Study On Flexible Working Management Essay

For past many years it has been searched that working life pattern is changing and a new concept of ‘Flexibility’ is evolving. This new type of system has been searched and argued and now seems to replace the old concepts like Taylorirm, Fordism or we can simply say bureaucracy.

The debate on possible impacts of flexibility is going on from last 2 decades. There are many researchers who have understood impacts of flexibility in positive terms (Hammer and Champy 1995; Schonberger 1986; Voss and Clutterbuck 1989; Womack et al. 1990). They say that flexibility is not only for benefits of organisation. It is equally beneficial for employees as well. According to them flexibility brings empowerment and improved employability. They also say that when comparing flexibility approach with Taylorism or Fordism

Atkinson’s model has suggested that employees can be put in two categories: first is core and second is periphery. Core employees means permanent employees who are working in favourable conditions. (1984, Atkinson and Meager 1986). According to Atkinson’s model the willingness of core employees to accept changes provides flexibility to organisation which can be called as functional flexibility. The temporary workers are termed as periphery in this model. They provide numerical flexibility to organisation as there number can be increased or decreased at any time according to the requirements.

Title

The Benefits of Flexible Working and Matching Employer-Employee Needs in today’s world.

Aim

To understand the benefits of flexible working practices in organisations in UK.

Objectives:

To conduct a critical review of main concepts and definitions related to flexible working practices,

To investigate the impact of flexible working practices in organisational performance in UK,

To analyse the impact of flexible working practices on employee motivation to satisfy his needs.

Intoduction

In UK and other countries, the approaches of Human Resource Management are changing. Every organisation whether private or public are trying to attract and retain good employees. The HR is innovating new techniques and practices to attract and retain good skill holders who are valuable for company. Many organisations in UK are offering different types of patterns of flexible working like annualized hours, flexi-time, job share, part time etc. Introducing flexible working help employees to maintain work life balance and it is a very good tool or technique to attract and retain good skills.

This research paper will analyse the impact of offering flexible working helps in attracting and retain employees. We also focus on how flexible working help in employee motivation and performance.

Now day’s lots of changes are coming in the demands of employees. Organisations are competing to attract and retain the best one. Attracting good skills and retaining trained employees ia very important for companies to achieve their goals and objectives.

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Laws and policies affect the recruitment process of an organisation. Company has to follow rules like giving equal opportunity without doing any discrimination on the basis of age, gender, cultural background, disability. Now these days more women are coming to work. They have to maintain a balance between their work life and family life. They need flexible work arrangements so that they can easily handle their career and family.

Statement of the Problem

            This research paper will aim to determine the impact of Flexible Working on the recruitment and retention processes of two private organizations in the United Kingdom. Specifically, the study intends to answer the following questions:

1. What is the impact of flexible working options in the recruitment of employees?

2. What is the impact of flexible working options in the retention of employees?

3. How do flexible working options affect employee absenteeism?

4. How do flexible working options affect employee motivation? 

Aims of the Study

            The study is designed to determine the importance of flexi-time arrangements. The main aims of the study are:

1. To determine whether flexible working arrangements attract job applicants.

2. To determine whether flexible working arrangements affect the employee’s decision to stay in organisation.

4. To determine whether flexible working arrangements affect employee absenteeism, and turnover.

Significance of the Research

This research paper will be one more addition to existing studies and researches done in past. This topic is point of interest of many organisations around the world. It could provide useful knowledge and information for HR managers and policy makers in an organisation.

Literature Review

For past many years it has been searched that working life pattern is changing and a new concept of ‘Flexibility’ is evolving. This new type of system has been searched and argued and now seems to replace the old concepts like Taylorirm, Fordism or we can simply say bureaucracy.

The debate on possible impacts of flexibility is going on from last 2 decades. There are many researchers who have understood impacts of flexibility in positive terms (Hammer and Champy 1995; Schonberger 1986; Voss and Clutterbuck 1989; Womack et al. 1990). They say that flexibility is not only for benefits of organisation. It is equally beneficial for employees as well. According to them flexibility brings empowerment and improved employability.

