As a company which employs scientists and lab techs, you know that your most valued asset is

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Question:

As a company which employs scientists and lab techs, you know that your most valued asset is the creativity of your employees. You also know that creativity doesn’t always show up between the designated hours of 8 and 5. Thus, you have a very open flex time schedule for your employees. However, you have been noticing that some of your staff are abusing the privilege. The 45 people involved in the manufacturing group are not a problem as they work designated shifts and are responsible. However, some of the 30 Ph.D. qualified scientists and 60 college educated lab techs are coming in late, leaving early, and not being fully present for their designated 40 hours a week.

As you explore the situation, you discover that five of the scientists are part of the problem. Two of them are your most productive scientists and responsible for some of your major product breakthroughs. Three of the scientists are performing adequately but are not exceptionally productive. About 10% of the tech staff are also playing fast and loose with their hours. Again, three are very productive, exceeding expectations as far as their work while the other six are adequate to below-adequate performers.

Be Reasonable: Preserving Rights and Responsibilities

After brainstorming with the leadership team, you have identified four options:

Handle the issue individually. Make the focus on productivity rather than whether "face time" has been met by meeting the requirements of the clock.
Do not make any change and send an intranet message to all employees that people need to pay attention to their hours and be responsible for making sure that they work the designated hours.
Institute a policy where each person has to wear a badge with a global positioning device and log when people come and go. Meet with those individually who are not at work their full 40 hours per week.
Get rid of all flex time and institute a policy where people have to be at work at designated times and take designated breaks. "Write up" those who do not comply.

The Greatest Good: In three to four coherent paragraphs, compare and contrast your options using the Results Lens. In the process, consider the following questions:

Influence Factor: Given that different stakeholder groups are affected in different proportion, determine the impact that the decision will have on various groups?
Criteria for Happiness: What are the criteria for happiness for the various stakeholders? In considering the criteria, determine what options may be "deal breakers" and what factors might be "tipping points."
Units of Happiness: How many "utils" of happiness do each option provide to each stakeholder?
Greatest Good: Determine which option creates the greatest good for the greatest number of people.