In The Custom-Fit Workplace: Choose When, Where, and How to Work (2010), co-authors Nanette Fondas, a former Harvard professor, and Joan Blades, founder of MoveOn.org, take a look at leading-edge ways the workday is being tailored to employee needs.  They investigate phenomena such as “baby inclusive” workplaces and ROWE (Results-Oriented Work Environments), a strategy pioneered at retailer Best Buy that allows employees to work literally whatever schedules they want, provided they produce results.

The book argues that custom-fit approaches can be successfully employed at major, mainstream enterprises, and provides examples from Gap Inc., JetBlue, SAS and IBM. In 2010, Fondas told Boston College’s Sloan Work and Family Research Network that the way to view the business benefit is to “think about a virtuous cycle. When a business offers custom-fit and other work arrangements that employees need and value, people want to work there and the company can recruit top talent. When people are given flexibility and other custom-fit work options, they feel trusted and empowered to do their jobs, so they work harder and give much more than the minimum.”

Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas, The Custom-Fit Workplace: Choose When, Where, and How to Work and Boost Your Bottom Line (2010) 

http://www.amazon.com/Custom-Fit-Workplace-Choose-Where-Bottom/dp/0470633530

This article was featured in the October 2011 issue of Working Mother Research Institute’s email newsletter, Working Mother Research Institute Essentials. To read additional stories from that issue, see the related content section above. To subscribe to Working Mother Research Institute Essentials, register on the newsletter page of this website.