Profiting from Scheduling Alternatives (1997)

For Minnesota sole practitioner Leota Goodney, use of flexible and part-time scheduling for employees is the way I've been able to survive. Like many other tax practitioners, her workload is concentrated during first three or four months of year, so she does not need full-time help in slow season. By recruiting staff who are willing to adjust their schedules at different times of year, Goodney has been able to match her salary overhead to her work requirements. Her two employees work full-time during busy season and each comes in three days a week from 8:30 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. rest of year, when firm is open only during those hours. Goodney, who also reduces her schedule during summer, has two rules: Someone must be in office during its official hours and work must be done on time. All of these employees sought work either because they had small children at home or because of other personal or professional reasons, she says, noting that three of last four people to work for her in these positions were men. Reduced or alternative scheduling has become widely accepted among largest firms and corporations. But is it an answer for small practitioners? And does this option work for every firm? Several practitioners describe what it takes to make their policies work -- and in one firm's case, why it didn't. Because some procedures are applicable in firms of various sizes, experiences of larger firms have been included. (Definitions of various kinds of flexible schedules can be found in sidebar on this page.) (See another firm's experience in New Incentives: Alternative Career Paths, JofA, Sept.97, page 103.) DOS AND DON'TS * Be flexible. Many firms, even larger ones, don't have written policies because each arrangement can change based on people, circumstances and firm. Our unwritten policy is basically that requests for flexible schedules should be directed to one person in charge and will be considered on a case-by-case basis, says Bonnie Russ of 23-person Mahoney Ulbrich Christiansen & Russ in St. Paul, whose firm leaders saw no need to put this approach in writing. Firms want to set some limitations on schedules, however. We've learned that it doesn't make any sense to have someone who is working 16 hours a week come in 8 hours each on Monday and Tuesday, because he or she will leave at 4:30 on Tuesday and receive a phone call at 4:45 -- and person won't be back for five days, reports Gary Shamis, managing partner of Ohio-based Saltz Shamis & Goldfarb. At firm, which has 25% of its 130-person staff on various alternative schedules, don't allow them to bunch their time, and we insist they call office regularly and check their voice mail. The firm pays for home office equipment and phone lines to hook remote workers to office. * Solicit ideas from staff. Kenneth McCurry, managing partner of six-person McCurry & Associates, in Johnson City, Tennessee, has been able to rely on his staff to iron out any wrinkles in his flexible policies. When I have a problem, I tell staff and they find solution, because they like this schedule so much. McCurry's firm has been divided into two groups: managing partner and two clerical staff in one group and other two partners and one clerical person in another. Each group works four 10-hour days per week. One group is off on Mondays and other on Fridays; this arrangement is switched every week. As a result, each group gets a four-day weekend every other week. This plan, which has been in use three years, starts in May and ends week before Thanksgiving, when firm returns to a five-day week as a transition to tax season's six-day routine. Schedules have been arranged to ensure firm's core hours -- from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. -- are covered, but firm members can start as early as 7 and leave as late as 7. …