Patagonia's Flexibility Case Study

I do feel that many companies could inspire Patagonia's level of loyalty by employees by providing work environments with similar benefits. Today’s companies should encourage social responsibility. Fellow organizations could profit from enhancing employee benefits and assisting in a healthy life to work balance.
Flexibility is the basis for Chouinard’s work methodology. Flexibility in scheduling allows the balance between work and life. Thus, the Patagonia Company does not care when an employee works as long as the work is completed without impacting fellow coworkers (A Little Enlightened Self-Interest, 2010). A healthy life to work balance is a critical aspect to employee happiness. Thus, Patagonia’s implementation of a casual, but productive work environment is heavily sought.
Management must take steps and implement initiatives to reflect the value of their employees. Wal-Mart’s turnover rate is exceptionally high at 45 percent in full-time workers and 56 percent part-time workers per year (Rosen, 2005). Whereas, Patagonia’s is a mere 4 percent annually (Ferrell, Hirt, & Ferrell, 2009). It is understandable that Wal-Mart could not openly offer flextime in comparison to Patagonia. However, employees would feel less burn and stress if the Wal-Mart Company would offer comparable maternity, child care, and sick leave. Employees with sick children are faced with the decision to work or stay home with ill children. Childcare constraints are heavily faced with working Wal-Mart families. The call in and retention rate would dramatically be different if child care was available through the