Flex Your Muscles - A Workout Tip

The Flex, I hasten to explain, is a very finely conceived Ford automobile, designed for ultimate utility and execrebly promoted. Sad, a neglected gem that deserves better, and would - with just a modicum of attention from its parent - enrich the hauling and driving lives of countless suburban moms.

But, this is about a different flex. Here's the deal, which may shock self-absorbed managers and corporate minions. A recent Forbes study has diclosed that 70% of workers would quit their jobs for more flexible work arrangements elsewhere.

Wake up! Seven out of ten employees would run like lemmings to the sea for the freedom to work flexibly. Isn't employee attraction and retention tough enough already? It's time to get real.

The forty-hour work week, chained to a desk or lashed to a jackhammer, with strict oversight to ensure that no one sloughs off, fails to keep the nose to the grindstone, or smiles on company time, is rooted in the dark Satanic mills and orphan labor of England's early romance with the Industrial Revolution. We are now in a different age, with different, smarter workers, and arguably a more engaged and committed workforce.

They are not so interested in class warfare between brute force labor and greedy bosses as they are in meaningful work and fulfilling personal lives. Over sixty per cent of workers that they are more productive working outside the office, and would prefer to break up their eight hours over a longer day - and have more time for personal activities.

The places that offer greater flexibility have become highly desirable employers, putting them ahead of the pack in attracting talent, which three-quarters of rank flexibility as their #1 top benefit. This gang might or might not drive Flexes, but definitely want flex work assignments and settings, and seem to do an overall better job of flexing their intellectual muscles when the environment either permits or encourages.

Seems to me that the supply chain community has an opening to position itself as more attractive than its general business talent competitors by becoming genuinely more flexible. What do you think?