Hoss & Brown Engineering Firm proves work flexibility is win-win

I have written many times on this blog about the desire of Generation X to have work-life balance. For the Xer, time is more important than money or the corner office. This fact is documented in study after study, and most recently, the President served as host to a conference at the White House on work-life balance.

Today, The Lawrence Journal-World and News out of Kansas has an article about work flexibility. Read Around The Clock: Flex-plan policies developing as win-win scheduling for companies, employees. I think this is especially interesting because the feature focuses on an engineering firm, Hoss & Brown.

Back in 2006, I was working for a government-run utility, and I did some research about recruitment of engineers, which are always in great demand. One of the biggest conclusions I was able to draw from that research was that engineers were more than willing to leave private engineering firms for engineering jobs in government because they were so disgusted by the billable hour. As such, they would gladly work for less money in exchange for less pressure and just a TINY bit of flexibility.

One thing is certain, in order for organizations and businesses to remain competitive in the future, they are going to have to offer flexibility as a benefit, especially to high-demand workers like engineers. Otherwise, they will not be able to attract and retain the best and brightest Gen Xers and members of Generation Y.