A growing number of law firms and companies are implementing benefits programs that support employee efforts to balance work and personal obligations. Below are some of the most common nontraditional offerings.

Telecommuting
Telecommuting is any scheduling arrangement in which employees spend a portion of the week working from home. Their schedules remain the same, but travel time is eliminated.

Flextime
Flextime is one of the most widespread alternate work options and is geared toward employees who normally work a fixed number of hours each day, as opposed to attorneys, paralegals or other legal professionals whose schedules fluctuate according to caseloads. In a typical flextime situation, an individual works the same number of hours in a standard work week, but his or her daily start and finish times may differ from those of other employees. A common variation of flextime is the compressed workweek. Instead of five eight-hour days, four 10-hour days are worked, resulting in one less day in the office per week.

Job Sharing
With job sharing, two part-time employees share the duties and responsibilities of one full-time job. The tasks and responsibilities are typically divided in half, but the division of labor can also be based on the preference or proficiencies of each person. Job sharing is best suited for positions with clearly defined tasks and predictable job pressure. The downside to job sharing is that finding the right match to share a job can be as tough as finding the ideal job candidate.

On-site Child Care
On-site child care is a great idea in theory – the convenience to the working parent is obvious. But many firms find that government regulations and the cost of liability insurance make this a difficult program to implement. As a result, many opt for contracted day care, where the employer contracts with one or more outside providers to offer child care services for employees.

Elder Care
As people live longer, a growing number of employees are caring for their aging parents or other relatives. Firms are responding to this trend by offering elder care benefits, such as referrals to service providers.

As firms incorporate nontraditional benefits into their compensation packages, they're finding another advantage to these offerings: Employees with better work/life balance bring more energy and drive to the job.