Page 48 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

discovering a new workforce paradigm � 27

make partner,” she says. “That is just the reality of it. Given where I
am in my life, I don’t want to be partner right now.” But she doesn’t
want to close that door either, which is what would have happened
in the past. MCC gives her another option. It allows flexible work,
including mobile work, that fits the needs of professionals like Jodi.
MCC, according to Cathleen Benko and Anne Weisberg in their
book, Mass Career Customization, “does for careers what mass product
customization (MPC) has done for the consumer products industry:
replace a one-size-fits-all approach with a bevy of customized product
offerings.” Similarly, MCC, they say, “delivers distinct competitive
advantage through increased employee job satisfaction and loyalty;
greater potential for the kinds of continuous, long-term relationships
with higher-performing employees that improves productivity; and
lower costs related to less employee churn.” In short, you get to hang
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on to high-value employees like Jodi.
“You can choose when and where you are doing the work,” Jodi
told us. “That is the thing about Deloitte. They [local partners or
the larger organization] say they aren’t so concerned about you sitting
at your desk at specific hours as [they] are about knowing that your
clients are being handled and the work is being done. How and where
you work—as long as your clients are okay with it and you are getting
a good work product—whatever you do is great.”
In a MCC environment, not only can you choose your workload,
you can also have choices about where and when that work gets done,
how quickly you want to move to increasing levels of authority and
responsibility, and what role (e.g., individual contributor or manager)
you wish to play. Those choices interact to make up your current job,
and allow you to customize your desired career as you go along. As
Benko and Weisberg say, this gives the company lots of flexibility to
optimize employee potential, effort, and loyalty. As our friend Jodi
says, it not only attracts people to the company but “it [also] keeps
people here too. I’ve had various other opportunities over the years.
My schedule would be eight to five, and I’d be expected to be sitting
at my desk. It is hard to imagine doing that. I have people I report to,
but it feels like I’m my own boss. I’m managing my time. I do what I