Mom Source managing partner Carlene Carrabino Vital speaks during a break-out session for Startup Week about employee retainment held at Lamp Post Group on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.The five-day, 40-hour workweek - a century-old legacy of American industrialist Henry Ford - is just as obsolete to today's workers as the Ford Model T automobile.
That's the pitch of leaders of the MomSource Network, a staffing and consulting company based in Knoxville, which is operating in several cities nationally including Chattanooga. Many 21st century workers say flexible hours - a measure of work-life balance - are more important even than meaningful work or higher compensation, MomSource managers say.
The company, which employees call the e-Harmony of the staffing industry, claims a database of more than 3,000 highly-qualified and vetted professionals who are seeking jobs with flexible hours. The three-year-old company says it has placed several hundred workers in its territories, which include Knoxville, Nashville, Atlanta, Austin (Texas), Tampa and Chattanooga.
"There's this magical pool of people who are smart, hardworking and have four-year (college) degrees," says Beth Wright, director of communications for the MomSource Network. Wright explains that the company was founded by Courtney Jones a stay-at-home mom in Knoxville who recognized the pent-up demand for jobs with flexible hours that could be filled by stay-at-home parents, Millennials, retirees and so-called "sandwich generation" members who are juggling responsibilities for children and aging parents.
MomSouce Network representatives were at Chattanooga's Start-Up Week in October leading a seminar called "Utilizing Benefits to Attract and Retain Talent for Start-ups." Providing flexible work hours is No. 1 on their list of recommendations for start-up companies. Many talented professionals are effectively locked out of the workforce because that can't do 9-to-5 jobs due to family obligations. Handing them control of their work-time unlocks their talents.
"We are losing people in the workforce because employers are not offering flexible hours," notes Carlene Carrabino Vital, managing partner of the MomSource Network in Chattanooga and Atlanta. "One-third of employees want to change the way they work."
Vital says that one client of the MomSource Network offered workers in one department the choice of receiving a 20-percent reduction in hours in return for a 20 percent reduction in pay. About two-thirds of the eligible employees took the deal, Vital says.
Studies show that workers are 20 to 40 percent more productive when given job flexibility, including working from home. What's more, companies save about $11,000 per worker per year in overhead when employees work from home, Vital added. Also, flex-time employees tend to be happier and stay in place longer - important because the cost of replacing even an entry-level employee is said to be more than $5,000
The MomSource Network charges each job-seeker $50 to cover the cost of an intensive screening interview, Vital says, and then employers pay a fee equal to 25-percent of the worker's first six months of salary when they hire someone. The company is also beginning to sell advertising on its web site and company-created blogs to create another revenue stream.
MomSource representatives say that flexible jobs means more than just telecommuting. Anything that breaks the 40-hour, five-day workweek mold is considered flexible.
Coveted flex-time job classifications include:
* Flexible full-time jobs for employees who want 40 hours a week of office time but need wiggle room to mold their day-to-day schedules.
* Permanent part-time positions that involve less than the 40-hour per week standard.
* Job sharing, which allows two employees to split a full-time position.
* Telecommuting, which means spending all or part of the work-day at home.
* Project-based jobs based on specific tasks not continuing duties.
Generations of entrenched management practices make it hard for some companies to adopt flex-time positions, says Vital. That's why about 80 percent of workers are still stuck in the 9-to-5 grind, she says.
Among the challenges some companies looking at flex-time face are:
* Leader apprehension. Flex-time advocates say managers have to be willing to relinquish control over an employee's hours and focus more on tasks, goals and deadlines.
* Access to information. Managers must learn to embrace emerging technologies such as teleconferencing, the Group Me app and Google docs.
* Employee commitment. Some managers fear that employees working out of the office will slack off. Instead, they should set clear performance expectations and work on ways to provide remediation if employees struggle without direct, over-the-shoulder management, the consultants say.
* Inconsistency of implementation. Managers must be clear about who qualifies for flexible schedules - based on seniority or job description - and apply the rules even-handedly.
MomSource Network leaders say they have placed engineers, biologists, accountants, executive assistants and project managers, among others.
"We have filled a part-time CFO position in the same week we filled a position for someone to feed animals at the zoo," Wright said.