Flextime Goes Realtime

This means that consultants who encouraged their colleagues to go on an alternative work schedule — and secretly hoped they'd be one less competitor in the race for partnership — should be forewarned. The stigma is lifting. Their colleagues with flexible work arrangements can do them without being bumped off the partnership track.

"It's a different place than it was two years ago," Kathie Lingle says of the consulting industry. Lingle, the national work/life director at KPMG, is designing a training course on how to use flexible work arrangements for the firm's partners and managers. "It's really catching on. Partners are realizing that workplace flexibility is the number one driver of retention. If you want to keep people, you really have to work with them."

Laying the Groundwork

About five years ago, after years of lagging behind several other industries, some management consulting firms began to lay the groundwork for their alternative work patterns. The companies say these arrangements help in their overall recruiting and retention strategy. But it has been only in the last few years that the concept has really gained momentum, with firms actually getting behind the policies they talked about.

For example:

• KPMG, which has had a formal flexible work arrangement policy since 1994, hired a national work/life director last year.

• Two years ago, Ernst & Young created a database containing 550 profiles of employees using flexible work arrangements to help other interested employees.

• Deloitte Consulting revised its flexible work arrangement policy about seven months ago, although its sister company, Deloitte & Touche, has had a firmwide policy in place for several years. Consultants now have the option of applying for a "no travel" status.

These changes serve to send the message to consultants that they can take advantage of these benefits without jeopardizing their careers, and that those who do use them are still viewed as valuable contributors.

"It's in the interest of our own bottom line to listen to what they are saying," says Karen Morell, managing director of human resources for Deloitte Consulting in the Americas. "If they don't, they'll leave and go to industry or, God forbid, another consulting firm."

Deloitte has a track record of promoting consultants who have taken up similar arrangements. This past year, the firm admitted into the partnership ranks five senior managers who were on flexible work arrangements.

The Major Obstacles

It has taken awhile for management consulting to get to this point. Several other industries, including commercial banking, information technology, diversified financial services, life insurance, and pharmaceuticals, led the charge toward work/life benefits and flextime about ten years ago, says Lingle, who was the director of work/life training at the Families and Work Institute, a New York–based nonprofit organization, in the early 1990s. While the consulting industry fell behind them, it's still ahead of such industries as legal services and health care, which are still struggling to put similar policies in place, she adds.

"The major obstacle is lack of awareness and the inflexibility of the manager," says Lingle. "There are no obstacles to making this work if people understand the power of doing it. The irony is that it actually increases productivity. You get more out of people — more energy, more innovation."

But it's clear that consultants who want a flexible work arrangement need to be star performers. "It's not an entitlement. It's not signing up for 401(k). You need to have certain characteristics to get an accommodation," says Lingle. "You need to have better than average communication. You can't be the person who never talks. You have to meet expectations or go above."

Flexible work arrangements are still predominately touted as a benefit for women, but men are using these programs too, although in fewer numbers. While women's primary reasons for using the programs pertain to motherhood, men are using them to go back to school and to nurture other businesses on the side. (See sidebar.) Their arrangements also tend to be shorter.

Take Geoff Roise, 28, a consultant in Deloitte's Minneapolis office. Roise took a six-month flexible work arrangement to help his father's small window manufacturing company get through a rough time. He took mid-December through mid-February off and worked an average of 20 hours a week at the client's site until July 1. "I didn't want to be out of the loop and I wanted to continue my career here," says Roise, whose specialty is supply chain management. His career definitely continued — he was recently promoted to manager.

"I think that really what [Deloitte] looked for was how they could meet the needs of individuals and keep them long-term," says Roise. His manager and counselor made the necessary adjustments to his schedule to allow him to leave within four days of his request.

The number of consultants in alternative work patterns is still a fraction of the overall employee population. For example, at Ernst & Young, approximately 1,134 employees are involved in some sort of flexible work arrangement. Only 106 of those, or 9 percent, are consultants.

What Clients Think

"Flexible work arrangements have faced more challenges in consulting than in many other institutions," says Deborah K. Holmes, director of Ernst & Young's office of retention. "I think consultants understand the benefits and would like to implement them, but the intensity of the work and the travel make it hard."

The tight labor market hasn't helped either. Firms can't always accommodate their consultants' requests for part-time, reduced responsibilities and telecommuting options when they can't find another to take on the additional work. And sometimes clients prefer that they have the consultants on site all the time.

In that regard, it's important to find projects that will accommodate the desired schedule. Working part-time in a traditional firm such as Ernst & Young does present its challenges, says Kira Phaff, a consultant at Ernst & Young for the last two years. Phaff, 30, is the mother of a seven-month-old girl and a successful three-days-a-week worker in the firm's New York office.

"We'll do anything and everything for the client. We'll fly here and there. When we're serving clients we'll say, 'We'll be there at the drop of a hat,'" says Phaff, who specializes in system development. "Now, I have to say, 'I'll be there at the drop of a hat, but only on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and only between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.'"

