InnoVisions Canada: Timeshifting

Timeshifting�bending time to save money, jobs and sanity
Today's fiscal reality brings with it incredible pressure to reduce expenses and work more efficiently. These imperatives require tough measures, innovation as well as longer-term views and challenges to the status quo. They also require a serious look at just about anything that can save jobs, money, and while improving productivity, service quality, employee lifestyle and morale.

Timeshifting is based on the premise that the industrial revolution's "9 to 5" work day no longer makes sense for everyone all of the time. With new forces such as the information revolution, free trade, telework, tele-commerce and banking, distance learning, telemedicine� etc, people are doing more and more with less and less in both their personal and their working lives. Add to this the world's uncertain economic situation, global villages, and clients and stakeholders wanting longer hours of service including weekends etc., there is increased the pressure for work to be carried out around the clock and across the world's time zones.

What is timeshifting
Timeshifting occurs where an employee is permitted to carry out his or her duties under certain circumstances at any time, day or night, weekends, holidays or religious holidays - in other words, fully flexible hours of work.

A typical timeshifting scenario would see Bill the early-bird start his work day at 6:00 a.m., work 7.5 hours, then depart at 2:00 p.m. At that time, Sally, whose spouse is a shift-worker, could start her work day, sharing Bill's office. In another case, Jacques, who works from 6:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., from Saturday to Wednesday, could share his office with Liz, a part-timer who works from 2:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. A final example sees three people sharing the same office: Jean the translator works all night, while Diane the lawyer works in the same office during the day. When she leaves in the early afternoon, Robert, the part-time researcher, sits in the same office.

Timeshifting would only be approved where mutually beneficial to managers and to employees. It would give more flexibility to managers who need to reduce expenditures (including for overtime) and capitalize on resources, or extend hours of work; and to employees who want more voluntary flexible work arrangements to help them better balance their work and personal lives.

For timeshifting to be effective, certain conditions would have to apply. For example, it would be subject to managerial approval and have to make sense for that employee in that particular job. Also, it could not cost more, and operational effectiveness would have to be maintained. Also, while it would need to be voluntary on the part of employees, employees would have to be prepared to share their offices.

What's in it for managers and their organizations?
While the concept of Timeshifting can apply to any organization, this paper uses the Canadian Federal Public Service as its main example. It is a relatively straightforward matter to adapt this concept to any organization, public or private.

Timeshifting takes advantage of the fact that in today's challenging economic times, opportunities for organizations to provide major gains to their employees are costly and therefore few. As a no-cost option, timeshifting has much to offer. Here is a summary of some its advantages:

	savings - office space: Along with telework and other flexible working arrangements, timeshifting can be another alternative to putting up new buildings. Organizations experiencing rapid growth and the need to build or lease additional buildings could save significantly by adopting flexible working arrangements, including timeshifting.
	The dollar savings can be surprisingly significant. As a dramatic example, let's look at the costs of office space within the Canadian federal government. There, the average employee's office costs about $7,000 per year. Since about 190,000 of its approximately 220,00 employees need offices or work stations, the annual office space cost is approximately $1.3 billion - making it one of its largest expenditures! The return on this capital investment is astoundingly low - approximately 83% of the time, its employees do not use their offices. The cost of this "lack of use" is a whopping $1.1 billion per year.
	The arithmetic is simple: the average employee works 7� hours in each 24-hour period; 220 working days per 365-day year; and takes an average of 9.1 sick days per year. Not counting time spent at meetings, travel, various types of leave and employees absent due to alternative working arrangements, etc., this translates to only about 17% usage.
	savings - assets: The same rationale and potential for cost savings for accommodations could be applied to other physical resources and assets such as the need for fewer computers and computer resources, printers, and vehicles; and a diminished reliance on cafeteria space and subsidized parking, etc.
	even small numbers make a difference: The take-up rate for most flexible work arrangements is relatively small, and timeshifting would likely be no different. However, even a modest number of timeshifters could result in significant benefits. For example, in the Federal government scenario, for every 1% of offices shared by timeshifters, the yearly savings could be up to $13 million (1% times $1.1 billion mentioned in #1 above). Furthermore, even with a modest number of eligible or interested employees, each new and voluntary flexible work arrangements joining the broad range of already-existing ones would have very positive effects.
	productivity: Timeshifting could have positive impacts on productivity. All or part of the work could be done in the quiet hours with fewer interruptions. There could be fewer absences from work for family-related reasons or for medical or dental appointments etc. Furthermore because employees would work at times that suit their lives or even their biological clocks, there would be positive contributions to the relief of stress.
	reduction of overtime payments: Increasing productivity or having another tool to help manage the distribution of work could help reduce overtime payments, thereby achieving further savings.
	contribution to service quality: For many managers, timeshifting could improve efficiency and the quality of their services. Expanding the hours of service to clients could bring many benefits; for example, carrying out business over extended hours, could help deliver services seamlessly, especially in cases where clients are in different time zones, both in Canada and globally.
	combining with other flexible work arrangements maximizes benefits: Combining timeshifting with other flexible work arrangements could further maximize savings. As more and more employees take advantage of arrangements like telework and the various forms of leave with or without pay, more office space, equipment and other resources will lay idle for more of the time.
	For example, on average, teleworkers are away from the office 2 to 3 days a week. During that time, their offices and equipment remain unused. Even more resources remain unused if we factor in part-time workers and employees on sick leave, annual leave, and other types of leave with or without pay, those on training, field workers, and consultants. If we figure in the "just-in-time" workers, etc, the numbers become staggering.
	As another example, a government survey of flexible work arrangements in 12 departments found that over 10,700 employees are out of the office at least 50% of the time during their normal work day. In a 1996 study of telework in the federal government, teleworkers left their offices empty and unused on telework days. The study found that almost all of them were willing to share their offices if this ever became a condition of telework. Because teleworkers obviously wanted to work anytime, anyplace, the study recommended the adoption of fully flexible working hours, thereby eliminating the need for teleworkers to respect core hours of work.
	simplification: combining several time-related flexible work arrangements policies (with a new look at on-line communication of the options) would result in simplification, and ease of administration and less resistance - all leading to greater take-up rates.
	positive communications implications for the employer: Timeshifting could help build bridges with employees and for their unions. This would be especially so if gain-sharing (performance or productivity bonuses) were considered, where some of the savings could be shared with employees. Timeshifting could be one more way for stakeholders to see that the their organization is taking positive steps towards achieving savings, and leadership in people-management.
	reduce the need for layoffs: Savings can offset and may reduce the need for layoffs, thereby helping in the management-of-labour strategy. The resulting diminished need for salary or accommodation dollars could ease pressure on the need to declare employees surplus in order to achieve our reduction targets.

