In March 2008, Merck commissioned a global survey of our flexible working practices to:

• Determine employees’ and managers’ awareness and understanding of Merck’s flexibility policies.
• Identify barriers to the successful use of flexibility.
• Measure use and impacts both for the business and the individual; and
• Establish a baseline against which Merck can measure impact and change over time.

The survey was administered to a random sample of 12,179 Merck employees from 77 countries. There was a 61 percent response rate.

Results showed that:

• Use of Merck’s formal flexible work arrangements on an on-going basis or even occasionally increases engagement, productivity, retention, satisfaction and work-life effectiveness.
  • Engagement is 29 percent higher when employees have the flexible work arrangements that they need.
  • Expected turnover is more than twice as high for employees who do not have the flexibility they need.
  • Access to flexibility is a very important retention tool for 49 percent of Merck employees.
  • And the survey also showed that access to occasional flexibility had a positive impact on employee satisfaction.
• Despite having implemented a best practice flexible workplace policy in the United States and a few other countries several years ago, many employees are either unaware of the flexibility programs Merck has to offer or cannot access them.
• While occasional flexibility has been well received by male and female employees and managers in some parts of the business, it is less available in some divisions and countries.
• The most significant barriers to flexibility are lack of acceptance of flexibility; access to flexibility that is inconsistent and varies from manager to manager; and excessive workload.
  • Some of these barriers have been addressed by providing employees with resources such as flexibility training for both managers and employees on my/MerckFlex website; detailed guidance on the variety of available flexible work arrangements; and frequently asked questions and success stories from colleagues around the world.

Detailed Results

• Some form of ongoing or occasional flexibility is used by 57 percent of respondents across the business.
  • Twenty-two percent have an ongoing flexible work arrangement, while 35 percent use flexibility on occasion.
  • Overall, men and women use flexibility in roughly equal percentages.
    
• Seventy percent of employees who use flexibility programs and tools report they are satisfied with opportunities to work flexibly.
  
  
• Managers and employees concur that flexibility has a positive influence on many aspects of employees’ personal and professional lives, including:
  • The ability to manage personal/family responsibilities (89 percent and 96 percent, respectively)
  • Productivity and effectiveness (88 percent and 79 percent)
  • Morale (87 percent and 95 percent)
  • Absenteeism (47 percent and 60 percent)
• Substantial segments of the workforce (40 percent or more) are unaware of the Company’s flexibility offerings, how to access the information about flexibility, as well as the process to request a flexibility arrangement.
  • More than half (54 percent) of men and 68 percent of women who are not currently using flexibility would be very interested in using flexibility. The greatest interest is in occasional flextime (49 percent), occasional telework (41 percent), ongoing flextime (41 percent) and compressed work week (33 percent).