ore and more employees are working with their managers to design jobs that fit
their aspirations or better conform to their life circumstances, according to a
researcher and award-winning author slated to address the SHRM Annual Conference
& Exposition.
Denise Rousseau, H.J. Heinz II Professor of Organizational
Behavior and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, calls these arrangements
idiosyncratic deals. Rousseau will discuss the implications of this trend at her
Masters Series presentation on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
The agreements employees strike with their supervisors typically
involve development, stress reduction and flexibility, Rousseau says.
For instance, an employee might negotiate to work from home,
exercise greater latitude in choosing assignments, maintain an odd-hours schedule,
increase or decrease travel or participate in training programs.
What they’re not doing is negotiating for more money.
"Most I-deals have nothing to do with salary," says Rousseau,
author of I-Deals: Idiosyncratic Deals Workers Bargain for Themselves.
But the nuance involved requires greater understanding between
an employee and manager than a typical workplace relationship.
"You’ve often had a higher-quality conversation with your
boss about what’s going to go down than the regular employee," Rousseau says. "It
heightens the quality of the agreement."
As these pacts proliferate, they put new demands on the HR
department. They force HR to deal with many different work rules but they also provide
an opportunity for innovative people management.
Corporate efforts to keep women in the workforce, for instance,
are now routine but were once carve-outs for a special group of employees, Rousseau
says.
HR must "take the learning you get from I-deals and turn it
into broader policy that can benefit the company," she says. "A lot of HR policies
start out as I-deals."
Another challenge posed by the arrangements involves evaluating
employees who are working to their own beat.
What tends to happen, Rousseau says, is that people who bargain
for development opportunities are seen as more valuable to the organization and
receive higher ratings. Those who negotiate flexible schedules or reduced work loads
are less valued over time.
But the person working a nontraditional schedule may be as
productive as someone who comes into the office every day from 9 to 5.
"We haven’t built our HR systems for the non-conforming person
who’s a high performer," Rousseau says.
Those employees will respond to a boss who they see as their
ally. Their immediate supervisor is the person who will want to invest the most
in their future and help them understand and cope with sometimes stifling corporate
policies.
"Local managers oftentimes try to make up for the inconsistencies
from top management," Rousseau says. "They do a lot to patch up the gaps. They’re
the buffer and protection."
They’re also, in large part, the reason that the vast majority
of employees believe that they’re being treated well by their companies. Rousseau
says that 75 percent to 85 percent of the workforce believes that the "psychological
contract" has been most fulfilled by their employer.
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