Why Companies Must Stay Flexible on Benefits and Avoid Layoffs - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Companies that think that the economic crisis, which is erasing jobs at near record paces, is the best time to roll back on past innovations like flextime or telecommuting should think twice.

• Many of these innovations are aimed particularly at women, given their greater obligations outside of work. But women tend to be a company’s more valuable talent and motivated workers.

• According to Adecco USA’s “Workplace Insights” survey, fewer than 1 in 10 Americans dread the start of the workweek, while more than 2 in 10 are excited about getting to work. (4 in 10 say they appreciate their job but are not exactly thrilled to head to work on Monday).

• But more of those who say they appreciate their job are women, at 46% of those surveyed vs 38% of men, with half again as many men than women saying they feel indifferent about starting a workweek.

• So women are more invested emotionally in their job, but they are viewed by many managers as a more problematic employment investment.

• Time magazine warns companies against taking actions that make workers, especially women, less motivated. “If employers are tempted to exploit such fears, squeeze more work out of fewer people, roll back benefits because there are 100 people lined up for every job, they may find that as in so many things, the short-term fix is long-term dumb,” Time writes.

• To back up its assertion, the magazine interviewed economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founder of the Hidden Brain Drain task force that considers how its 50-plus member companies can avoid losing their most valuable workers.

• Hewlett says that companies need to invest more not less in their workers now to make sure they emerge from the crisis with their talent intact.

• Beyond reinforcing women’s desire to stay with the company, she particularly warns against layoffs. Layoffs prompt more voluntary departures, research shows. Hewlett says that such upheaval could cost companies its most involved and promising workers: top women. That has a ripple effect, she adds: “We’ll have lost the mentors and role models for the next generation.”

A report on the Adecco survey

The Time article