Creative HR Practices at Timbuk2

A new story came out today called "How Bay Area Moms Can Revive Their Careers," which talks about how Timbuk2 is using part-time and flextime arrangements to attract and keep better employees.  here is an excerpt, about Andrea, their impressive head of HR:

Andrea Yelle was one of them who turned to a company called Flexperience Consulting in the Bay Area. She now uses her 10 years of human resources experience to work two and a half days a week at Timbuk2, a bag manufacturing company in San Francisco....

Both companies and employees say it's a win-win situation, because Yelle gets a well-paying, fulfilling job and the small company gets experience.“We as small company couldn't afford Andrea full-time,” said Perry Klebahn, CEO of Timbuk2.

Such arrangements have helped my family as well.  My wife, Marina, was one of the first two attorneys at a major San Francisco law firm to become a "mommy track partner" and continued to work part-time for a few years even after she became firm-wide managing partner.  But it is also important to remember that part-time and flexible arrangement aren't just for women, or even just for women and men who have kids to take care of at home.  One of the last projects that my wife worked on at her law firm (before leaving to become CEO of the Northern California Girl Scouts) was a survey of preferences and attitudes among attorneys in her firm toward part-time work.  One of the most surprising findings was that a large number of men were interested in part-time arrangements; sometimes because they had kids to take care of, but also, because many simply wanted to lead lives that were less focused on work and they were willing to exchange income for spending less time at work.

Comments

[Wally Bock]

One thing I hope we'll see more of is sabbaticals. Many mid-career people could benefit from time away to devote to something else. That something else might be a hobby or raising a family or giving a spouse time to return to school or pursuing and educational or research project.

[Brendan]

Hi Bob,

Do you have more of these kind of figures, stories or sources. I am highly interested for input on this. Thanks for sharing this. Because I think we can have fulfilling lives even without 80 hour workweeks filled with a**holes.