Work Life Balance

Flex Time, Job Sharing and other Work Life Balance Options at Benchmark Consulting

We know how important it is for our employees to strike a balance between their work and personal lives. With a serious commitment to flexibility in the workplace and the convenience of laptops, wireless phones, Internet access to email and a variety of other technological innovations, we can offer our people a flexible approach - giving them options for how and where they do their work.

Flexible working arrangements must be driven by a business need and are determined locally in each country to take into account local practice, culture and law. Not all of the flexible work options described below are offered in every location or for every role. Below are some of the various working arrangements we offer our people:

• Flex Time

  A flextime schedule allows people to vary their start and finish times around pre-determined "core hours." Flextime may also enable an employee to work his/her standard hours in fewer than five days by varying the length of each workday. This schedule may be used by someone who has, for example, standing daily commitments during regular working hours, such as dropping-off or picking-up a child from school or by someone who would benefit from having an additional day away from the office.

• Part-Time

  A part-time arrangement enables an employee to work less than a standard full-time schedule per week. This can be accomplished by either working fewer hours per day or fewer days per week. Usually the employee's role is designed around a reduced workload so that job responsibilities match the number of hours worked. This type of arrangement has often worked well for people who have decided to give priority to other commitments in their lives, but still wish to continue working. This option helps Benchmark Consulting retain people with valuable skills.

• Job Sharing

  A job-sharing arrangement usually involves dividing the workload of a full-time position between two people (usually each working a part-time schedule). Job-sharing is a great way for our people to keep on the career track while allowing them more time outside of work.

• Telecommuting/Home working

  Telecommuting/home working enables an individual to work from a location other than a Benchmark Consulting office or project site. While some employees telecommute/work from home regularly, others use this option on a more ad hoc basis as the need arises. This arrangement can reduce the time, costs and stress of commuting for the employee while also helping Benchmark Consulting control and in some cases reduce the cost of fixed office space.

• Flybacks for people working away from their home location

  Work life balance is also an issue where significant professional travel is involved, which is often the case for many of our consulting people. We therefore offer our people fly-backs to their home location, the option to fly someone to their project site, and the option to fly to an alternate location in lieu of a trip home.

• Client-site flexible work arrangements

  Balancing work and personal life may be even more challenging for our consulting people who spend much of their time working at client sites away from their home location. We offer these people a range of flexible working options to help meet their needs while still meeting the needs of our clients. These arrangements may include:
   

  • "Full Weekend at Home"

    An employee arrives at the project midday on Monday and stops client work early Friday afternoon, thereby providing for a full weekend at home. With the "Full Weekends at Home" flexible work arrangement, the employee works the same number of hours as a full work week, but compresses their completion into a shorter time frame.

  • Extended Weekends in "Home" Location

    An individual works a five-day work week: four days at the project site and the fifth day in the home office or approved alternate location, with either three or four nights at the out-of-town location. In this arrangement, the fifth day is spent performing project work or on other business-related responsibilities (e.g., professional development, career counseling, recruiting, community activities, etc.). This arrangement works best when the individual's commute to the project location is of short duration. In another variation, the individual works one day at the home office or approved alternate location every other week.

  • Extended Client/"Home" Location

    An individual works for an extended period of time at a client site followed by an extended number of days at the home office or approved alternate location. This arrangement does not alter the standard work week requirement, but may change the timing of when the hours are worked and may involve weekend work at the client site. (Of course, this arrangement is optional and can be modified based on personal and/or business need). Time spent in the home office or alternate location may be focused on client work, other business responsibilities, or may be time off.
    
    These arrangements include several options, such as working nine consecutive days at the client site, followed by five consecutive days in the home or approved alternative location. Of these five days, one is spent on business activities and the other four are time-off. Another variation is the "eight week - one week" practice in which an individual works eight consecutive weeks at the client site followed by one week in the home office or alternative location. This practice is best suited for an international assignment requiring medium or long-range travel.