Alternatives to Congestion

Traffic congestion problems are increasing in St. Louis especially in light of the large number of construction projects around the area.

Sitting in traffic costs employees time and money. There are options available, such as flextime, that help to alleviate congestion while saving employees and companies time and money.

Flextime

This arrangement changes the starting and ending times of an employee's workday but maintains the same total hours in a day or week. One version of flextime is known as staggered hours.

Employees select or are assigned a new work schedule, beginning or ending earlier or later than their current schedule i.e. 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and adhere to that without any significant daily variation.

Flextime gives employees a better opportunity to take advantage of public transportation, carpooling or vanpooling and can reduce the time it takes for employees to commute to work by avoiding peak congestion times.

This program costs nothing to the employer and gives employees flexibility!

Compressed Work Week

In this arrangement, all job responsibilities are maintained but the employee is generally in the office more hours on some days or fewer hours on others. For example, scheduled hours might be four ten hour days each week, the "4/10" or "4/40" model. The 9/81 allows employees to work nine 9-hour days over a two week period. This program costs nothing and gives employees more flexibility!

Benefits
Compressed work week has been shown to reduce tardiness and absenteeism. Also, employees have shown an increase in productivity and morale.

Job Sharing

This approach involves two employees sharing responsibilities for one position. Essentially each employee works a part-time schedule. In such a case, there is no need to redefine the position, but it is necessary to clearly allocate responsibilities and maintain good communication between job share partners.

This alternative commute arrangement requires more time to set up but can be as successful as other alternative commute programs.

Telecommuting

Telecommuting refers to the performance of work at a location other than the company's traditional office site. Telecommuting can be done 5 days a week or fewer depending on the needs of the individual or company.

Telecommuting can be done at home or a satellite office.

Telecommuting fact: If 10-20% of the workforce would telecommute, it would save 3.1 billion hours of personal time and 3.5 billions gallons of gasoline.

Ask your boss to try a pilot program to give these alternatives a try.

"Alternative work programs can be a win-win situation for employees, employers and the community. Employers can save real estate costs, improve productivity and enhance employee morale. Employees can save time, money and peace of mind, and St. Louis can reduce congestion while clearing the air," said Kim Cella, Program Director.