With lay-offs for the third quarter totaling 287,142 the largest number since 2005, it’s a perfect time to revisit the discussion of work life flexibility as an alternative downsizing strategy.  A number of the top 100 CFOs surveyed as part of the CFO Perspectives on Work Life Flexibility study co-sponsored by Work+Life Fit and BDO Seidman, LLP used strategic flexibility to reduce their workforce without severing ties with employees:

“Approximately a third (38%) of CFOs report that their organizations had reduced their workforce in recent years.  While employee lay-offs were most common, almost a third (30%) of CFOs innovatively used flexibility as a workforce reduction strategy that allowed them to stay connected to employees through contract project-based work (24%), reduced hours with full-benefits (3%) and sabbaticals with full benefits (3%).” 

As I wrote in an earlier posting on the subject, more companies are using flexibility to creatively downsize.  They recognize that it will be very expensive to rehire when the business cycle improves.  Read the comment posted by an award-winning New Jersey-based advertising agency that describes how they have used work life flexibility to match talent with the needs of their business. 

While it might be better to have a job at a reduced schedule or on a project-basis than no job at all, this use of flexibility as a way to manage the workforce injects a level of uncertainty into the lives of employees that hasn’t existed previously.  This means that individuals need to prepare for this potential reality.  To that end, fee-only financial planner, Michael Haubrich (www.toyourwealth.com) recommends that everyone have what he calls a “Career Asset Working Capital Fund.”  This money is earmarked for the unique financial requirements of career transitions or job status changes including:  (Click here to go to Fast Company blog)

Recently I was asked to offer tips for two very different groups–working parents for BusinessWeek.com and small businessowners for SmartMoney.com.

BusinessWeek’s Working Parents Blog — How to Keep Your Job (And Flexibility!) in a Recession

For BusinessWeek’s Working Parents Blog, blogger Lauren Young asked me to provide advice to working parents about how to keep the flexibility they have during a recession. Here’s an excerpt and link:

“Today’s news that U.S. payrolls declined by 80,000 jobs in March left a sinking feeling in my stomach. BusinessWeek’s chief economist is predicting job cuts in sectors such as financial services, real estate, as well as some consumer areas like hotels and restaurants.

How can you keep your head off the chopping block? Career experts say this is the time to shine at work, but plenty of the working parents I know already have a tough time juggling the demands of their professional life with their personal life.

So that’s why I turned to Cali Williams Yost, president and founder of Work+Life Fit and author of Work+Life: Finding the Fit That’s Right for You (Riverhead/Penguin Group, 2005). Her tips for keeping your job afloat during a recession are geared to working parents, but this advice applies to anyone who wants to stay gainfully employed: (Click here to more)”

SmartMoney.com — Small Business and Flexibility as a Competitive Advantage

For Smart Money.com, the focus was on how small business owners can use the inherent flexibility they offer to compete with larger employers for talent. At the end of the article I discuss the “floodgates fear” and the fear that the work won’t get done that partially-paralyze most managers no matter the size of the company within which they work. Here’s an excerpt and a link:

“Any arrangement, of course, has to benefit the company and its bottom line. It’s important for a small-business owner to ask for accountability when giving an employee the freedom to set their own hours or schedule. They should discuss with the employee how work will get done, how deadlines will be met and how flexibility can improve business results.

“The big fear amongst naysayers is ‘if we give it to one person, then everyone will want it, and no one will be there,’” says Cali Williams Yost, a consultant on flexibility strategies in Madison, N.J. “That almost never happens.” Another concern is that flexible scheduling can hamper productivity. However, “most people don’t want to work less,” Yost says. “They just want to work differently.” (Click here to read the entire article)

(Check my most recent Fast Company blog posting: CIOs Decide: Is Flexibility “Naïve” or a Reality That Can’t Be Ignored?)

I was afraid this would happen. Last month in my Fast Company blog (Recession and Work+Life Fit), I noted that as we move into what increasingly seems like a recession, the response of many will most likely be for innovation related to flexibility and work+life fit to stop because:

“Unfortunately, too many leaders and organizations will default to a shortsighted fall back position, “Forget flexibility. People are just lucky to have jobs.”

Indeed, some leaders I’ve observed over the past month are having that reaction. I can understand it. Incorporating more flexibility into the way you operate your business, and manage your work+life fit even during the best of times can be scary because it’s new. Throw some bad economic forecasts onto that natural fear, and the next thing you know all innovation comes to a screeching halt as we hold on tighter to what we know. Even if what we know isn’t ultimately going to help us succeed.

But there is good news! As I’d hoped, “But…smart leaders and organizations…will continue to move forward integrating flexibility into the way they do business because they understand that there is no turning back.” And, thankfully, this is happening as well. In the last month, I’ve met a number of forward-thinking leaders who see flexibility as the way they need to do business and help people manage their work+life fit, especially in tougher economic times.

They may be in the minority, but these leaders understand that the trends requiring businesses to rethink how, when and where work is done, and individuals to more effectively manage their work and life aren’t going away. And, in fact, are only going to become more pronounced in our 24/7, high tech, global work reality. For a powerful presentation these trends and what they mean, check out a video that one of my clients brought to my attention last week called “Shift Happens”.

Wanting to circle-the-wagons is an understandable reaction to a recession, but let’s recognize and support the few who are trying to be innovative, flexible thought-leaders. Maybe their example will inspire their peers to do the same.

Do you have any examples of forward-thinking leaders who aren’t letting the recession stop them from rethinking how we all could work better, smarter and more flexibly manage our resources, talent, workflow and work+life fit?

(Check out my Fast Company Blog: Prediction–Meditation Becomes a Core Competency)

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been repeatedly asked: “What do you think will happen to work+life fit and flexibility if the economy experiences a recession?”

I think two things will happen. Unfortunately, too many leaders and organizations will default to a shortsighted fall back position, “Forget flexibility. People are just lucky to have jobs.” But the smart leaders and organizations won’t. They will continue to move forward integrating flexibility into the way they do business because they understand that there is no turning back. To use a recession as an excuse to stop developing news ways of flexibly managing work and life will only put them further behind in terms of growth potential when a recession ends.

What do these smart leaders and organizations know that the less enlightened overlook? They understand that flexibility is key to their businesses success in a 24/7, high tech, global work reality. They know that: (Click here to read more)