Employers must balance work models for multiple generations while ensuring operational continuity and preserving company culture and employee engagement. Successful implementation can benefit both employees and the organization, but it isn’t easy.- BY Belinda Jones

Work-life balance is not a new issue. Gen X saw their Baby Boomer parents working long hours and introduced the work-life concept, which Millennials embraced and expanded. Gen Z expects employers to offer flexible schedules. Remote and hybrid work schedules existed before the pandemic, but during the pandemic, work flexibility became a negotiable “benefit.” Employers offered flexible work schedules to attract job candidates. There are now multiple work schedule models that organizations are using to attract, hire, and retain skilled employees. The challenge is accommodating different generational preferences while maintaining productivity and a collaborative culture with high employee engagement.

Challenges and Risks

There are numerous types of flexible work models in place today. There is remote, hybrid, four-day weeks, flextime, and the “only results” work model. Job sharing and telecommuting are also options. The pandemic was a triggering event for adopting new work models, but after the pandemic, both employers and employees find themselves at odds over whether to return to the pre-pandemic schedules, maintain remote workforces, adopt a hybrid work structure, or develop a mixture of work schedules. The first challenge employers face is developing a work schedule model that meets employee expectations for work-life balance. However, expectations are different for each generation. Employers need to find an acceptable model to maintain productivity, which includes work produced, team success, and collaboration.

The risk associated with developing a work model that meets generational preferences is that employee relationships can be harmed in numerous ways, including resentment when some employees are told they must work in the building full-time while others are allowed to work remote or hybrid schedules. Finding solutions to the challenges and risks is crucial to the engagement of employees at every life stage and to having a successful talent management program. Flexible work schedules are considered a benefit and, like all benefits, must be carefully balanced.

Life Experiences and Stages Driving Work Schedules

Life experiences and life stages directly influence the needs and preferences of generations. For example, Baby Boomers were raised by parents and grandparents who experienced the Great Depression or multiple economic recessions. Their focus has always been prioritizing work by working long hours, being competitive, and eventually retiring comfortably. Work-life balance has not been a priority. Many senior organizational positions are still held by Baby Boomers who now publicly confess they may not fully understand what younger people expect. In practice, a 50/50 schedule is often impossible, depending on the job, and some jobs are not readily adaptable to flex schedules, while others cannot be easily handled remotely or on a hybrid basis.

Gen X is also in a later life stage, with many having grown children and grandchildren. They are frequent babysitters or are caregivers of their aging parents and grandparents. They watched their Baby Boomer parents miss out on many family events and are less willing to sacrifice personal time for work. They want to work with a company that gives them the flexibility to work based on personal family needs as they arrive. For example, a Gen Xer may not need a hybrid work schedule but does need the flexibility to adjust the work schedule to attend to family, i.e., work an extra 2 hours on Monday and Tuesday and take Wednesday afternoon to attend a grandchild’s school event.

Millennials (Gen Y) are the first generation to fully embrace and value flexible work schedules and promote work-life integration. Work-life integration is the practice of allowing employees to coordinate work and personal lives in a way that enables them to fulfill their responsibilities in both areas. Many are still raising children, so remote and hybrid work schedules with flexible daily schedules are important. Gen Y is the first digital native generation, so they are comfortable working at home. The issue is that, as the first generation to embrace working from home, they found they were “always on” the proverbial clock, checking emails or accepting calls outside of work hours. However, Millennials were also the employees who began looking to work for employers who enabled work-life integration. If they must work in the office full-time, they want to have access to perks like gym memberships and paid time to do some volunteer work, which many companies now offer.

Now, Gen Z is in the workforce, and they are taking the Millennial preferences up a notch. Many in this generation started their careers as remote employees during the pandemic, and they liked it. Since they never went through the traditional onboarding and engagement process, they are less likely to be concerned about developing personal connections at work.

Searching for the Right Answers

Globally, governments have begun addressing flexible working arrangements. For example, the government of New South Wales in Australia has a policy that says anyone in a government job can ask to work flexibly on a full-time, part-time, or ad-hoc basis. The policy was implemented to help meet diversity and inclusion goals, manage costs, and manage demographic shifts, like Baby Boomers retiring or moving towards retirement and younger employees seeking portfolio careers.

The European Union saw widespread use of flexible work during the pandemic, and post-pandemic has evaluated the results. The countries of Austria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands have maintained high levels of teleworking, while other countries experienced reductions. Many country-based regulatory frameworks emerged during the pandemic, but policy changes occurred at company levels post-pandemic. The evaluation of remote work and flexible schedules led to positives and negatives. For example, a positive is that flexible work schedules with employees determining where and how they work their hours are increasingly being adopted and can aid caregiving employees. A negative is that most low-skilled employees do not get such decision-making authority. Flexible working arrangements are not available to all workers, making it a privilege that only some workers receive.

A Littler European Survey Report with responses from 780 HR executives, in-house lawyers, and business leaders across Europe investigated how employers respond to issues like workplace management of employee schedules. Some 58% of employers offered hybrid work models in 2023, but enforcing the in-office work requirement has met resistance from employees. Only 36% of survey respondents said their work models match employee preferences, and 43% said their employees want more remote or hybrid work than is offered. Some employers allow employees to work remotely while abroad, and 38% said they are contemplating a four-day workweek. It would be safe to say that the multi-generation makeup of the workforce is contributing to the fact that less than 40% of employers believe their work model meets employee preferences. This indicates how challenging it is to design flexible work schedules that satisfy most employees.

Communication is Key

There are other challenges besides ensuring employees remain engaged and productive. For example, new employees learn a lot through their interactions with other employees. That is a much slower process when the people they should learn from are working remotely. Another challenge is that employers must fully commit to flexible schedules for them to work.

It is important to hold regular conversations with all employees to learn their preferences and needs and what is working and not working. As workplace demographics change, there is also the challenge of staying informed of changing preferences and needs. Flexible schedules only work when there is full cooperation.