‘Ohana Means Family

A New Flex Time/ Telecommuting

Policy to Increase Employee
Retention

Submitted Date: February 25, 2019

Submitted By: Riley Yoshihara
Table of Contents

Executive Summary 1
Focusing on Employee Retention
Impacts of a Flexible Work Life

Problem/Necessity 1
Exploring Current Employee Retainment at FHB
Qualities of Best Banks to Work For
Background Information on Flexible Schedules
Bank of America’s My Work

Project Description 3
Flexible Schedules at FHB

Cost Analysis 4
Direct Costs
Productivity Costs/Savings

Project Obstacles and Solutions Regarding Flexible Schedules 7

Assessment Strategy 7

Conclusion 8
FHB Should Implement Flexible Schedules

Appendices
Memo 9
Works Cited 10
Executive Summary
Focusing on Employee Retention
In order to improve employee retention, First Hawaiian Bank (FHB)1 should implement flexible
work hours to promote a healthy work and personal life balance. By allowing employees to have
more flexibility with their schedules, employees are more likely to be happy and in turn, more
loyal to the bank. As a result, FHB will maintain its competitive position with the other top
financial institutions on the island while becoming more profitable.

Impacts of a Flexible Work Life

Flex time or telecommuting will help employees become more productive and be more satisfied
with their jobs. Flex time allows employees to have more input when choosing their schedules
and telecommuting refers to working from home and utilizing the Internet, email, and telephone.
The company will also lose less money on absenteeism, and employees may be more likely to
put in longer hours when necessary. All of these benefits make FHB employees feel cared for
because First Hawaiian is keeping their work styles and stressors in mind. The aspect of
“caring” directly aligns with First Hawaiian Bank’s core values which makes this proposal ideal.

Problem/ Necessity
Exploring Current Employee Retainment at FHB
With about three major financial institutions on Oahu, it is common for employees that are
unhappy at one bank to search for jobs at one of the other financial institutions. Not only do
FHB employees discuss this fact, but the other banks also realize this and take advantage of it.

For instance, Bank of Hawaii, one of FHB’s rival banks, offers a “Birthday Holiday” as part of
their employees’ Paid Time Off benefits (“Benefits”). Something as simple as one extra day for
their birthday may entice unhappy FHB employees to start looking for another job. With that
being said, First Hawaiian Bank needs to provide as much benefits as possible for their
employees.

First Hawaiian Bank claims that “We strive to keep you safe, well and financially secure
ensuring a supportive, family-oriented environment allowing employees the flexibility to obtain
a balance between personal and professional lifestyles” (“Our Benefits”); however, this
flexibility is not illustrated in the list of benefits on the FHB website. The only benefit that
appears to address the flexibility to balance personal and professional lifestyles is the ten paid
vacation days and three float days (“Our Benefits”).

1
First Hawaiian Bank is Hawaii’s oldest and largest financial institution. The average years of service is approximately fifteen years.
FHB believes that their core values are critical to the success of the company. The three core values are caring, character, and
collaboration. First Hawaiian claims that they “embrace diversity and varying lifestyles of” their employees to “create a healthy and
thriving work environment” (“Culture,” n.d.).
Qualities of Best Banks to Work For
Hawaii Business Magazine has named First Hawaiian Bank as one of the “Best Places to Work”
for the past seven years (“Culture”), and FHB wants to ensure that it holds that title for years to
come. In order, to maintain this title, FHB has to have a good reputation among its employees.

Glassdoor, a popular website where current and former employees review companies, released a
rank on successful banks. Some qualities that stood out among the banks Glassdoor deemed
“Best Banks to Work For,” included having management that makes employees feel valued and
important, a great support system, and a healthy work life balance (Goldman, 2011).

Interestingly, Morgan Stanley employee salaries are below market price; however, the financial
institution was still able to obtain a top five spot in the ranking (Goldman, 2011). The fact that
Morgan Stanley emphasizes a healthy work life balance makes up for the fact that the employees
may not be as happy with their pay. After reading through another site that allows employees to
leave anonymous reviews, it is clear that employees at FHB are not happy with their salary
(“First Hawaiian Bank Careers,” n.d.). With that being said, First Hawaiian Bank could focus on
emphasizing a balance to become more attractive and potentially make up for the lower pay.

Background Information on Flexible Schedules

By choosing their schedules, employees are healthier, experience less stress, and are more
productive (Akther, 2016). A large amount of employee stress stems from concerns about family
members such as sick children or parents, and this anxiety can cause a decrease in productivity
(Akther, 2016). By allowing employees to utilize picking where and when they work, increased
productivity will lead to increased profits (Akther, 2016). Flexible scheduling is a low-cost
option to help decrease costs while increasing company morale (Shoyhet, 2017).

