flexibility @ bcg by timothy blomfield

FLEXIBILITY@BCG

BCG clients demand teams with diversity of profiles and capabilities

Part-time arrangements to reduce weekly work hours. BCG will help you design a model that meets your individual needs and career ambitions.

Opportunity to take an additional block of time off during the year

Access to a large selection of experiences to further your personal and professional development. These may consist of social impact secondments, work abroad, leaves, or courses leading to advanced degrees.

FlexTime

FlexLeave

FlexPaths

In order to achieve this, BCG has implemented a number of progressive practices to develop and retain a deeply talented employment pool. These initiatives include:

Source: BCG

BCG views flexibility as a crucial component of commercial success


Focus of today

BCG FlexTime

Potential next step to add BCG and Aqua productivity data

FlexTime is allows both male and female employees to take on Part-time work to reduce weekly hours. BCG supports the design a model that meets individual needs and career ambitions. It was initially intended for parents, but has expanded to a more broad remit.

What is it?

Source: BCG, Personal Experience

Allows for parents to take flexible leave to spend more time with child, on top of original leave assigned

No professional penalties associated

Pros

× Financially detrimental × Known around the firm in some

instances as “negotiating a paycut”× There is still a stigma associated

with this initiative

Cons

Impact on the organization

Managers who utilize this scheme are generally happier and more productive

Overall team happiness improves because managers are happy

Team members get greater opportunity to take ownership

Children of the managers are more nurtured and therefore will be more likely to be productive members of society

Pros

× Financially detrimental to the individuals who opt in to this program

× Known around the firm in some instances as “negotiating a paycut”

× There is still a stigma associated with this initiative

× It is still very much up to the individual to drive this initiative, infrastructure is still lacking (but improving)

Cons

Source: BCG, Personal Experience

How successful is flextime@BCG?FlexTime initially performed poorly:• Teams with absent managers had to pick up the load• Managing Directors were not open to this changeAll this has changed in the last 18 months, and now this is a very successful initiative:• Adoption is higher• Both men and women are taking advantage• The infrastructure is being put in place to support teams with part time

managers

Culture supporting this initiative was lacking. This was primarily driven by:• Managing Directors who were not willing to work with the part time model• Teams who pushed backHowever, the culture has turned a corner, and all of BCG is open to this initiative

The reputation of managers that took advantage of this initiative was initially damaged, however that attitude was very quickly quashed for several reasons:• HR managed communications well• Managing Directors began to take advantage of the initiative• Top performing managers were early adopters, signaling acceptability

Performance

Culture

Reputation


After initial teething issues, net gain for BCG

Case Study: Chloe Flutter


Background:• Rhodes Scholar – PhD in Economics• Commonwealth games swimmer• Returned from 2 years maternity leave as Principal on 3 days per week modelMy experience:• She framed to me “opportunity for personal development”• Career turning point for meHarmony:• Picked up and dropped off kids from school every day• Still made partner in normal time – no career set back• Because of presence as a parent, was able to be more impactful as a manager

flexibility @ bcg by timothy blomfield

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