What flexible work arrangement would help you balance your work and family obligations? Or,are you starting your own business and trying to carve out a few more hours to work on the new venture? What would you like to do with your current role? Set some goals. Do some research. If you want to go part time, how will that impact your take home pay? Remember, there are variables other than paid hours that you need to consider. Will your dry cleaning bill go down? What will happen to your transportation costs? We have a great tool on our site that we have developed to help you determine what your current “Real” take home pay is and what it would be working an alternative work arrangement. Go to the Wage Comparisons tool to calculate some before and after wages. You may be pleasantly surprised!
Once you know what you are looking for, start putting together a presentation and formal written proposal (if you think you will need it).
Start by anticipating what the issues will be for your boss. Make a list and address each item in writing prior to the meeting. Be very specific. These items will become your proposal. I would not reference having children at home in the proposal. You can, however, talk about your desire to balance your rewarding career with your outside responsibilities.
Here are some topics to keep in mind when thinking about potential issues.
Purpose: retention, increased productivity, decreased burn-out, increased effectiveness
Schedule: Outline the days you plan to work from home and what hours and/or what your total schedule will be (full or part time). If job sharing, who will work what hours?
Communication: How will your co-workers and customers contact you while you are working from home? How will you communicate the change? Will your regular e-mail be available to you from home, phone, fax, cell phone. If you will work part time, will you be available for emergencies? Or, if you will job share, how will you and your partner communicate to provide seamless full time work?
Physical Set-up: What will your home office set up be? Will you have a separate room away from home and family distractions? Do you have a computer, fax, printer, etc. available? Do you have a separate phone line? What kind of access do you have to the internet if applicable, how will you access digital work files...can you dial in?
Evaluation: Set a timeframe during which you and your boss can re-evaluate whether or not the new schedule is working. 3-6 months with time scheduled for interim evaluation with opportunity to discuss any problems and resolve them. Indicate that either party can terminate the arrangement at the end of the trial period.
Job Duties: Make a list of the job duties that can be performed seamlessly from home. Provide details of how it will be transparent to customers where applicable. Or, if you will go part time or job share, how will work be redistributed?
Conclusion: List examples of any departments in your organization who already allow telecommuting, part time, job share, flex time. Indicate that you feel that you have the same work ethic, etc...and are committed to making this a success. Discuss that many organizations are now using this kind of work arrangement for recruitment and retention of high quality employees. Discuss the decreased stress and added productivity that will result from working from home (think of examples of distractions at work that will not be present at home)
How to Ask for a Flexible Work Arrangement - To learn more about this author, visit Kirsten Ross's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 |
Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors |
|
Vwodek Wojczynski
Business Coach and Consultant Vwodek Wojczynski (pronounced Voy-chin-ski) brings fun, awareness, accountability and fresh perspectives based on his diverse experiences in life and business.
Born in Poland and educated in Greece and Canada, he is trilingual with 8 years experience in business development with clients in Canada, USA, Switzerland and Poland.
His approach is systematic and process-driven. He fuses the know-how of proven business methods with his commitment that entrepreneurs experience satisfaction and joy based on their values, motivations and strengths. He believes that businesses succeed based on their ability to generate value by providing what’s needed and wanted.
Ultimately, he trains executives and true business owners - people who work less, produce more, own businesses that run automatically after a while and make a difference globally.
His current research focus is the development of intelligent business systems and the application of emerging artificial intelligence technologies in business.
He is also an avid traveler, spoken word performer and visual artist. He resides in Toronto, Canada. - Visit Vwodek Wojczynski's Website |
|
Dianne Crampton
Dianne Crampton is an Executive Leadership Coach and Team Building Consultant and creator of the TIGERS team development model. For the past twenty years she has helped leaders and teams achieve goals with high levels of collaboration and teamwork.
Crampton is a published author. Her contribution to Working Together: Diversity As Opportunity was endorsed by Stephen Covey. She has written for trade magazines. Merrill Lynch nominated her business for Inc. Magazine’s regional small business and entrepreneurial awards. Her work with Native Americans was recognized at a United Nations sponsored conference in 1994.
The TIGERS model passed two rigorous validation studies in 1992 and 1994. The TIGERS Survey is able to measure and track team development over time.
Dianne is also the creator and distributor of the TIGERS Team Wheel game. This game helps groups identify behaviors that build collaborative groups and behaviors that cause conflict, morale problems, production failures, and misunderstandings.
For more information, or to subscribe to TigerTracks, a free monthly leadership and team newsletter go to http://www.corevalues.com - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
|
The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.
|
|
|
Kirsten Ross
(Visit Kirsten's Website)
Kirsten E. Ross brings a unique blend of
energy and insight to her work with
clients. Her clients efficiently gain
self-awareness and create positive change
that empowers leaders and improves
communication and relationships. Her work
creates productive, profitable
workplaces.
She is a Leadership & HR Coach with a
Masters degree in Human Resource
Management and a Senior Human Resource
Certification. In addition, she brings
more than 17 years of hands-on experience,
has authored a variety of articles and
e-books and has been interviewed as an
expert for media such as: NBC Nightly
News, Fox 2 News, National Public Radio
and for publications such as Crains New
York Business, Working Mother Magazine and
Fitness Magazine.
Kirsten is also an experienced speaker who
will add inspiration and fun to any event
infusing humor and self-awareness
activities that keep audiences
entertained. Participants will walk away
with the targeted action plans and the
motivation to impact their lives and work.
Visit Kirsten’s coaching site:www.kir
stenross.com ">
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
![[Get Copyright Permissions]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.gif){kind=small}