Phaff previously worked as a systems developer at Aetna, where she witnessed the success of flexible work arrangements. She has confidence that the concept can work in consulting. However consultants are faced with an additional obstacle that other professionals do not have. They not only need to sell the idea of the alternative way of doing business to their employer, but they have to convince their clients as well.

"Part of the challenge is looking for projects that lend themselves [ to flextime] or [clients who] are willing to have me for three days a week. Sometimes, it's hard to get a client to buy into that," says Phaff, who is currently working on an internal engagement. Her next assignment is a client project, in which she will train a junior consultant who will serve as her backup.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Still, depending on the type of arrangement that a consultant has, there are usually trade-offs.

"You are definitely not there. And when you are not there, you are not going to be the first person who comes to mind [for a project]," says Wieczorek, the Hewitt consultant who has been telecommuting since May 1998. "In the beginning, people didn't know exactly what my arrangement was, and many people didn't know how to work with telecommuters. They knew I was out there, somewhere. Some people even felt funny contacting me at home, even though this is my office."

She found that she missed running into them in the hallways or at the coffee station, and the boost that she got from talking with them. Those informal opportunities allowed her to share ideas on projects, and network as well.

"That doesn't happen when you are telecommuting. You have to be very planful," Wieczorek says. "I send more e-mails and voicemail and I really try to make an effort to put myself out there and make myself heard. It's not the same, but it can be done and be effective. Now, instead of saying, 'I saw Magaly in the hallway and she's working on this,' they can say, 'I got an e-mail from Magaly and she's working on this.'"

As Wieczorek became better at communicating with her coworkers, the word spread that she was a valuable resource. Now, she says, she has no lack of work.

The relationship between the manager and the associate does change when a person is working in an alternative work pattern. But one of the benefits is that the focus turns to the quality, quantity, and timeliness of the work, rather than how it gets done, Wieczorek says.

"I would suggest to anybody in consulting that they make sure they have an advocate, mentor, or counselor, and that the person is getting you on the right kind of assignments, because that is key," says Morell, the managing director of human resources at Deloitte.

A successful flexible work arrangement also depends on having a consultant who is flexible, says Janet Fowtty, 33, a senior manager at Deloitte Consulting in Chicago and the mother of two-year-old twins, Nora and Benjamin. Fowtty, who works on technology projects in the financial services industry, has a full-time schedule, but gets between two and four days off a month. She also has a no-travel component to her schedule.

"It's been very successful," says Fowtty, who worked a 3-4-5 schedule for several years before she had her children. "I'm not a full-time mom, but I get to spend some extra time with my kids and still deliver great client service."

She says her career has not suffered on this schedule, but acknowledges that she cannot take any project she wants, because of its location. "This past week I heard about a great opportunity in Tokyo, but I just had to say, 'No, I can't do that.' Is it a trade-off from a professional perspective? Probably not, because I'm doing something great here. Is it a trade-off from a personal development perspective? Absolutely, it is."

Sidebar: Power Points:

• Historically, management consultants were not among the early adopters of flextime benefits. Several other industries, including commercial banking, information technology, diversified financial services, life insurance, and pharmaceuticals, led the charge toward work/life benefits and flextime about ten years ago.

• Flextime workers have become more widely accepted, as a tight labor market and the desire to become "an employer of choice," have led companies to broaden the menu of work options.

• While KPMG hired a national work/life director last year, Deloitte Consulting revised its flexible work arrangement policy about seven months ago.

Sidebar: The Virtues of Part-time Work

Raymond Chua knows he has the best of both worlds.

Chua works as a part-time consultant at Madison Consulting Group, based in Jersey City, NJ, and spends the rest of his time as a partner at a two-and-a-half-year-old on-line company, MBAFreeAgents.com.

"I've been a consultant for so long, I wanted to continue as a consultant. But behind that is an entrepreneurial interest," says Chua, 39, who has worked at Madison since mid-1996. "This satisfies both needs."

His Web-based company connects independent professionals with companies that have project work or consulting assignments. His business doesn't conflict with his employer's interest, but complements it. In fact, Madison, which has 40 full-time consultants, is his biggest client.

"We've become a feeder system to consulting firms and provide them with necessary personnel to fulfill their project requirements," says Chua, whose specialty is operations and systems strategy.

Chua works about three to four days a week for the firm. Interestingly, he spends 70 percent of his time on the road.

His situation at Madison is not unique. About 15 percent of the firm's consultants — an equal number of men and women — are on some kind of flexible work arrangement. John Rhodes, a partner at the firm, says the program makes sense for everybody.

"A consulting firm is as good as the talent it can attract," says Rhodes. "Very often the best people do not want to devote 100% of their effort to a single occupation because they have other things they are doing."

But what happens when, after years of allowing them to cultivate their side businesses, they quit?

"That will happen inevitably anyway," says Rhodes. "If they're good people who are capable of starting and succeeding in business, and want to pursue their own dreams, I hope they succeed. Yes, I will lose them, but I will have had the advantage of their talent while I had them. Who knows? They may grow into a $500 million company and become a customer." — Mina Landriscina