Flextime was introduced as an intervention to reduce tardiness and absenteeism, and it was initially implemented at a German aerospace company. This implementation resulted in 40% reduction in absenteeism, along with decreased overtime expense, decreased turnover rates, decreased tardiness, and increased morale (Swart, 1978).

From the employer’s prospective, “Flexibility means being able to adjust quickly to changing economic conditions: expanding, contracting, or reallocating labour supply as needed; and improving service in order to become more competitive by increasing productivity and decreasing costs,” (Christine Avery and Diane Zabel, 2001). From the employees’s prospective, “Flexibility means being able to adjust work time or workplace when personal needs are in conflict with their current schedule: being able to alter starting and quitting times occasionally; reducing paid work time for a while so they can return to school, start a family, or recover from burnout; attending nonwork functions without being penalized.” (Christine Avery and Diane Zabel, 2001).

In 1991 the conference Board published a report. This report concluded that “there is evidence to suggest that work-family programs can improve a company’s bottom line” (Friedman 1991, 9). One Wellesley College Center for Research on Women study found that flexibility is associated with greater job satisafaction and reduced work/family stress for all workers, including those without children (Marshall and Barnett 1993). This study, Family-Friendly Workplaces, Work-Family Interface and Worker Health, used data from Adult Lives Project. This project is a longitudinal study of a random sample of 300 Boston-area couples in which both teh men and women were employed full time. The purpose of these studies was to examine the role of workplace benefits and flexibility in teh reduction of work/family stain. The researchers found that “Flexibility is associated with grater job satisfaction and reduced work interference for all workers”. Marshall and Barnett concluded that although “job flexibility does not have a significant direct effect on worker’s psychological distress,” it does have “an indirect effect on psychological distress, through its associations with work interference and job satisfaction”. Consequently, “for two-earner couples, job flexibility is associated with job satisfaction and the work-family interface, and indirectly, “job flexibility also impacts worker mental health”. The authors stressed that it will become increasingly important to have family-friendly workplaces as the number of dual earner couples increases.

Flexible working practices: techniques and innovations, 2002

 By John Stredwick, Steve Ellis

There have been a number of surveys in the last few years that throw light on the reality of the movement towards flexible working. All point to a patchy but consistent growth in the use of flexible working practices, although few organisations appear to be moving in this direction for strategic reasons.

A report by Policy Studies Institute (Casey et al, 1997) drew evidence form a Labour Force Survey (LFS) and a number of case studies and came to the conclusion that there had been a substantial increase in the use of flexible working time over the previous decade, and that more than half of all employees now worked variable hours every week. There had also been a proliferation in the number of people working part-time or on a temporary basis, and a growth – though at a slower rate – in the use of subcontractors.

Flexibility in Practice, a report commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission (Neathy and Hurstfield, 1995), found that employees were making increasing demands on all employees to become more flexible, both in working flexible hours and in functional flexibility.

Guide to Flexible Working 2008

 By Graham Paul

Employment Relations Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said: “Modern information and communication technologies are changing the way UK business works. Telework, using technology to work away from the traditional office environment, has the potential to bring a wide range of benefits to both employers and employees and it is important that these benefits are realised and exploited fully.”

The difficulties, encountered by many employees, of balancing the pressures of home with those of the workplace can lead to poor productivity at work. The reasons are both practical and psychological and include:

Worrying about problems at home, and simultaneously feeling powerless to handle them properly, which is distracting from the work in hand;

The strictures of a full-time working pattern can instil a sense of general disempowerment, and thus reduce the responsibility the employee feels towards the company and their work; and

Lack of variation in the day to day routine can be stagnating, thus reducing creativity and agility of thougth.

Long hours are increasingly the norm for UK employees. Factors such as customer demand 24/7 delivery, increased attendance at meetings, excessive quantities of reports, memos and emails to read and answer, frequent travel and insufficient resources have contributed significantly to the phenomenon.

Working long hours can potentially have detrimental implications on:

The productivity of the employees due to inability to maintain focus when suffering form sleep deprivation, a poor diet etc.

The individual well-being of the employee (physical, psychological or behavioural);

Health and safety;

Absenteeism; and

Staff turnover.

Further, the acute difficulties of balancing long hours with a family can force employees who are parents, more commonly the mother, to step off the promotion ladder because the work-life balance is unsustainable.

