Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER October 17, 2016 NEWS 3 your career in focus When it comes to practicing human resources, membership matters. Only HRPA offers Certified Human Resources Professional, Leader, and Executive designations: the new global standard for HR excellence and professionalism. The CHRP, CHRL and CHRE designations demonstrate an HRPA member's commitment to their career and the success of their organization. P U T Y O U R C A R E E R I N F O C U S hrpa.ca/infocus said Gordon Cooke, associate professor at the Faculty of Busi- ness Administration at Memorial University in St. John's, but the fact that it's doing a pilot study and giving workers a choice sounds employee-friendly, especially in the tech sector with its retention and burnout issues. "These are skilled workers, workers that are valued and are mobile; they have other employ- ment prospects, they're the privi- leged workers of our labour mar- ket, they have power and options because of their skills. In that sce- nario, the balance of power shifts to workers and so employers have to offer employee-friendly poli- cies… to keep them happy and motivated," he said. It could also mean the workers are more focused during those 30 hours, so people with young kids, eldercare issues or outside inter- ests "might be able to zone in on their to-do list for 30 hours, and they're delighted — they see this as simplification, better work-life balance, so the lower pay is more than offset by the quality-of-life improvement," said Cooke. "If an organization stops and says, 'We want to be worker- friendly, family-friendly, we want to be empathetic and compas- sionate,' then they really will try and reduce the hours, even for salaried (workers)." Structure key But some might be skeptical that the part-time workers end up working longer than 30 hours, said Cooke. "ey actually have to mean it — 30 has to mean 30. And what happens if there's a rush, what are the exceptions?" And in this kind of situation, you want to make sure no one was forced to take a part-time po- sition, he said. "Some people have their mort- gage based on 40 (hours per week), let's face it. So will anyone be forced and what happens when extra hours are needed? Will they really do what has been hinted, meaning that this will lead to more people… instead of hiring three people at 40, will they hire four at 30? If they do that, then they deserve our admiration," said Cooke, adding the other is- sue is whether Amazon will try to ensure people expected to work 40 hours really do. "It's going to be a tremendous challenge for any organization that has one group of workers on 30 hours and another group on 40 hours... If Amazon can get the ones paid 40 hours to work 40 — not 47, that is the first hurdle that has to fall if they want the 30- hour crowd to be viewed as full members." It appears the part-timers have a set schedule, working between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., said Galinsky, "so they're avoiding the usual pit- falls in part-time work." But the devil will be in the de- tails, she said. "It's one thing in a company to have a policy, but it's a whole other thing to have a culture that supports it, and we find that the culture that supports it is even more powerful than the policy." Amazon should clearly state when these part-time employees will be available so others at the company don't demand addition- al hours or additional work, said Zeytinoglu. "Managers should be clearly in- formed of the expectation; as well, they should be clearly informed that they cannot put demands on individuals as if they are working 40 hours." Against the grain Part-time work or "reduced hours" is often seen as a deficit, as if it's "a part of the whole," said Galinsky. "The norm is full-time and part-time is the deviation, so what companies have struggled with a long time is for those people who are working part-time, there's this full-time creep that happens, you get paid for part-time but you end up working more and more because you're working against the norm in your work group or division… and so I've heard com- panies for a long time want to nor- malize part-time work and what Amazon has done in a fairly small experiment is to normalize it, with managers, by setting the hours of part-time, so it's going against the grain," she said. "Obviously, they're doing it be- cause they want particular talent and I think it'll reach a wider tal- ent group if they offer this as an option." Some may feel part-timers aren't as ambitious as full-timers, but that's not necessarily true, said Galinsky. "People who are working part- time are often working part-time for important reasons — they may be going to school, they may have eldercare issues… or a very de- manding job and they need to be the ballast for that… so it doesn't mean that you're not ambitious." Employees who put in fewer hours compared to others might be perceived as less motivated, said Zeytinoglu. "I don't think that's the case. Individuals sometimes, at certain stages of their lives, would like to reflect on what's important in their life, so it's quite possible, looking at this technical team, these individuals who will be tak- ing a 30-hour week might be set- ting up their own business on the side… or they might be relatively older workers and they have other conflicting demands in their lives, a teenager or older adult children, plus elderly parents or elderly relatives," she said. "ey might be younger work- ers who like to be in the work- force but maybe they have young children." Ideally, Amazon and its manag- ers should allow these people to move in and out of the positions, she said. "They should be looking at these individuals and always con- sidering them for promotion, so more hours, a higher responsibil- ity position… and it should be up to these individuals to decide if they will take that challenge." Part-timers face stigma AMAZON < pg. 1

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