Welcome to the very first edition of Flex-Notes, the blog for Flexible Resources. Our motto is:

“Measure Results, Not Face-time”

Flexible Resources Inc is a staffing and consulting firm that pioneered flexible work arrangements at the professional level. We are currently celebrating our 20^th anniversary by launching our new web site, introducing the ‘Flex Notes’ blog, and by re-issuing our book, “The End of Work As We Know It,” the bible for creating all kinds of flexible work situations.

Flexible Resources was founded by Nadine Mockler and Laurie Young, experts in work-life balance issues. They have worked with hundreds of companies and thousands of women – and men – to create viable work places flexibility that makes companies more profitable and productive by creating a highly motivated, loyal, and committed workforce.

Here’s a timely topic for today:

LAYOFFS ARE MOST EXPENSIVE WAY FOR BUSINESSES TO SAVE

Laurie Talks Layoffs

Firing fulltime employees is the typical corporate panic move to a downturn. And we are now living with the results. But we have a better way: Build a stable workforce of permanent flexible professionals to create a cost-effective, efficient, productive, motivated, committed workforce that is best equipped for today’s 24/7 global workplace.

Severance and outplacement costs are just the beginning. There’s the ripple
effect, destroying the morale of those employees still on the job, the
downward spiral as those who have lost their jobs stop buying clothes, cars,
appliances, traveling, and dining out, and the long-term costs to companies
as they will have to pay for recruiting, rehiring, and retaining when the
economy turns around.

Cutting the workforce also damages 401 (k) investments, and can force health care costs to go even higher as the number of participating employees shrinks.

So what’s the alternative?

1. Ask for volunteers to cut their hours and work part-time. Flexible
Resources says that in most cases as much as 50%
of any workforce - mostly working moms - will happily agree to work a
less-than-fulltime flexible schedule.

2. Then reduce payroll further if necessary with mandatory cutbacks
throughout all departments. An across-the-board cut of, say 20% to 30%, with a redction to a three- or four-day workweek keeps everyone on the job and retains the sense of fairness;

3. Layoff only as a last resort.

Even in these tough economic times, we have candidates coming to us who
have full-time jobs and are looking for a part-time flexible position. Companies can save substantially by reducing hours, much of it voluntarily. It makes a lot more sense to reduce the hours of your entire workforce than to simply
slash and burn. It’s not merely the outplacement and
severance costs. The company’s health care costs often rise when the number
of employees decrease, and 401(K) investments are thrown out of whack.

In our 20 years in business we have been through two severe downturns and
the pattern never changes - the knee-jerk reaction to slash jobs only makes
the situation worse, and leads to higher costs to businesses long-term.
We’re helping our clients think outside the box to save both jobs and money. It’s the healthier solution.

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