Today's workplace is about flexibility.

• Author: Johnson, Mike
• Position: Cover story

When CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta very publicly withdrew his name from consideration for the job of serving as surgeon general of the United States in the Obama administration, he said it was due to expecting a third baby and wanting to spend time with his family. He didn't want to live in Washington, D.C., and commute home only on weekends to be with his family.

This work/life--or rather life/work--decision is happening more and more as the contract between employers and their professional employees is being redefined.

This is a very real requirement for every organization to realize: it's not managing in the same world it was 10 or even five years ago. Even deep in the current recession, today's business climate--of people, technology and environment--continues to undergo major change.

Remember when in the 1960s classic film, "The Graduate," Dustin Hoffman was told "plastics" was the one word to think about? Here in the 21st century, the word that defines the next decade of work is "flexibility."

That flexibility comes into play in several ways:

* Flexibility in lifestyle;

* Flexibility in time;

* Flexibility in work; and

* Flexibility in reward.

One major area of differentiation from the workplace of the past is how employees now clearly define themselves by the lifestyles that they have chosen to lead. They no longer say they're engineers, chemists, pilots, nurses, teachers and the like. They define themselves through the lifestyle that meets their needs with their job--the career they opt for--only a part of that lifestyle.

Thus, they no longer define themselves by saying, "I'm a product manager with the XYZ Corp."

They might be a "keep fit, opera-loving, bicycle-riding single mother of two," who also happens to be a biochemist; or a "Harley-Davidson-riding, Herman Hesse-reading, 55-year-old grandfather," who also is vice president of marketing for a supermarket chain.

Their definition of who they are has changed forever. Thus, firms can hire them and fire them, reward them and disappoint them; they are who they are and do not belong to the company.

Long gone is the "company man," who had one job for life, from which he retired with a gold watch and rich pension. In today's workplace, professionals change jobs an average of 12 times during their lifetimes.

Thus, companies still using the "old definition" are making a huge mistake. To engage new-age employees, employers will have to do better. To gain the respect and consequently the commitment of the millennials--workers in their 20s and early 30s--firms have to acknowledge who their employees really are. The result? Those organizations that build their workforce with the new thinking will be winners at keeping their best people.

Managers are now tasked with understanding the needs and expectations of their employees (young and old, skilled and semi-skilled) and would-be employees as well as their chosen lifestyles.

It's important to know about the subtle changes that have taken place in the last few years and create a work structure that allows for maximum flexibility. It also involves a good dose of innovation and a willingness to make changes in how employers approach the job with their employees.

Most of the available research points to the small and medium enterprise (SME) category as being more able to cope with this updated workplace situation, because the smaller size of the firm creates a family-type atmosphere. But this is not always the case.

Often SMEs lack the resources in both money and manpower to quickly react to emerging trends or make effective decisions. This lifestyle revolution is no different. Far from identifying closely with the company's products or services some, at least, will find that this is not what they get out of bed for five days a week. In an SME, this can have dramatic consequences.

It's About Engaging Employees

Now, this focus on flexibility in business--both in the private and public sector--is not new. Trends such as telecommuting, job sharing, part-time work, interim and outsourced work have been around for many years; but make no mistake--it's different now. Vast numbers of employees are redefining their lifestyles and consequently, their workstyles, too.

Basically, this means that individuals everywhere will self-select employers on the basis of how they want to build their own lives.

Employers that are not open to drastic change in how they run their businesses will end up starved of the very talent they require to succeed.

Conversely, those employers that make the changes in how they organize for work will earn the respect of their employees; they will become the new "great places to work."

To...