Technology

Advances in technology allow for the majority of employees to work effectively form anywhere. Assuming the work can be undertaken remotely, the growing sophistication of technology makes home or flexible working a feasible solution to achieving a work-life balance. From the employes’s perspective, homeworking, if managed effectively, could actually technological overheads. There are various issues to be considered here including confidentiality and health and safety.

Environmental benefits

Some employers are also aware of the less obvious benefit of the effect of flexible working patterns on the environment. Any flexible working patterns which reduces an employee’s travel time (e.g. compressed hours or homeworking) will cut the employee’s carbon emissions and thus reduce the environmental impact of the employer’s business.

Furthermore, whilst home offices will be equipped with technological appliances, lighting and heating, in offices these facilities only exist for the benefit of those that work here. In home environments, they are already required as a facet of home life.

Benefits to employers

An employee who is content in their working environment will be more focused and less distracted by anxieties, stress or dissatisfaction, and this is reflected in customer satisfaction.

Businesses are recognising that flexible working is a valuable recruitment and retention incentive. Higher quality candidates will be attracted by good, flexible working conditions offered by employer, and moreover existing employees are more likely to strive for and maintain a high level of work in order to retain their position. In organisations where the flexible working concept has been embraced and ‘promoted’ by management, the results have been positive both in terms of output and employee satisfaction, to the extent of course that either is truly measurable.

The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR, previously the DTI) and Business Link also report greater cost effectiveness and efficiency as further positive outcomes of a flexible working policy.

64% of the employees of the UK arm of a global technology company were considering leaving its employment due to dislike of its long hours culture. The MD introduce a culture changing programme which permitted flexible working applications from all employees, not just those permitted to apply under the legislative right to request. After the introduction of this policy, the company saw a 60% increase in productivity and 80% customer service increase. 90% of employees now wish to remain with the company.

Benefits to employees

The main gain for employees who are permitted to work flexibility is the ability to balance the requirements of their personal life with their work. Some flexible working patterns enable employees to avoid commuting in peak times or altogether, thus reducing increased stress levels associated with the same. This may reduce the number of employees taking sick leaves.

Flexible Working

 By John Stredwick, Steve Ellis, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2005

The Advantages, Challenges and Risks of Flexible working:

The move to increased flexibility offers some signcificant advantages to many businesses. Capitalising on the 24-hour economy often requires services to be provided when customers want them, not just when it is convenient to the provider. Dealing with peaks and troughs of demand becomes more manageable, and access is opened up to new labour markets where traditional working patterns cannot be contemplated.

Flexible working can also stimulate higher job satisfaction and commitment levels from employees, where they can see a clear personal benefits from the change.

Alongside these advantages, flexible working also brings significant challenges. Organisations may need to rethink many aspects of their HR practices, for example to enable flexibilisation of rewards, and bring in new systems of monitoring and performance management.

There are risks involved with introducing flexible working, and these need not be understand. Risks resulting from a lack of standardisation over what is going on in the business might include allegations of unfair treatment by some sections of the workforce where flexibilisation is more readily adopted than others. Another risk may occur with the loss of managerial control and over-reliance on employees to become ‘self-managed’ where previously they were closely monitored.

Does Flexible working require a new type of HR service

Much traditional HR and management practice, from its Taylorist roots onwards, has focused on controlling activity through codification, enabling ease of replication. Ritzer(1996) noted a late twentieth-century form of Taylorism, the sociological phenomenon he named ‘McDonaldisation’, in which virtually any application of human behaviour can be reduced to essential, codifiable knowledge chunks. But what both manager’s primary role is to ensure compliance and conformity.

The reduction of HR management into written manuals has historically enabled organisations to manage people more efficiently. But such a practice is viable only where practices are relatively stable, and change is predictable. For the introduction of increase flexibility, many traditional tools and systems of management are not adequate.

There is another aspect, requiring change of a higher order of magnitude. Many traditional organisations were just not configured for flexible working. Established structures are designed for logical, predictable ‘9-5’ chunks, but flexible working is simply not like that. In order to capture the innovative, creative energy of predominantly knowledge workers, organisations will need to become flexible places where innovations happens, where creativity is the norm not the exception, and employees are willing to share much more of themselves, their talents, aspirations and views than is currently achieved.

