Over the years, a cadre of far-thinking companies have been consistent leaders in the work flexibility movement. Many of these organizations have been at the forefront in emphasizing work-life balance for employees. Deloitte is one of these leading organizations, and Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbert recently offered insight into what work flexibility has meant to her career, and to the company as a whole.
In an interview broadcast as part of Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women” series, Ms. Engelbert offered comments that provide a road map of sorts for employers who are figuring out how increased flexible work options and better work-life balance for employees can help their organizations.
Deloitte, a global management and business consulting firm, specializes in accounting, tax, and financial advisory services. As one of FlexJobs’ Featured Employers, Deloitte has long offered flexible jobs including remote, part-time, freelance, and temporary positions. Ms. Engelbert, an accounting expert for more than 30 years, has spent her entire career at Deloitte, much of it in senior leadership positions.
Here’s more from Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbert about how work flexibility helped her company and her career:
Consider offering paid leave as an option for parents and other caregivers.
Employers should work to tailor paid leave and other options to “non-linear” needs of employees. New parents may have different requirements from employees taking care of sick or elderly family members. For example, “the opportunity to disconnect” early on in their new child’s life may be most important to new parents.
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Too often, Engelbert said, organizations focus on what programs they have, and not the “flexibility and predictability we need at different points, especially as a woman raising children. It’s not linear.”
Flexible programs shouldn’t impede career advancement.
A concern some employees may have is that taking advantage of flexible work options or paid leave programs might slow down or even derail their careers. “[Flexible] programs are great,” Engelbert said, “but we have to give men and women, especially new fathers and new mothers, opportunities to take advantage of the programs and still not hurt their career(s).”
For sure, if employee retention is high among your organization’s priorities, it’s important to educate leaders about why work-life balance is vital for employee retention. Many companies have found that workers are happier and more productive when they feel they aren’t being punished for taking advantage of flexible work options.
Offer different options and levels of flexibility.
One of the major foundations of successful work flexibility is predictability within the organization’s structure, Engelbert said. “For me, it’s always been about … having different levels of flexibility and predictability,” she noted.
“We have lots of teams at Deloitte. Having teams recognize that people are going to need different levels of flexibility and predictability is very important.” Engelbert said. Even though predictability is not always in an organization’s control, Engelbert noted, in those “where you can … take advantage of it.”
Provide ways for employees to ask for flexibility.
“Sometimes we’re our own worst enemy and we don’t think we can raise our hand and ask for it,” Engelbert said in the interview. In Deloitte’s “high-performance” environment, an added challenge is that serving clients means acknowledging their needs as well as those of your team.
It’s a good idea to provide standardized guidelines for flexibility to show that flexible work options and rules are being applied uniformly across the organization. Guidance that helps employees understand how to ask for flexible work options may be useful too.
Set great examples for how flexibility works.
Often, Engelbert said, clients “are looking for us to be role models and leaders.” She added: “That’s one thing I’ve found in my career, that even clients were watching me, how I balanced it all.”
Engelbert, who coached her daughter’s basketball team for four years, was able to use the example of her own life to show clients and employees how healthy career-life integration can work. “I became more cognizant of making sure they knew when I was leaving,” she said. “I was not shy about it, I [would say] I need to leave to get to a practice or to a game. And they respected that and used to come back to me and say, ‘I’m so glad you were honest with us, because I didn’t think I could leave for my daughter’s dance recital, and now I know I can.'”
Intersted in learning more about the benefits of work flexibility? Check out our flex work benefits category.
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