Is timeshifting for your organization?
Here are some cues to help you and your organization determine if you should be looking further into Timeshifting if:

	office accommodation represents a large proportion of your expenditures
	you are relatively large and are serious about reducing costs, and improving efficiency
	you want to maximize employee performance and productivity
	you are becoming more and more reliant on information technology
	you operate across several time zones or want to expand to global markets
	you want to increase hours of service to customers
	you spend a lot of time on overtime
	you want to improve morale, reduce stress and improve lifestyle options for employees to help them balance their work with their personal/family lives

What's in it for employees?
	yet another flexible work arrangement: Employees like having the option of flexible work arrangements, and timeshifting provides yet another attractive and voluntary work option;
	balance work and personal/family life: growing numbers of employees share child or elder care with their spouses, or live with spouses who may have "McJobs"� requiring shiftwork. Timeshifting could better balance their work & personal work lives, and they could move towards tailoring their work hours to suit their lives rather than the reverse;
	Surveys have determined that feature is highly desirable to employees. For example, a survey conducted by Dr. Linda Duxbury at Carleton University's School of Business reveals that most employees, and 80% of parents wanted flexible work schedules. One of the not-so-surprising recommendations was that employers review the 9 to 5 workday. Similar thinking can be found in another report called Working Time and Distribution of Work by Arthur Donner;
	possibly financially rewarding: if there was gain-sharing or performance / productivity bonuses.
	improved morale: initiatives that respond to employee needs and reduce their stress levels are very likely to have positive impacts on morale, which as we all know, could use a boost.
	ideal companion to telework: Combining telework with timeshifting would let employees work anytime-anywhere!
	ease travel to and from work: could help employees avoid rush hours, reduce congestion and pollution at peak hours, and help spread out public transportation usage resulting in mutual benefits for employees and municipalities.

Impediments and challenges
	Unionized shops In most organizations, it would be relatively easy to introduce timeshifting. However, there could be some challenges in introducing it in unionized environments since the buy-In or even agreement of unions would be required;
	Whatever the strategy, the preferred option should involve serious attempts to gain union support. Some unions may be very interested in the concept of timeshifting. Some unions would be willing to readily agree to the concept of fully flexible work schedules. Because of the benefits involved, and because timeshifting could be good news for unions, any bargaining strategy should consider the potential advantages (savings, reduction of lay offs, greater flexibility, possibility for gain-sharing, etc.);
	While there is every chance that unions would be amenable to examining the concept of timeshifting, some unions might resist. In such cases, the option could be offered to non-unionized employees first. Given the desirability of flexible working arrangements, this would likely lead to unionized employees "encouraging" their unions to be more amenable to timeshifting;
	Additional costs It would not make sense to permit timeshifting in situations where additional expenses were required; for example, to provide for additional supervisory staff, and for special heating or security arrangements. Hence the restriction in the eligibility requirements;
	how long a wait before realizing savings? Some savings would not be immediate, e.g. accommodations savings would begin to accrue once leases were renegotiated, or buildings sold or leased;
	confusion with overtime? Provisions such as overtime could be muddied. Regularly scheduled hours of work allow easy accounting for overtime, a big expense to the organization, but also a much-loved source of revenue to many employees;
	empty skyscrapers? Timeshifting would increase the need to manage vacant space and "empty skyscrapers";
	occupational health: Timeshifting could negatively affect the health of some workers who have difficulty acclimatizing to night work. But with employees being intelligent and capable of making informed decisions, along with built-in safety mechanisms, such problems would be minimized: e.g, as with telework, timeshifting would only occur where completely voluntary, upon the request of the employee, and could be cancelled at any time (with reasonable notice). Furthermore, counseling and/or training would be available, if not mandatory;
	managerial challenge: For timeshifting to be smooth, managers would need to ensure schedules of timeshifters do not conflict with one another, and work assignments are delivered on schedule in the same way as for other flexible work arrangements. Otherwise the whole purpose would be defeated;
	managerial resistance: some supervisors might think: "how can I tell my employees are working if I can't see them?", or "how can I trust them to do a good job when I'm not there to guide them?" This reaction is dealt with in most programs that deal with flexible hours of work, where employees may work later or earlier than their bosses, and with telework, where employees work at different locations than their bosses. One of telework's biggest accomplishments is that it emphasizes performance rather than presence, and that thinking would be extended to timeshifting.

Contact InnoVisions Canada if you want to learn more about Timeshifting.