Please read the case study “Bone Secours Health Care”.
Write a 2-3 page paper. Be sure to address the following questions in your paper:
• How well could this level of flexible scheduling work in another industry? For example, a steel mill?
• Identify other potential flexible work ideas that Bon Secours might use.
• Flexible scheduling is common in health care. What would be the likely result without it?
Include a cover sheet and 2-3 references. References should be obtained through the Grantham University online library (see attachment). Only one website reference will be allowed (not Wikipedia).
Bon Secours Health Care
Health care has used flexible work arrangements for years as managers try to provide round the clock
care for patients. Recently it has become even more difficult as shortages in the health care workforce
have required creativity to attract and keep people.
Bon Secours Richmond Health Systems uses a variety of flexible scheduling innovations for
hard-to-fill evenings and weekend shifts at its hospitals. Employees can choose from compressed work
weeks (four 10 hour shifts or three 12 hour shifts), weekends only with extra pay, four- or eight-hour
shifts, and seven days on followed by seven days off.
Women make up 85% of the workforce, and flexible schedules work well for them. Depending
on life stages, employees may make different choices. A new employee just out of college may prefer
working full time with a rotating schedule, but workers with children may need a fixed schedule that
doesn’t rotate. Some employees with several children may want to work part time. Part time is made
attractive by providing full benefits and employer-assisted housing for those scheduled for as little as 16
hours per week.
Bon Secours’ flexible work arrangements are credited with lowering first year employee
turnover rates from 50% to 10% in four years. The national benchmark average is 28%. Employee
engagement scores have risen from 3.6 to 4.55 on a 5-point scale, and employees can read success
stories in the employee newsletter that may provide solutions to any dilemmas they may have with
regard to scheduling. In small lunches with the CEO, employees have confirmed that they value having
more control over their time.
Eight-five percent of Bon Secours employees use a flexible schedule either formally or
informally. Forty-five percent use a compressed work week and 10% job share. Twenty-five percent
work a temporary or part-time work schedule, and 3% do telework.67
Questions
1. How well could this level of flexible scheduling work in another industry? For example,
consider scheduling in a steel mill.
2. Identify other potential flexible work ideas that Bon Secours might use.
3. Flexible scheduling is common in health care. What would be the likely results without flexible
scheduling?