Today''s workplace is changing with increasing speed. Organizations that respond to these changes --- quickly, routinely, and innovatively -- will rise above the competition and position themselves for sustained growth.
While HR departments of the past concentrated on managing personnel, today''s HR professionals play an integral role in making change happen. As they attempt to create and implement policies aimed at making the workplace more family-friendly, HR managers must prepare themselves to handle the resistance they are apt to face.
From an HR perspective, work/life benefits need to be a part of an organization''s overall business strategy. The changing values of tomorrow''s work force have created unprecedented demands for flexible, diverse benefits and policies. Faced with a shrinking labor pool, a severed employee/employer contract, and a "what''s in it for me" attitude from today''s gold-collar workers, helping employees balance their work and personal lives is vital in remaining competitive.
As organization attempt to create family-friendly work environments, not everyone will be quick to jump on the bandwagon. For example, Congress and the Clinton Administration have authorized many policies designed to help federal employees balance their jobs and home lives. Programs include flexiplace, flextime, leave sharing, the use of sick leave to care for family members, permission to work at home and time off to encourage parents to attend school functions. In fact, the 1996 National Telecommuting Initiative Action Plan has set a goal of getting 60,000 federal employees (or 3 percent of the federal civilian workforce) to telecommute by the end of 1998 and 160,000 by 2000.
In 1997, the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report entitled "Federal Workforce: Agencies'' Policies and Views on Flexiplace in the Federal Government." The report indicated that while more federal workers are telecommuting then ever before, many managers are still more comfortable with having their employees come to the office. Flexiplace has been touted as an alternative that can reduce the use of sick leave and improve productivity. But agencies told GAO that changing from managing by observation to managing by results is a difficult switch for federal managers. In fact, the report identified management resistance as the greatest barrier to implementing flexiplace programs. "Some managers and supervisors resisted allowing staff to participate in flexiplace because they did not believe that employees were working unless they could see them," GAO reported.
HR managers will encounter resistance such as this in various forms throughout the organization.
Single or childless workers are increasingly feeling that work/life programs do not benefit them. The Conference Board, a leading business research group, recently reported that childless workers are convinced that they are becoming second-class citizens who are forced to carry more of the workload, travel more, work more hours, and subsidize benefits for co-workers with children. Fifty-six percent of the group''s 78-member work-family research and advisory panel said childless workers harbor some resentment of colleagues with children.
Employees may feel that using the work/life benefits offered will jeopardize their careers. As Working Mother Magazine, points out, ""Family friendly policies involve much more than, ''Oh, we have this great policy.'' If people are afraid to use the policy or suffer consequences for doing so, then the company efforts are not ideal."
More traditional executives may be opposed to changing their ways and accepting the mind set of today''s workers. David Friedman, a partner at McKinsey & Co. who studied the changing US workforce, believes that the way that many companies approach the labor market is outdated. Good companies respond immediately to every whim of their customers, but when it comes to their workforce they are shocked when traditional methods do not work.
Embrace Resistance to Move Beyond It
It is rare to see a significant change that does not generate resistance. People resist to protect themselves from changes they believe will threaten them. They might fear the change will cost them their job, their status, or their ability to advance. And the more disruptive the change, the stronger the resistance.
To transform resistance into support for change, HR professionals must learn to look at the situation through the eyes of their opposition. Having a better understanding of why people are opposed will enable you to better assess how to move beyond the resistance.
1. Talk with people throughout the company about these issues. A diverse workplace will breed a variety of issues and concerns. Explore with equal interest and openness the opinions of those who support and those who oppose you.
2. Be interested and encourage dialogue. Taking a strong adversarial position usually backfires. In fact, trying to overcome resistance may actually widen the gap between the two sides. Learning why others are skeptical will help you begin to close the gap. Reasons might include:
Success of the company: Executives may perceive that providing family-friendly policies will create employees who are less committed to the job and, therefore, less productive.
Paying Dues: Those who have risen to the top of their companies have already paid their dues --- and they have done so before this age of "work/life balance." Executives may feel that if they sacrificed to advance within the organization, others should do so as well.
Perception: Some executives may see the world through traditional glasses, and may look at those seeking flexibility as unwilling to put in their fair share. Rather than accommodating their needs, they may feel it''s easier to find some "real workers."
3. Illustrate the cost of not helping employees a better balance of their work and personal lives. Look at turnover patterns and recruitment practices. Assess what the challenges your company is facing in recruiting and training new employees versus those associated with retaining your current workers.
4. Explore "what if" scenarios. For example, look at "what if" we created a leave policy for people to care for an aging parent. Speculate about the pros and cons, and examine the assumptions behind the reasons.
5. Seek a win-win situation. Ask the question: "How can we continue to be the fastest-growing company and offer the best work/life balance in the business?" Addressing such a paradoxical question forces you to look at things from a "both/and" rather than from an "either/or" perspective. This often can enable you to find options that nobody would every have considered.
6. Be patient, yet persistent. Realize that the culture of the organization cannot be transformed overnight. By slowly building support for change and entrenching the work/life philosophy in the corporate culture, you will not be proposing a "Band-aid" solution, but rather an investment in the company''s future success. No matter how vital work/life programs are to the success of a company, they are doomed to fail if the organization as a whole does not support them fully and publicly. Companies are realizing that flexibility is the key to managing the new workforce, but the evolution takes time and patience. By following the steps outlined above, you will be headed in the right direction for making change happen.
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Rick Maurer is the author of Beyond the Wall of Resistance :... (Bard Press) and Building Capacity for Change Sourcebook.