Staying Connected to Life Outside the Office
Michigan – This digital entertainment technology company understands the need for work-life balance. A key practice that helps define the Rovi culture is flexible scheduling and a generous amount of paid time off for employees. Within the entertainment industry, there is tremendous value in keeping people connected to their creative endeavors. Rovi’s focus is on solutions that enable people to discover and experience digital entertainment, so encouraging employees to enjoy their own lives outside of work is essential.
Rovi maintains extended office hours so employees have flexibility to better coordinate dependent care, schedule personal appointments, continue their higher education or pursue interests outside of work. Employees maintain work schedules that fit their lives. For some this means beginning the day early to help them avoid traffic and, for others, a later start to help them see their children off to school. Rovi recently extended the amount of flexible time off (FTO) offered to employees, which ranges from 80-200 hours a year, depending on employees’ length of service. This change encouraged employees to take the necessary time off to recover from illnesses, care for a sick child or take a vacation and recharge.
With their goals and project deadlines in mind, employees are empowered to make their own decisions about their time away from work. Rovi set up payroll processes to support this approach and coordinated them with a new time management system that was created to allow for hourly time off for nonexempt employees. The FTO database was then synchronized with the timesheet database. When employees request time off, it’s approved by their manager and FTO is deducted from their time accrued. This pragmatic and flexible approach serves to decrease stress and improve employee satisfaction and morale.
Institutional knowledge is vital to Rovi’s success, so retaining its talent is a top priority. More than one third of Rovi’s workforce has been with the company longer than eight years and its employee retention rate is high compared to the rest of the data services industry, with turnover at a low 6 percent for 2009. Employees at Rovi have consistently rated flexible scheduling and time off as some of their most valuable benefits. By allowing its workforce to adjust schedules to meet life’s demands, Rovi has improved employee retention and productivity and found a key competitive advantage.