Flexibility, Trust and the Future of Work

Misty Pleiness, a risk assurance director for PwC based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, grew up on a farm and has a love of horses that dates back as far as she can remember - probably since birth she tells me with a laugh.

She grew up on a dairy farm but wanted a horse so badly she named her first cow Flicka. And when her family couldn’t afford a horse, she saved up her allowance and chore money and got a farm job. Then, at the age of 11, she bought her first horse herself.

We shouldn’t be surprised that someone with that sort of ambition and talent as a child, grew up to be the kind of person we at PwC would recruit. Nobody is surprised that Misty’s love of horses followed her into adulthood either.

The 34-year-old is now a show jumper who spends 25 weeks a year traveling the country on the national competitive circuit, while also putting in 40 to 50 hours a week for us, often working out of her travel camper.

“At other places I have worked, flexibility had to fit into one of the company’s categories. I’m not a mother or married, but flexibility applies to me even as a single woman because I have another passion in life,” she told me. 

Misty says other employers have asked her not to talk about her teleworking schedule, worried about how it would be viewed. But when she interviewed at PwC and broached the subject of teleworking here, the conversation went very differently.

“Sure, go ahead,” she recalls her manager saying. “And tell everybody. Why would you not want others to hear about it? It’s a great example of flexibility,” she was told. You can see Misty in action, here.

So that’s what flexibility looks like for Misty, but at PwC we understand flexibility comes in a variety of forms for our 45,000 US employees. We believe not only in acknowledging flexibility, but also celebrating it. And we know that achieving a culture of flexibility requires a culture of trust – where we can openly discuss our flexibility needs without fear of being viewed as less committed.  And – trust and candor, along with teamwork and collaboration are necessary components of enabling flexibility.

We know the benefits of a flexible workplace at PwC. The significance of that flexibility is reinforced in a new PwC report, Work-Life 3.0: Understanding How We Will Work Next. The report, based on online surveys and in person focus groups conducted in May, finds the future of work means more flexibility, autonomy and appreciation.

• More than half those asked are looking for work life balance but only 34 percent feel they’ve got it.
• Seventy-two percent of those polled have a “strong desire” to work independently.
• Respondents said they are more satisfied at work and more interested in keeping their job when they have the autonomy to set their own hours and make meaningful decisions.

At PwC, we know that there is no one way to achieve these goals.  For example, about 1700 teams in our firm participated in a contest to generate insights into how we can strengthen flexibility.  Because the circumstances across our firm and client engagements vary widely, as well as our individual situations, we could never apply a “cookie cutter” approach. And while new technology tools are valuable for virtual collaboration - one consistent theme emerged from our contest – the importance of building a climate of trust and open communication that helps each individual achieve his or her flexibility goals.

We also now offer a flexible dress option, which means employees simply decide how to “dress for their day” and are welcome to wear jeans when it works for their client service circumstances that day. Flexible dress simply is part of our larger culture of flexibility. We also apply flexibility to our yearly schedule and “shut down” the firm between Christmas and New Year. This gift of “guilt-free” downtime is a recognition of our employees’ hard work and our clients benefit, too, because we are all rested and recharged to begin the New Year.

We believe it’s important to innovate and think about benefits in a flexible way too. That’s why we offer a Student Loan Paydown benefit that provides our associates ans senior associates $1,200 a year for six years to reduce the burden of student debt. We believe being flexible is good for our employees and good for business – now and in the future.  

That brings us back to Misty who says she is proud to not only be a high performer at work, but to also have earned the title of 2016 Winter Circuit Champion in Florida this year, beating out more than 100 other show jumpers.

Employees like Misty who successfully juggle multiple responsibilities are exactly the kind of people we want working at PwC. And our approach to flexibility, built on a culture of trust and open communication, makes it possible.

“You are building the leaders of tomorrow by allowing people to balance responsibilities across multiple parts of their life,” she told me when we last talked about this.

So we need Misty and all of our colleagues to keep talking about flexibility, building trust within our teams and culture – and helping us solve an important problem while creating the future of work.