The first thought-provoking finding that I’m going to focus on from the CFO Perspectives on Work Life Flexibility survey of 100 top CFOs that we co-sponsored with BDO Seidman is the fact that, although a majority of CFOs recognize a broad range of business benefits from work life flexibility, they were the least likely to see a direct bottom-line impact on real estate costs and customer satisfaction. Here’s the breakdown of “high” or “moderate” business benefits they identified:
Improving retention 90%
Improving recruitment 88%
Improved employee productivity 75%
Differentiation from competitors 72%
Minimizing environmental impact 68%
Reducing health care costs 53%
Reducing real estate costs 34%
Enhanced customer service 34%
This finding is surprising because the potential savings on real estate costs and the improvements in customer service are two of the more concrete strategic application of work life flexibility. So what opportunities and bottom-line improvements are being missed because most CFOs don’t recognize the business impacts in these two key areas? Here are some examples: Let’s start by looking at the potential real estate cost savings…(Click here to go to Fast Company blog)