appointments, children’s appointments, and other personal errands without having to consult a manager.
For Rutkowski, the changing times for her staff during the pandemic became critical.
“When the pandemic hit and everyone was forced to work from home all the time, flexible hours were essential to allow colleagues to balance work with family needs, whether that was caring for sick relatives, teaching children from home, or managing schedules. Grocery trips when no one else is around,” she said. “I asked people to do what they needed to do for their own mental and physical health and still get their work done.”
Rutkowski has significantly increased productivity and motivation among her employees. Not only does flex time allow for a better work/life balance, it also shows employees that they trust their leaders, Rutkowski says.
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