The initiative that this approach brings to women’s attention is significant, because this program actually provides the opportunity to mothers or in some cases single mothers to have flexible hours of work which helps them to handle career which they want and not the careers which are available. This program also provides career customization which helps the employees “adapt important career dimensions to their individual needs” (). The program also provides personal pursuit approach which “allows Deloitte professionals to step out of the workplace without stepping out of the network” (), what is actually means is that the company allows employees to take one to five years brake and reconnect with a company when they are ready.
If we take a closer look to the personal pursuits approach, we can definitely see that this approach provides significant initiatives to women. By using personal pursuits, women are able to start families or pursue additional interest in their lives without worrying that when they decide to come back to work, they will have to dive into competitive market of unemployment. Another reason why I think personal pursuits can provide to the women addition initiatives is because even though this approach provides the temporary freedom from their work lives, they still have to keep they skills up-to-date and Deloitte helps them to do so through company “ongoing training, mentoring, networking events, continued licensing accreditation and even ad-hoc assignments each designed to keep their skills and relationships current” ().
Another activity that furthers women initiative is flexible work arrangements and schedules. Flexible work arrangements, specifically program 3-4-5 was introduces by Deloitte company in 1996 and what this program actually did is provided “consultants working on out-of-town projects were to be away from home three nights a week, at the client site four days a week, and in their local Deloitte offices on the fifth day” ( HBS & McCracken, p. 64) comparing to previous arrangements when “typically, a consultant was away from home five days a week, for up to 18 months at a time”. (HBS & McCracken, p. 64) So with the help of 3-4-5 program, female employees of Deloitte showed initiatives working as consultants.
Flexible work schedules also significantly boosted women initiatives. By providing flexible working schedules/hours, company introduced career-life fit into culture and work environment of Deloitte. The benefits of flexible working hours for employees lie in the fact that this mode eliminates the problems with commute to work, traffics and overall saves significant time which can be used differently. Flexible working gives employees the opportunity to combine several operations, conduct additional business and work from home.
Also, I would like to mention that not only employees benefit from flexible working schedule, but the employers also benefit from it in many ways.
Advantages are:
- A satisfied, happy and motivated employee;
- Flexible working schedule provides fewer chances of employees remaining absent or taking personal days to take care of other business;
- The image of the employer benefits from providing freedom to employees;
- Flexible work schedules indirectly encourage new talented and skilled recruitment.
References
McCracken M. D., Harvard Business Review on Women in Business, Winning the Talent War for Women: Sometimes it Takes a Revolution, (2000) p. 51-67
http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/About/Womens-Initiative/Redesigning-the-Workplace/index.htm