Designing work schedules flexible enough to accommodate employees’ changing lives is tricky—but this management consulting firm likes to innovate. In a new approach called Predictability, Teaming and Open Communication, a trained facilitator asks work groups at its offices across the U.S. to define their real scheduling requirements before the beginning of any project. They then establish suitable work hours for the whole team and outline “quiet” periods banning email contact, conducting periodic reassessments of these guidelines throughout the assignment. Work quality matters more than face time here, management says, and employees may variously go part-time, work from home, use summer hours, switch to a career track or role with less travel, or take time off to work for nonprofits or social causes.

President & CEO Hans-Paul Buerkner

Senior Partner & Managing Director Michel Fredeau

Women managers/execs 39%

Women hires in 2011 42%

Average weeks of fully paid maternity leave offered 12

Offers paid paternity leave? Yes

Offers paid adoption leave? Yes

Women in affinity groups in 2011 100%

Offers backup child care? Yes

Employees working flexibly 80%