Guidelines To Match People With Alternative Work Arrangements

However it is accomplished, the matching process must be completed quickly and in a fashion that meets the company’s standards of internal and external fairness. Following are guidelines for accomplishing this process:

1. It is important to determine the interests of employees in the various options available. Polling people on what they think of the alternatives can accomplish this.

2. Reassignments should be applied at the department or work group level, especially if job/skill sharing is considered. Temporary assignments, however, can cross departmental lines.

3. In making the assignments to employees, resources for management support must be taken into account. Without such support, offsite Net workers will not be effective in their roles.

There are several practical issues to consider regarding the decision of whom to cut and keep. First, the example presented here involves department managers as sole decision makers. As we recommended, this will keep decisions close to the work group and can be done quickly. However, in many large, complex organizations, it may be necessary to coordinate decision making through a task force of fellow managers that is overseen by corporate officers and even the CEO.

A second concern regards employee choices: What are their interests? Many employees wonder, “Don’t we get a choice in this case?” In a strict sense the answer is “no.” The purpose of the exercise discussed previously is to save the company money, not to provide maximum choice to employees. What can be done is to let people know ahead of time what managers are considering and poll employees’ interests. Ideally, their interests can be accommodated as long as the cost reduction and human capital goals are still met. In so doing managers allow individuals to make choices where possible.

What’s the right thing to do? Managers must be the ones to conduct the analysis and make decisions quickly. These decisions must be communicated openly and swiftly. Finally, they must allow employees to make choices available to them.

What if employees don’t accept options open to them? As previously stressed, the objective is to balance the company’s strategic requirements with employee needs. Because time is of the essence, employees should be given a reasonable but limited window of opportunity to provide their input, and then everyone must move forward.