Flexible hours bring a better balance

By ESTELLE SARNEY

Every second Friday Trish Baylis has a paid day off - she meets friends for lunch, gets her hair done and visits her mother.

She has also "bought" an extra two weeks leave to add to the four she is entitled to this year. She will use the time to sail her yacht. She barely notices the cost of the extra holidays.

"As I've got older, I've started looking for a greater quality of life," says Baylis. "The changes at work have enabled me to have that."

Nine-day fortnights, flexible work hours and the ability to buy and sell leave are among the changes introduced by Baylis' employer, Methanex, a methanol producer and exporter based in Taranaki.

Work-life initiatives for its 230 staff saw it named a joint winner of the First Steps award in this year's Equal Employment Opportunities Trust Work and Life Awards.

Trust executive director Trudie McNaughton says that although flexible work options are now quite common in the professional services sector, Methanex stands out for an award because it is one of the first round-the-clock manufacturing companies to research and implement wide-ranging work-life policies in such a collaborative way.

Since the initiatives were introduced this year, about 60 per cent of day staff have changed their work hours. This includes an entire shift in the maintenance department whose members extended their eight-hour days to nine hours so they could have every second Friday off.

"A lot of the guys are keen fishermen, and they were always complaining that the weather packed in for the weekend. Now they swear most Fridays are calm," laughs technician Ashley Kaye, who is also a co-delegate for the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.

"We've been asking for flexible hours since 1985," he says. "So we're grateful that the company has at last given us the opportunity. Morale has improved, and people feel more loyal to the company."

In fact, staff turnover has fallen to zero since April; in the 12 months before that it shot to 10 per cent after historically tracking at 1.5 per cent.

Manufacturing director Harvey Weake blames the jump on a series of one-off events, including the opening of a similar business in the same region, but is pleased the new initiatives seem to be helping to retain staff as well as make them happier in their work.

This includes older staff whose experience the company did not want to lose because they were finding their work hours too tough.

"Financially, I can't yet see the changes having any effect, positive or negative," says Weake. "But I have anecdotal evidence of people saying they're prepared to go the extra mile.

"Staff feel they have more control over their lives, and that has an amazing impact on their sense of empowerment."

Weake says the changes are part of achieving Methanex's "triple bottom line" - making money for shareholders, being responsible about environmental impact, and being an employer of choice.

Last year a management team devised eight themes to drive the company towards these goals over three years. One of the themes was to establish a better work-life balance for employees.

Team members visited previous entrants in the EEO Trust awards to find out what changes they had made to work practices.

Back at Methanex, employees and the union were consulted as the company decided which initiatives to introduce, ran trials and then introduced them.

The company drew up a questionnaire that every employee who wants to alter his or her work hours must complete.

The document makes them share responsibility for ensuring their work is still done, be it within different hours, partly from home or by split shifts or job-sharing.

Kaye's shift ran two eight-week trials - one working 10 hours a day, another working nine. The group eventually decided on a nine-hour day, nine-day fortnight, which management supported.

"Once we'd adopted it, a lot of the people we work with who are on individual contracts jumped on the bandwagon to get a nine-day fortnight," says Kaye.

"The plant is 20 minutes out of New Plymouth, so having that one day off allows people to get their personal business done in town so their weekend is clear.

"I've been getting on with projects around the house, and been able to spend some time with my wife without the kids around."

Kaye says his shift is still getting through the same amount of work: "We have longer work periods between breaks so we get more done."

Baylis, the company's human relations adviser who was part of the team that researched and implemented the changes, was among 10 per cent of employees who took up the option to buy extra leave this year.

The cost of her extra two weeks is taken out of her pay throughout the year so is barely noticeable.

"My husband and I keep a boat in Auckland, so we plan to use my extra leave to go sailing," says Baylis.

"I can see myself buying more leave in the future if we want to go on an overseas trip.

"My husband is making the transition to retirement, so it's becoming more important to me to have more time off to spend with him."

Most workers at the plant receive three weeks off a year, and can now buy up to six extra weeks.

Baylis says the only danger of the option is if someone buys more leave than they can afford, but when the cost is spread over the year she thinks this unlikely.

Workers can also sell leave back to the company, as long as it is days gained on top of their statutory three weeks. Long-service leave, or extra days off gained by shiftworkers, may be sold, although not many have taken up this option to date.



Baylis concedes that implementing the various options was far from seamless. "But I don't think the administrative side of it should be a reason not to do it - the positive effects are so overwhelming."

Weake had seen the negative impact on productivity of rostered days off at an Australian company, and admits he feared that the Methanex changes would lead to higher costs, a loss of employee focus and a weaker organisation.

"But I'm now convinced that's rubbish.

"We're not offering fewer work hours, just changed hours. And people want to work for a company that treats them well; acknowledges them as individuals."

Kaye agrees: "It's good to see the company showing a more personalised commitment to people."