Wanted: On-the-job flexibility
Hourly employees seek more input over when they work, and businesses are listening
NEW YORK — After struggling to hire workers for its outlet store in Dallas, Balsam Hill opened on Sept. 1. But the next day, the online purveyor of high-end artificial holiday trees was forced to close after four of its five workers quit.
The main gripe for three of them? Working on weekends. So they found jobs elsewhere with better hours.
Balsam Hill reopened weeks later with nine workers, hiking the hourly pay by $3 to $18 per hour. But more importantly, it changed its approach: Instead of only focusing on the needs of the business, it’s working with each employee to tailor their schedules based on when they want to work.
“We’re working against people who have the choice of wherever they want to work,” said Kendra Gould, senior retail strategist at Balsam Hill. “Now, it’s more about what do you need as an employee and how can we make you happy?”
Companies are confronting demands by hourly workers on terms that often used to be non-negotiable: scheduling. Taking a page from their white-collar peers who are restructuring their workdays to accommodate their lifestyles, hourly workers are similarly seeking flexibility in how — and when — they do their jobs. That means pushing back on weekend, late night or holiday shifts.
Job openings are plentiful, so workers can afford to be picky. There were 10.4 million job openings at the end of August and 11.1 million openings the month before, the highest on record since at least December 2000, when the government started recording that figure.
Among the new workers Balsam Hill hired was Rickey Haynes, 62, a pastor for a local Baptist church. He retired in July but still preaches in the community. He said he was looking for part-time work in retail, but didn’t want to work Sundays because of his preaching. Balsam Hill was willing to work around his schedule.
“They were accommodating,” he said. “If I could, I could work with them until I am done.”
Such challenges are happening as companies struggle to hire holiday workers. Target Corp. said this month it will pay $2 an hour more to employees who pick up shifts during peak days of the holiday season, including Saturday and Sunday, as well as on Christmas Eve or on the day after Christmas. That’s on top of companies already dangling bonuses and loosening requirements for drug testing and educational minimums that have kept some people out of the workforce.
Sumir Meghani, co-founder and CEO and founder of Instawork, a staffing marketplace that connects local businesses with skilled hourly workers, says such perks don’t solve the root of the problem.
“It’s about flexibility,” said Meghani, noting that available shifts on Instawork have surged eightfold from right before the pandemic to August 2021. “It’s about workers saying ‘I don’t want to work weekends’ or ‘I can’t work Mondays, Tuesday and Wednesdays because I don’t have child care or schools haven’t reopened’ or ‘I am worried about COVID.’ ”
Meghani says hourly workers are asking how can they get the same work-life balance as their peers who can work remotely.
“The challenge is, if you are a bartender you have to work until 2 a.m.,” he says.