Compressed weeks fill an HR niche

HR Magazine, June, 1995 by Dominic Bencivenga

The week before Memorial Day, employees smile more around the New York headquarters of Campbell & Thiselton (USA) LTD., a fragrance distributor. A month later, you can see similar smiles on the other side of Manhattan, at the Wells Rich Greene BDDP Inc. advertising agency. The smiles follow the announcement that summer hours - half-days on Fridays - are returning.

The compressed work week policies at both companies are informal, not found in an employee handbook, and subject to management approval. Employees understand that work must be finished before they leave the office, but an afternoon at the beach or an early start on a weekend trip can be a strong incentive.

At Campbell & Thiselton the two-year-old compressed work week program starts the week before Memorial Day, when about 25 employees begin adding an hour to their workday from Monday through Thursday, said Jules Taylor, a human resource representative. Everyone leaves the office at 1 p.m. on Friday until at least Labor Day. "The extra hour or two hours people stay during the week, while it makes the day longer, allows them to get a lot of things done. It works well. People are very productive, and everyone is very happy on Fridays."

The 350 employees at Wells Rich have an even better reason to be happy: They are paid for the full week, without having to make up the time lost to summer hours. Administrative assistants are allowed to take a full Friday off every other week.

Diana Veloca, a Wells Rich human resource coordinator, said the company has had few problems implementing the program begun more than seven years ago. Schedules are arranged so reception desks are covered, and employees who work through Friday arrange alternate time off. As in much of the advertising industry, Friday is a slow day, Veloca said, and clients know "they will get an answering machine" if they call on Friday afternoon.

GAINING POPULARITY

Although not as popular as flextime or a part-time work option, compressed work weeks and summer hours fill a significant niche in the human resource planning of such industries as advertising, publishing, manufacturing and financial services. The option is still used selectively and "it's more of a boutique item in the major companies that I've worked with," said Eileen M. Canty, a principal at the William M. Mercer Inc. human resource consulting firm and a specialist in human resource management issues.

In 1993, Mercer surveyed 55 companies with 1.5 million employees and found that 40 percent of the firms used compressed work weeks. Almost two-thirds of those programs had been implemented since 1990. An additional one-third of all respondents in the survey said they were "developing or considering" such programs.

Surveys conducted since 1992 by Hewitt Associates, a consulting firm based in Lincolnshire, Ill., show an increasing number of firms using summer hours in addition to compressed work weeks. From 1992 to 1994, Hewitt's surveys found the number of companies using flexible scheduling alternatives had increased from 58 to 66 percent. In 1993, 21 percent of 619 employers reported using compressed work weeks, and 4 percent had other scheduling alternatives, including summer hours. Hewitt's 1994 survey of 681 employers found the percentage of firms with summer hours had increased to 14 percent, while the percentage offering compressed work weeks remained the same.

Economic efficiency can be one justification for implementing compressed work week and summer hour programs, said Rosemary Bait, a professor in the Human Resources Department of Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations program. For example, Campbell & Thiselton employees are typically a young group with fewer family responsibilities who are willing to put in more hours during the week, when their minds are more focused. These employees are more productive on a Thursday night than a Friday afternoon, she said. In the advertising industry, with its relatively low entry-level salaries, the paid half-day can serve as a special benefit that "doesn't balloon labor costs on a permanent basis," Batt said.

Carol Sladek, who manages the work/life consultant area for Hewitt Associates, said there has been a "tremendous increase" in the number of firms using summer hours, especially in metropolitan areas. "It's a win-win. It doesn't cost the employer anything and the employees love it."

While compressed work weeks are still used experimentally in many companies, Sladek said she believes that as companies continue to downsize and restructure, the compressed week will be used more frequently for employees pushed harder to perform. "People don't want to work fewer hours, they want to do it in a more compact week so they'll have more time at home," she said.

Compressed work week programs have titles that sound like codes from a police show: 312s, 410s and 980s. The 312, found most frequently as a recruiting tool in health-care or manufacturing, allows employees to work 12-hour shifts over three days; 410s are four 10-hour days; and the term 980 means 80 work hours spread over nine workdays, resulting in alternate Fridays or Mondays off.