SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) In a tough economy, working around your employees needs may not appear to be good business, but seven Utah employers have received a national award for doing just that. They say offering flexible work schedules, and allowing employees to work from home has never made more sense.
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McKinnon-Mulherin, Inc. and Utah Food Services all received the Alfred P. Sloan Award for business excellence in workplace flexibility. It’s an award given through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with the Families and Work Institute.
The Utah companies are diverse. They range from small to large, from service industry to financial and insurance groups, but they all share one thing in common, they offer their employees flexibility at work.
Lavanya Mahate, with the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce says flexibility goes far beyond “flex-hours”. “Flexibility is about where you work, when you work, for how many hours you work and also being able to take time off to take care of family and other things.” Utah Food Services is one of the organizations being recognized. Manager, Kate Sullivan, says when it comes to business models, there’s breaks some rules. “its family and friend run so it’s kind of the worst case model, where people say, well that is definitely destined to fail.” But Utah Food Service is a catering company that has been in business for fifteen years, is highly profitable, has 150 employees, and shows no sign of failing. Everyone involved says it’s partly because they treat their employees as family and friends too. Kim Preciado is a sales representative. She says coming to work is fun. “It’s just a big happy family. It’s the first time I have ever worked somewhere where everybody really is like that.” Utah Food Services often doesn’t require its employees to go to work in order to be at work. They offer full time, part time, and allow employees to work from home. Sullivan says “we have a great network of computer systems where we can all dial in and work together.”
Mahate says that kind of flexibility leads to happier employees, and happy employees stay with corporations, are more engaged while they are at work, and are more productive, which in the end, leads to higher profitability for businesses.” It’s just about balancing work and life. It’s not that much different. If you are not doing that great in your family or personal life, you are probably not doing great in your work life.”
The Sloan Award recipients will be given their awards during a workplace flexibility conference scheduled for October 14, 2009. To find out more about the conference and workplace flexibility visit the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce website at www.slchamber.com