Bank of America’s My Work

Bank of America (BOA) administered a flexible scheduling program called My Work. This
program allowed its employees to work from a location they felt most productive, and the bank
offered flexible start/end times (Akther, 2016). While BOA eventually had to cut their program
due to struggle with innovation, the program itself did prove that employees were more
productive (“Remote Workers,” n.d.).
Project Description
Flexible Schedules at FHB
To help FHB test whether flexible scheduling and telecommuting will be successful for the bank,
FHB can start at Level 1 and progress up to Level 3 if it is working with the business. At Level
1, employees may receive up to ten days a year to telecommute but during regular scheduled
work hours. This way it will be easy to contact employees even though they are not in the office.

At Level 2, employees would have up to five days a month to telecommute while choosing when
they start and end. This will allow FHB to test employee ability to collaborate when they may
not be on the same schedule. At this point, First Hawaiian will implement its core days where
employees must be in the office for certain hours.

At Level 3, employees would have a completely flexible schedule, and some employees would
be telecommuting completely with the exception of core days. Depending on how things go,
FHB could try to utilize more digital communication like video calls to allow employees to
collaborate.

A diagram of the three levels of flexible schedules and telecommuting

This “Ohana Mean Family” proposal will affect all (or almost all) employees at FHB. It will
give them the option of telecommuting or picking their hours which leads to employees feeling
more content with their job and increases loyalty to the bank. This will lead to higher employee
retainment and it adds to FHB’s emphasis on caring.
Cost Analysis

Direct Costs
Data and studies that lay out the actual costs associated with implementing and managing work
life balance (WLB) policies and practices are not prevalent because businesses do not collect
data in the appropriate form or are unwilling to share that information (Smeaton, D. et all 2014).

Because of this, comments on the cost benefit issue are difficult to generalize. The cost benefit
analysis would depend largely on the individual company (Smeaton, D. et all 2014). Although a
few impact assessments have concluded that in most cases estimated benefits exceed estimated
costs (Smeaton, D. et all 2014). Below is a model that illustrates how work life balance policies
and initiatives ultimately affect profit.

A model that illustrates how work life balance policies and initiatives
ultimately affect profit

While it was difficult to find concrete numbers on how much flexible schedules would cost to
implement and how much it would save companies overall, there was data regarding some of the
costs and a case that discussed a company’s return on investment. IBM, a computer hardware
company, experienced a return on their investment within the first year (Smeaton, D. et all
2014). While IBM isn’t a financial institution, it may give us some insight on how our return on
investment may look because it will be easier to implement telecommuting or flex time for our
employees due to the fact that many of them complete a large portion of work on their
computers.
Costs Per Employee
Losing a Valued Employee $10,000 - $30,000
Unscheduled Absences $1,800

Total Cost Per Year $11,800 - $31,800

Total Cost Per Year for 200 Employees $2,360,000 - $6,360,000
* created by Riley Yoshihara based off of data from Global Workplace Analytics and The Business Case

Savings Per Employee

Real Estate Savings from Full Time Telework $10,000
Manufacturing Overhead Costs/ Use of $1,200
Facilities

Total Savings Per Year $11,200

Total Savings Per Year for 200 Employees $2,240,000
* created by Riley Yoshihara based off of data from Global Workplace Analytics and The Business Case

Overall Savings with Telecommuting

Cost Per Year for 200 Employees $2,360,000 - $6,360,000
Savings Per Year for 200 Employees $2,240,000

Total Savings for 200 Employees $4,600,000 - $8,600,000

* created by Riley Yoshihara based off of data from Global Workplace Analytics and The Business Case
Productivity Costs/Savings
While it is harder to track, another cost includes productivity. While companies may be
concerned that employees may slack off without constant supervision, it is actually the opposite.
Employees are more likely to work harder in a shorter amount of time. In addition, other studies
conducted in 2018 have demonstrated that employees are four times more likely to believe
working from home is the most productive option compared to employee perceptions in 2015
(Forsey, n.d).

The graph to the left

illustrates how
employees are more
likely to work harder
(measured in GDP)
in a shorter amount
of time

In fact, studies have shown that many companies, including the financial services institution
American Express, have reported statistically significant increases in productivity (Global
Workplace Analytics, n.d). Below is a graph that showcases increases in some companies’
productivity.

Companies Increase in Productivity

50%
45%
40%
35%
To the left is a graph
30%
that showcases
25% increases in some
20% companies’
productivity
15%
10%
5%
0%
Best Buy American JD Edwards Compaq British Telcom
Express

*created by Riley Yoshihara based off of data from Global Workplace Analytics
Project Obstacles and Solutions Regarding Flexible Schedules
In order to maintain connection with other employees, FHB must ensure that it has enough
required core hours because employees who feel less connected to each other feel less personal
responsibility for their work and to their teams (Shoyhet, 2017). This means that First Hawaiian
would need to determine core hours every week or month to ensure that processes that require
collaboration will be satisfied and employee relationships are established.

