Flexibility Scorecard
HOURS
- Does your firm have a formal policy to permit part-time or flexible schedules?
Yes_____ No _____
For partners? Yes _____ No _____
For managers/directors? Yes____ No _____
For associates? Yes _____ No _____
For staff? Yes _____ No _____ - Does your firm have a person assigned to coordinate flexible schedules?
Yes _____ No _____ - Is information available and shared for people in the firm to see how others are arranging and managing flexible schedules?
Yes _____ No _____ - Are your flexible and balanced hours options used by men in the firm as well as women?
Yes _____ No _____ - Have people in the firm been promoted to partner, shareholder or principal while on a flexible or balanced hours schedule?
Yes _____ No _____ - Have you surveyed users of the balanced hours arrangement to measure their satisfaction with it?
Yes _____ No _____ - Do users of the balanced hours arrangements think they are truly balanced with compensation level, quality of assignments, opportunity for promotion?
Yes _____ No _____ - Have you calculated the true costs (including turnover, recruiting, training) benefits and profitability of flexible hours arrangements?
Yes _____ No _____ - Are people in your firm requesting flexible hours arrangements more frequently?
Yes _____ No _____ - Are you granting those requests more frequently?
Yes _____ No _____ - Do you require a business plan to be submitted with the request?
Yes _____ No ______
PRACTICE - Are associates trained in more than one area of practice in their first three years?
Yes _____ No _____ - As part of the firm's strategic plan, have people been cross-trained for flexibility in up and down cycles of practice specialties?
Yes _____ No _____ - Does your firm give associates latitude in choosing more than one area of practice to learn?
Yes _____ No _____
LOCATION - Does your firm discourage or disallow working from alternative locations to the traditional office for solo work?
Yes _____ No _____ - Does your firm regularly approve requests for telework one or two days per week?
Yes _____ No _____ - In approving or disapproving requests, do you make an analysis of the work to be done (solo) and the applicant's work style? (To gauge productivity)
Yes _____ No _____ - Does your firm provide (or fund) equipment for teleworkers at alternate locations (home or other)?
Yes _____ No _____ - Does your firm have a method for measuring the profitability of teleworkers?
Yes _____ No _____ - Are you monitoring or measuring productivity compared with people working in the office?
Yes _____ No _____ - Is there a method in place and used for keeping teleworkers in the loop and connected to their teams and/or practice groups?
Yes _____ No _____
SCORING
core 0 for "No" responses.
Score 1 for each "Yes" response to questions 1-3, 6, 9, 12, 16, 18-19
Score 2 for each "Yes" response to questions 4-8, 10-11, 13-14, 17, 20-21
Score -1 for "Yes" response to question 15.
SCORECARD RESULTS
27 - 32 Congratulations! Your firm is a leader in flexibility. Keep it up!
21 - 26 Your firm is progressive. Keep working on it
11 - 20 Your firm is beginning to see the light. To keep your talented people, you have to do more.
0 - 10 Your firm is low on the spectrum of flexibility and unlikely to be an employer of choice.