The financial industry imploded.  That’s not news.  But the big banks and the companies left behind are in a moment of reinvention.  In the public arena, they have been cast as the bad guys.  But internally, they are still big employers, with workforces who need to keep money moving around the globe and around the clock.  

For the employees left behind there are morale issues.  What is my loyalty worth if I can be laid off at a moment’s notice?  Is my work valued? Does it matter that I need to have room for my life along with my work?  In the heyday, companies relied on bonuses, wage increases, and other expensive perks to keep top-producing talent happy.  With the recession, those incentives were spooled back.  So what’s next?

In realizing that these questions are on the minds of employees, employers are trying to find ways to engage and retain employees.  Among the biggest challenge with the highest return is using flex as part of their core.  This is most difficult to accomplish in extreme jobs that the financial industry is known for.

Todd Sears, Credit Suisse, Director and head of Americas of Diversity and Inclusion, says diversity and inclusion is part of the flex equation worldwide. Credit Suisse hosted the Working Mother Media Flexibility Leadership Forum: The Business of Flex-Making it Work, which addressed issues for managers of flexible workers in a variety of workplaces with a special program on Managing Flex in Extreme Jobs. Included on that panel were diversity and HR professionals from Citi, Johnson and Johnson and JP Morgan Chase.

Sears says companies are now at Diversity 2.0.   The difference now, D&I is not just about race and gender or country of origin, but about ability, generational place, cultural challenges – all of the differences that employees bring to the table.  How they work and where they work is part of that. In addition, Sears says, “We try to include clients on this exciting journey.”

Keynote speaker, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, of the Work-Life Policy Center, is the author of Top Talent. Keeping Business Up When Business Is Down, and the founder of The
Hidden Brain Drain Task Force.  

Recent studies by Work-Life Policy Center show that even with the recent huge reductions in the workforce, 64% of workers are looking for next job. Hewlett says there is “churn “out there and women are jumping more than men.  Even with a difficult job market women are moving to safer sectors and following reputation of a company or boss. 

Hewlett defines extreme jobs as those where people work at least 60 hours a week. In her study, respondents averaged 73 hours a week.No matter how super engaged your work force is – how do people keep happy in extreme jobs and how do you keep them as they age into their lives – meaning when the 20 something singles become the thirty- or forty-something family men and women with children or eldercare issues; and, even later, as phased retirement becomes a new request? Flex can be an umbrella under which employees understand they are valued. Flex is the new currency, bonus, trophy – if it is done correctly and evenly across a company.

100 percent of Working Mother 100 Best Companies have some kind of flex programs. 72 percent of them have measurement for talent goals for flex workers.

But as the employment crisis has unfolded, some of the studies show face time hours are up even where flex is acceptable. People are concerned about using flex if it makes them appear to be absent – they want to appear indispensable. So, it is imperative that managers understand the good business proposition of flex – that is does work for the bottom line, as it works for the employee.  They have to press for their team to use the flex that is in place so no one feels pressured not to use it.  Now it’s up to managers who get it, to become evangelists so more will adopt flex work strategies and policies.