Another potential problem may be difficulty contacting employees if they are not working at the
same times. This may be remedied by employees agreeing to answer calls or respond to
messages if they are important even if it is not during their scheduled time. While this may seem
like a lot to ask of employees, it seems like a fair trade off for their flexible schedule.

Interestingly, a study conducted by Heejung Chung, a senior lecturer at University of Kent in the
UK, found that people who have complete control over their schedules tend to work longer hours
regardless of their level of influence or job type (Forsey, n.d.). She theorized that this was
explained by gift theory where employees felt that flexible scheduling was a gift, so they felt the
need to prove they deserved it by putting in more hours (Forsey, n.d.).

Assessment Strategy
Below is a success metrics table to see what factors can be measured and when they should be
measured in order to track the proposal’s progress.

When to Measure What to Measure

Quarterly Employee satisfaction
e.g. send out a company survey
Quarterly Productivity level
e.g. analyze the amount of work completed
and compare to a quarter without the proposal
implementation
Quarterly/ Annually Number of employees retained
Quarterly/ Annually Savings on decrease in absenteeism or
savings from less hiring/training expenditures
* created by Riley Yoshihara
Conclusion
FHB Should Implement Flexible Schedules
First Hawaiian Bank should implement more flexible schedules whether that be through ten days
of optional telecommuting a year or more autonomy in picking their schedules. The flexibility
will help employees feel cared for because FHB is paying attention to their needs if something
comes up at home while also keeping different work styles in mind. Now, a work life balance is
a very important factor in whether or not employees are satisfied with and stay at their jobs. This
flexibility may also make up for lower salaries. Implementing this flexibility is more cost
effective than raising salaries.

Furthermore, employees will be more satisfied with their jobs which leads to greater loyalty and
higher employee retention, and in turn higher profits for the bank. FHB will lose less money on
unscheduled absences and the cost of having to hire and train new employees. If you have any
questions, I will be happy to discuss this proposal with you at your convenience, and I look
forward to answering any questions. Thank you.
 MEMO

TO: First Hawaiian Bank Employees

FROM: Riley Yoshihara
DATE: February 25, 2019
SUBJECT: New Flex Time/ Telecommuting Policy

The “Ohana Means Family” proposal will be implemented at First Hawaiian Bank in the next
fiscal year. This means that all employees will have up to ten days a year to telecommute during
regularly scheduled work hours. The telecommuting days are in addition to your paid vacation
and sick days.

These ten days can be used for family emergencies, high traffic days, or any other reason for
wanting to do work from outside the office. Please feel free to use these days when necessary.
FHB wants to cater to our employees’ and their different work styles, so depending on how the
ten telecommuting days affect our day to day operations, First Hawaiian may test a flexible
schedule policy in the following fiscal year that allows employees up to five days a month to
telecommute while picking their start and end time.

In order for this flex time to work, FHB will need you to answer important calls or emails if it is
during regular business hours, even if it is not during your personally chosen work schedule. An
update on the policy’s progress will be distributed at the end of the first fiscal year it is applied.

Thank you for all your hard work, and please feel free to reach out to me if you have any
questions regarding the new policy.
 Works Cited

Akther, S. (2016, February 09). Flexible Working Hours Approach to Financial Institutions.
Retrieved from http://www.linkedin.com/pulse/flexible-working-hours-approach-financial-
insitution-shahin-akther/

Benefits. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.boh.com/careers/career-benefits.asp

Culture. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.fhb.com/en/careers/culture/

First Hawaiian Bank Careers and Employment. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.indeed.com/cmp/First-Hawaiian-Bank

Forsey, C. (n.d.). Flexible Schedules: The Good, Bad, & the Surprising. Retrieved from
https://blog.spot.com/marketing/flexible-schedule

Global Workplace Analytics. (n.d.). Costs and Benefits – Global Workplace Analytics. Retrieved
from https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/resources/costs-benefits

Goldman, L. (2011, March 03). The 25 Best Banks to Work For. Retrieved from
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-banks-to-work-for-2011-2

Our Benefits. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.fhb.com/en/careers/culture/our-benefits/

Remote Workers are More Productive – So Why Arty They Back at the Office? (n.d.). Retrieved
from https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/why-are-big-companies-calling-their-
remote-workers-back-office-n787101

Shoyhet, B. (2017, June 06). A Flexible Option to Fight the Rising Cost of Employee Benefits.
Retrieved from https://startupnation.com/manage-your-business/flextime-employee-benefits/

Smeaton, D., Ray, K., & Knight, G. (2014). Costs and Benefits to Business of Adopting Work
Life Balance Practices: A Literature Review (pp. 1-173, Publication).

The Business Case: How Work Flexibility Can Help Companies Save Money. (2018, June 08).
Retrieved from https://www.workflexibility.org/business-case-work-flexibility-can-help-
companies-save-money/

The Business Case: How Work Flexibility Improves Productivity – 1MFWF. (2017, July 12).
Retrieved from https://www.workflexibility.org/the-business-case-how-work-flexibility-
improves-productivity/