When assessing the business case for introducing family friendly policies and practices, remember that each organisation is different. You need to tailor the business case to your own unique situation.

Benefits to the business:

• increased employee productivity, motivation and commitment
• reduction in absenteeism and employee turnover
• greater ability to meet the demands of clients or customers – for example, through flexible start and finish times that increase the span of hours your business operates
• attraction and retention of talent – becoming an employer of choice
• compliance with industrial and anti-discrimination legislation

Benefits to the workforce:

• more time to provide necessary support to family or dependents
• potential for a more balanced and enjoyable work life
• potential for more time to participate in the community eg. sports, hobbies and voluntary work
• greater ability to manage time at work and workload

How to assess the business case

Calculate the potential cost savings and benefits specific to your organisation including:

• a reduction in the direct and indirect costs associated with recruiting replacement staff. These costs include time and money spent on advertising and interviewing new staff, induction, and reduced productivity during new staff hand-over. As an estimate, the cost of a new recruit may vary from the equivalent of three months' salary to more than nine months' salary for a specialist.
• a reduction in the direct and indirect costs of unplanned absenteeism – cost savings here may include for overtime worked by other staff or for engaging short-term contractors and supervision
• if working from home or telecommuting are considered within the flexible workplace options there will also be the potential for saving on office-related overheads

Calculate the benefits in terms of human resources and the wider community:

• gains in the number of skilled applicants for jobs
• recognition as an employer of choice and a ‘good corporate citizen’
• an increase in employee commitment, motivation and job satisfaction, which links to increased employee productivity – demonstrated through organisational climate surveys
• greater workforce equity and diversity – demonstrated through a wide workforce profile
• flexibility in meeting customer demands – demonstrated through positive customer surveys

Look at your options

The next step in assessing the business case is to identify the particular family friendly flexibilities with potential to meet your organisational and employee needs. When considering the impact on your organisation consider:

• the impact on customers/clients of new ways of working
• the management/supervisor time and training needed to co-ordinate a more flexible workforce
• the cost of back-up arrangements when employees are not in the workplace
• the need and cost of planning and scheduling to cover busy periods

Under Equal Opportunity legislation, when considering employee's requests for particular flexible work arrangements, you also need to consider:

• employees' circumstances, including their parental or carer responsibilities
• nature of employees' roles
• types of arrangements that might accommodate your employees' responsibilities
• financial circumstances of your business
• size and nature of your workplace and business
• effect on your workplace and business of accommodating your employees' responsibilities, including:
• financial impact
• number of employees who would benefit from or be disadvantaged
• impact on efficiency, productivity and customer service
• consequences of implementing family friendly practices
• consequences for your employees of not implementing family friendly practices

You might now want to model the business benefits of a flexible workplace by piloting flexible work options in a particular work group or work team. For the pilot program choose a group or team that may already have tried some flexible work arrangements. From here it is possible to quantify outcomes and a successful pilot does much to win broader acceptance.

Write down all you have found out – direct benefits or costs, as well as startup costs including the cost of an awareness campaign, training for supervisors and employees and the cost of monitoring the program's effectiveness. You now have all the information you need to extend the pilot across the organisation.

Continue monitoring the effectiveness of the family friendly flexible work program once it’s in place. This will add to the business case:

• monitor turnover – the level of employee turnover, the reasons for turnover
• monitor absenteeism – levels of unscheduled absenteeism, key causes of absenteeism

You’ll know you have success in building a business case for family friendly flexibility when:

• senior managers understand how flexibile practices impact on the business and the quantitative outcomes of recruitment, retention, customer satisfaction, absenteeism, staff/employee morale and standing as employer of choice
• most managers/supervisors can explain the benefits to the business of family friendly flexibility
• a majority of the employees can identify how making the workplace more flexible improves their personal lives and assists in meeting organisation's business challenges