Flexible work arrangements, deferred salary options gaining popularity in total rewards
Five years ago, Mary Louise Ireland, a Toronto high school teacher, was finishing her Masters of Education in counselling and was considering going on to do her PhD. As part of the program, she would need to complete 500 hours of clinical work, something that would be impossible to do while working as part of the chaplaincy team at Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School and teaching psychology classes in the family studies department. She knew she would have to take some kind of leave from work if she wanted to complete her degree.
Luckily, the Toronto Catholic District School Board offers a salary deferment program, called a “four-over-five,” where a teacher, or any board employee, works for four years for four-fifths of her salary and then during the fifth year doesn’t have to work but still receives four-fifths of her salary.
Two years into the four-over-five, Ireland decided not to pursue her PhD but she continued with the program and ended up using her year off to work with a performance psychologist for two months last fall and to renovate her home. While she considered doing more counselling, she didn’t want to make any commitments she couldn’t keep because she would be returning to teaching.
“At one point I thought I might be transitioning to 50 per cent teaching and 50 per cent professional counselling, but the longer I got into (the sabbatical) the more I thought ‘I want to return to teaching full time,’” she said.
Offering employees the flexibility of taking time off, as a sabbatical or unpaid leave, is growing in popularity among many employers.
Recently, the Toronto Secondary Unit Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association negotiated a new contract so teachers also have the option of taking semester leaves by doing a salary deferment over four or five semesters. The time and financial commitment is less, making it easier for younger teachers to take advantage of the programs.
“It’s definitely a huge plus that there’s more than one option now,” said Ireland. “I think that shows a commitment to respecting people’s lives. If you want to step away from teaching and are willing to take this financial burden, (they) will accommodate it.”
Over a 30-year teaching career, a teacher needs to take a salary deferment to either focus on family or professional development, said Ireland.
Offering employees the flexibility of taking time off, without pay, benefits both the employer and the employee. The province of Manitoba has successfully run a voluntary reduced work week program for civil servants since 2002. The program has saved the government more than $10 million since then, with about 15 per cent of the workforce taking part each year.
This spring employees were given the chance to apply for up to 20 days off work, which they can take whenever they like, operational requirements allowing, said Gerry Irving, Manitoba’s assistant deputy minister of labour relations. Pay deductions for the leaves are spread over 10 months to minimize the financial impact on employees.
Employees definitely see the program as a perk, though it’s one the government hopes will be permanent, said Irving.
“We view it as almost standard now,” he said. “There’s no reason we would discontinue the program.”
The benefit of flexible work arrangements for employers goes beyond cost savings, said Colleen Butler, the team lead of advisory services at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Nfld.
“If the employees are content, if they’re able to have flexible schedules that allow them to balance (work and family), certainly their productivity would be higher,” she said.
The university has offered various flexible work options since the mid-1990s. The current offerings include a reduced work week, job sharing, revised daily schedules for those who want to start earlier or later, a reduced lunch break so employees can bank the extra time for lieu days and a compressed work week where employees work 10 hours a day, four days a week.
It also offers a salary deferment program, six days of family leave over a two-year period and 21 hours of paid personal professional development.
During exit interviews, employees often cite these programs as one of the main benefits of working for the university and because of that HR goes over the full suite of offerings with potential employees during the recruitment process, said Butler.
“We’re finding more and more (employees are taking advantage) as they pursue higher levels of education,” she said. “Having some sort of balance between work and home life is very important.”
Luckily, the Toronto Catholic District School Board offers a salary deferment program, called a “four-over-five,” where a teacher, or any board employee, works for four years for four-fifths of her salary and then during the fifth year doesn’t have to work but still receives four-fifths of her salary.
Two years into the four-over-five, Ireland decided not to pursue her PhD but she continued with the program and ended up using her year off to work with a performance psychologist for two months last fall and to renovate her home. While she considered doing more counselling, she didn’t want to make any commitments she couldn’t keep because she would be returning to teaching.
“At one point I thought I might be transitioning to 50 per cent teaching and 50 per cent professional counselling, but the longer I got into (the sabbatical) the more I thought ‘I want to return to teaching full time,’” she said.
Offering employees the flexibility of taking time off, as a sabbatical or unpaid leave, is growing in popularity among many employers.
Recently, the Toronto Secondary Unit Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association negotiated a new contract so teachers also have the option of taking semester leaves by doing a salary deferment over four or five semesters. The time and financial commitment is less, making it easier for younger teachers to take advantage of the programs.
“It’s definitely a huge plus that there’s more than one option now,” said Ireland. “I think that shows a commitment to respecting people’s lives. If you want to step away from teaching and are willing to take this financial burden, (they) will accommodate it.”
Over a 30-year teaching career, a teacher needs to take a salary deferment to either focus on family or professional development, said Ireland.
Offering employees the flexibility of taking time off, without pay, benefits both the employer and the employee. The province of Manitoba has successfully run a voluntary reduced work week program for civil servants since 2002. The program has saved the government more than $10 million since then, with about 15 per cent of the workforce taking part each year.
This spring employees were given the chance to apply for up to 20 days off work, which they can take whenever they like, operational requirements allowing, said Gerry Irving, Manitoba’s assistant deputy minister of labour relations. Pay deductions for the leaves are spread over 10 months to minimize the financial impact on employees.
Employees definitely see the program as a perk, though it’s one the government hopes will be permanent, said Irving.
“We view it as almost standard now,” he said. “There’s no reason we would discontinue the program.”
The benefit of flexible work arrangements for employers goes beyond cost savings, said Colleen Butler, the team lead of advisory services at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Nfld.
“If the employees are content, if they’re able to have flexible schedules that allow them to balance (work and family), certainly their productivity would be higher,” she said.
The university has offered various flexible work options since the mid-1990s. The current offerings include a reduced work week, job sharing, revised daily schedules for those who want to start earlier or later, a reduced lunch break so employees can bank the extra time for lieu days and a compressed work week where employees work 10 hours a day, four days a week.
It also offers a salary deferment program, six days of family leave over a two-year period and 21 hours of paid personal professional development.
During exit interviews, employees often cite these programs as one of the main benefits of working for the university and because of that HR goes over the full suite of offerings with potential employees during the recruitment process, said Butler.
“We’re finding more and more (employees are taking advantage) as they pursue higher levels of education,” she said. “Having some sort of balance between work and home life is very important.”