There are many patterns of flexibility like flextime, compressed workweek, job sharing, voluntary part time work, leaves and sabbaticals, phased retirement, voluntary reduced work time, and work sharing. Now we will review the literature on all flexible working patterns mentioned above and their characterstics, adavantages and disadvantages.

Flexitime : the first alternative work arrangement to gain acceptance, was implemented at a Hewlett-Packard plant beginning in 1972. Since then, it has gradually been gaining in popularity, as more private- and public- sector organisations now offer flextimes as an alternative work arrangement.

There are three forms of flextime: (1) the gliding schedule, which allows workers to vary arrival and departures times; (2) variable schedules, which require a specified number of working hours without set schedules; and (3) compensatory time arrangements, which allow employees to apply overtime to future time off.

Flextime offers employees a better balance between work demands and those of home, school, or outside activities. It also helps relieve transit and commuting problems. In addition, given a voice in the scheduling of their workday, employees tend to feel involved in the company’s decision process. This in turn may strengthen employer-employee relations. Employees are also able to schedule work more in tune with their own “internal clocks” that is, they choose to work during those hours when their skill and response levels are most keen.

Benefits to the employer include extended hours of coverage or service, which reduces or eliminates the need for overtime; reduced tardiness, absenteeism, and turnover; an expanded and improved recruitment pool; and improved work performance attributable to many situations and can be implemented in a variety of circumstances, although it tends to function best in work environments that promote independence and self motivation.

Compressed Workweeks: following close on the heels of flextime in the early 1970s was the idea of the compressed workweek. This alternative arrangement allows employees to work the required full time schedule in fewer than give days. The most popular schedule remains four ten-hour days in a typical of-qualified candidates striving to balance family, job responsibilities, and outside interests.

Job Sharing: job sharing can be defined as an arrangement in which two employees divide the responsibilities of one full-time job. It is distinguishable from regular part-time employment. While the concept of job sharing has been around for more than thirty years, only since the mid-1980s have organisations such as Quaker Oats Co. And Levi Strauss & Co. Started viewing it as a viable work arrangement.

Numerous employer benefits are derived from job sharing, including the broader range of skills brought to the position, the retention of valuable workers who might otherwise leave, a higher level of energy, and reduced absenteeism. In addition, job sharing virtually eliminates the need for employees to take care of personal business while on the job. Also, any time one partner terminates the job is still half filled at all times. There is also the added benefit of having the job filled at all times. Rarely is it left uncovered because of vacation or illness.

There are some drawbacks to job sharing: Twice as much payroll and personal record keeping is required, and clients or customers may complain about the inability to deal with the same person consistently.

Barriers to Flexible working

The size of the organisation reduce their ability to be flexible, cost difficulty of supervising employees, and concern over disruption in the schedules of project completion.

The employee recruitment and retention handbook

 By Diane Arthur, 2001

Stepping outside of traditional Monday through Friday, 9-5 work schedules has become the new norm. Employees are looking for alternatives because of the collative desire to improve the balance between work and family. Employers like it or not, if they want to keep top performers, they must offer flexible work schedules.

The employee retention handbook

 By Stephen Taylor, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2002

In recent years recruitment and retention difficulties have moved to the top of the human resource management agenda in most UK organisations, displacing performance management and employee relations issues as those which consume most management time (IRS, 2000).

There are many ways in which patterns of work could be adjusted in such a way as to have a positive effect on retention. Job share and part-time working have a far greater role to play than is generally accepted in the force.

The impact of work/life balance on balance on retention is significant. A study by Spherion revealed that workers who take advantage of the work/life balance benefits offered by their employers indicated that they are 20% more likely to stay with their employers for the next five years (Spherion, 2003). Additional research has demonstrated that employees who perceive their organisations and supervisors as supportive to their family needs are more committed to the organisations and more likely to remain with their employer (Jahn, 1998).

