You will hear an interview with an HR director about the introduction of a flexi

Part Three
(T=Tom J=Jane)
T: Welcome to Working Hours. In studio today we have Jane Michaels, HR Director at Pacific Insurance, one of many companies promoting flexible working schemes. Hello, Jane.
J: Hello, Tom.
T: So, Jane, what made Pacific decide to move away from the rigid 9-5?
J: Well, social changes have been a major factor. More women are now returning to work after having children, for example. And, even more importantly, we’ve had to cater for changing customer demands. With customers now preferring to do their business over the phone, we need our staff to work more flexible hours. We also took over two smaller companies recently. So we wanted a common scheme to unite all our new employees.
T: So what are the advantages of the scheme for Pacific?
J: Well, for one thing, we put great emphasis on providing our staff with regular, high quality training. It costs a lot of time and money to train our employees. So, obviously, it makes sense to retain them.
T: And providing them with flexible working patterns can help you do that?
J: That’s right. But that isn’t the main benefit. We see the scheme as primarily a tool for attracting
potential staff to our company — especially high-calibre graduates.
T: Speaking of your staff, what’s the main attraction for them?
J: Well, the majority of people in the scheme want to spend more time improving their qualifications by doing an MBA or something like that.
T: I imagine the scheme must make it much easier for staff to look after their children too.
J: Yes, that is an added benefit, as is being able to dedicate more time to their outside interests, such as sports.
T: Now, I believe the scheme isn’t totally new.
J: That’s right. There was an old scheme but awareness of it was very low. Most men, for example, assumed it was only available to women, which, of course, wasn’t the case. The new scheme will also continue to offer alternative working patterns to staff on both short and long-term contracts. Only this time, we’re making it available to employees at all levels of the organization and not just people in more junior positions.
T: I see. And what do you think will be the most popular element of the scheme? Flexible hours?
J: It’s difficult to say at the moment but, yes, flexitime is likely to be popular. Typically, though, with the old scheme, employees showed most interest in having longer breaks from work, and I expect it’ll be the same this time. There might be some interest in, say, job share arrangements in the future. But we’ll have to wait and see.
T: And Pacific is also encouraging teleworking, I believe. J: Yes, we are.
T: Now, how does that work? Do you use video-conferencing, for example?
J: Well, we have the facilities but they’re not that widely used at the moment. As most of our teleworkers have access to the company network, they tend to communicate electronically. It’s far more convenient than telephoning because you don’t have to worry about whether the person’s available or not.
T: That’s interesting. But what about your managers, what challenges do they face working from home?
J: Well, several have mentioned the need to be self-disciplined, differentiating between work-time and private time. But the biggest difficulty seems to be empowering others to act for you, especially when they’re in the office and you are not.
T: That’s surprising. I would have thought the most difficult thing would be staying motivated without the support of colleagues.
J: Well, that’s not something that’s come up so far but I’m sure it will.
T: So, how do employees get selected as teleworkers?
J: Well, it all begins with an interview with your line manager.
T: To discuss whether the home environment is suitable, you mean?
J: Well, it’s not quite as simple as that. The main reason we have the interview is to ascertain whether the applicant’s duties are compatible with working from home. It’s easier, say, for an IT specialist to work from home than a PA. If the interview goes OK, we then introduce the applicant to a col-league with personal experience of teleworking. We think it’s important for the applicant to hear what it’s really like working on your own at home.
T: Well, I’m afraid time’s running out so we’ll have to stop there. Thank you, Jane, for joining us today.