CPA Practice Advisor - 31

THE STAFFING & HR ADVISOR

No Pane, No Gain:

The Benefits of Windowed Working
PAUL McDONALD

Senior Executive Director
Robert Half
paul.mcdonald@cpapracticeadvisor.com

Modern technology makes it easy
to work away from the office. The
challenge is finding a daily routine that
strikes a sustainable work-life balance.
This issue is more pressing in the age
of COVID-19. Shelter-in-place orders
and the ongoing risk of infection have
caused many firms to temporarily shutter offices and adopt remote working.
Professionals have found themselves
juggling all kinds of responsibilities,
from home-schooling kids to caring
for sick or vulnerable relatives.
One way to meet these challenges
is to reorganize your workweek. And
for many accountants, that means
windowed work.

WHAT IS WINDOWED WORK?
Windowed work means breaking up
your business day into two or three
separate time slots, or windows. Traditionally, this hasn't been possible.
When people have a long commute
to the office, it's not practical to work
multiple daily shifts.
But when you're working from
home, this pattern makes more sense.
Someone with commitments like
childcare can benefit enormously
from breaking their day into discrete
windows. For example:
■ Morning window: 7-10 a.m.
■ Midday window: 12-3 p.m.
■ Evening window: 6-8 p.m.
This kind of flexibility allows you to
focus on work when you're at your most
productive and least distracted. It also
enables you to dedicate parts of your
day to personal commitments.
Windowed work has taken off
recently, with 79% of employers now
offering flexible daily scheduling,

TIMES HAVE CERTAINLY changed from working traditional 9-to-5 hours - and were changing even
before the pandemic hit. Many of us have been accustomed to taking work home for years, using
cloud services to log in remotely and swiping through our phones to check business emails on the go.
according to a recent survey from
global staffing firm Robert Half. And
the results are positive: 73% of employees said windowed work has improved
their productivity.
Windowed work is a great deal
for employers and employees alike,
if managed correctly. Here are a few
areas to consider when switching to
more flexible scheduling.

KNOW YOUR BEST HOURS
Everyone has unique daily rhythms.
Often, this is defined by external factors. For instance, if your kids are home
learning over Zoom, school hours may
create frequent distractions.
You also have your own internal
rhythms. There are certain times of day
when you're naturally more focused,
creative and productive. If you leverage
these power hours, you'll be at your
best when working.

PLAN AROUND ESSENTIAL
TIMES
Service continuity is the biggest
challenge in windowed work. Clients
expect you to be there during office
hours to answer calls and respond
to emails. Work with your manager
and colleagues to ensure someone
is always available to cover for you
during office hours.
A related challenge is that many
of the people you need to reach out to
still work 9-to-5. You need to contact
clients, tax authorities, service providers and other third parties with urgent
queries, and that's difficult outside of
working hours. The best approach is to
schedule time-critical work for office
hours so you can get answers when
you need them.

What does your new windowed
schedule mean for you, your team and
your boss? If your first window ends at
9 a.m., is that a hard deadline, or can
you work until 9:15? Can those reports
wait until your evening window, or
does someone need them sooner?
Good communication is the not-sosecret sauce of windowed work. Speak
with your supervisor about guidelines,
including their expectations for your
productivity within each window. Next,
talk to your colleagues to help make
sure everyone's schedules sync up.
You should also be upfront with
regular clients about your new work
routine. It could reflect poorly on you
and your firm if a client hears about
your new hours for the first time from
an email autoreply directing them to a
colleague. When discussing your new
schedule with clients, emphasize how it
will be good for them, too. For example,
if you work an evening window, you'll
now be able to answer queries that
come after hours the same day rather
than the following morning.

HAVE A FOCUS FOR EACH
WINDOW
Windows can include short, focused
bursts of productivity if you plan
them correctly. The best approach is
to group tasks as much as possible so
each window concentrates on one or
two types of things. A typical schedule
might look like this:
■ Early-morning window: client reports
■ Daytime window - first half: phone
calls and emails
■ Daytime window - second half:
meetings and strategy
■ Evening window: analysis and planning
If you know what you're going to

OCTOBER 2020 ■

focus on in each window, you don't
have to spend time prioritizing. Instead,
you can get straight to work.

PLAN AHEAD FOR BUSY TIMES
Every practice faces schedule-busting
events. Whether it's tax season, monthend close or meeting a client deadline,
there are times when you simply have
to keep going until the work is done.
These are what you might call
known unknowns - you can't create
a precise schedule for them, but you
know they're coming. As such, you
can build a certain degree of flexibility
into your windowed schedule. Be clear
about what each window means to you.
For example, you may need to stop
work at precisely 3 p.m. to focus on
your kids. But perhaps you can extend
your evening window to allow for some
overflow.

THE FUTURE IS WINDOWED
Work practices have long been evolving, but it's clear that the pandemic has
created new challenges and opportunities for employers and workers.
Business leaders are trying to do
more with less, and this will remain the
case so long as the economic outlook
is uncertain. Employees, meanwhile,
are increasingly focused on maintaining a good work-life balance. This is
especially true of Generation Z and
younger millennials, where only 22%
said they prefer working 9-to-5.
Windowed work isn't a cure-all, but
it offers benefits for both sides. Employers get the maximum productivity
from each team member, while team
members have greater flexibility to
juggle responsibilities. If handled right,
it's a win-win for everyone. ■

www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

CPA Practice Advisor

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CPA Practice Advisor