Top talent may find value in flexible work schedules or being able to choose their own work hours. Part-time work or flexible work hours benefits both the organisations and the employee because these programmes reduce absenteeism and turnover and allow people to set their own hours. 54% of employees in 2006 stated that flexible work hours were important to them, and 35% stated that the option to work from home or telecommute was important (Randstad Work Solutions, 2006). Research sponsored by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation found that worker flexibility had a positive effect on productivity and customer service. In fact, Watson Wyatt, a human resource consulting firm, found that a flexible workplace is associated with a 9% increase in market value. Additionally, Eli Lilly found that the more flexibility and control over their work hours that employees had been given, the greater their job satisfaction, and they indicated that they were less likely to leave the company (Corporate Voices for Working Families, 2005). Some workers may even prefer to change form full-time to part-time, which can also be beneficial to both the employee and the organisation. According to a study by Catalyst, 46% of respondents who had switched from full- to part-time work reported an increase in productivity, morale, commitment to the company, and retention (McShulskis, 1998, January).

Research has demonstrated that organisations can increase productivity or revenue or both by as much as 20% simply by implementing work/life balance programs (Withers, 2001).

Ernst and Young, a professional services organisation, has implemented a program to attract more women. The organisation was able to double the number of minorities in its organisations, with nearly half of its workforce being women (14,000 out of 33,000), due to implementing programs specific to the needs of this population, including mentoring, networking opportunities, and flexible work arrangements. The result is that the organisation has successfully retained women (Tapping into Diversity, 2001).

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CIPD (2005) research looked at the flexible working arrangements in approximately 600 organisations. The results indicated that 26% of organisations had flexible arrangements, but these were most common in the public sector organisations (42% of respondents). Some 36% of respondents also made special arrangements for employees with dependents. The survey found that 75% of respondents suggested that flexible working improved retention rates and almost as many reported an improvement in morale. Approximately 50% thought that resourcing had been made easier as a result of being able to offer flexible working. The research also reported that the majority of the requests for flexible working (78%) came from women: 97% of organisations offered flexibility to clerical and administrative staff: 86% of organisations had made the provision available to senior managers. 30% of respondents reported a high take-up of flexible work arrangements by clerical and administrative staff, but only 8% reported a high take-up within senior management levels. The research also reported that operational limitations and concerns over the ability to manage staff working flexibly were the biggest reason for not offering or agreeing to flexible working. Research undertaken for BT (Happy People, 2008) also found that flexible working improved productivity by 54% and reduced costs by about 11%.

Managing employee retention: a strategic accountability approach

 By Jack J. Phillips, Adele O. Connell

When work interferes with family time and relationships, there is a higher absenteeism rate and turnover than when the individual is able to balance family needs with the support of organization.

According to a study by Catalyst, 46% of respondents who had switched form a full-time to part-time work reported an increase in productivity, morale, commitment to the company, and the retention.

Flexible working options, such as part-time employment and job sharing, are becoming increasing attractive to employees. Flextime, for example, has become the most popular flexible work arrangements and results in a bonus to employers and employees alike. The solution allows full-time employees to work at convenient times off, extending service hours (without over-time pay), and reducing absenteeism and turnover.

CIGNA Corp., which has business in health care, insurance, and financial services, has discovered that by letting employees work part time or in a compressed work week with full benefits saves money by reducing turnover, lowering training and recruiting costs. Of CIGNA’s 37,000 employees, 12,000 work part time, a third of them in professional and management positions, and any employee working more than 24 hours a week receives full benefits.

Companies have found they can increase productivity, revenue, or both by as much as 20% simply by implementing a work/life balance program (Withers, 2001). Ten firms were profiled in a 2-year study by Work in America Institute (WAI, Scarsdale, N.Y.), a nonprofit research and membership organisation. Although turnover/retention was not a factor in the study, they found taht companies using life balance programs to address employee’s personal needs improved performance in areas of absenteeism, customer service, overtime, stress, flexibility, collaboration, innovation, and creativity.

Striving to improve a dismal turnover rate and boost employees’ job satisfaction, Cross Country Staffing, a medical staffing company in Boca Raton, Florida, embarked on a series of improvements that culminated in its being named one of the best 100 companies for working mothers by Working Women magazine. By listening to the needs of 80% female corporate staff, many of whom were working mothers, Cross Country implemented family support programs that helped reduce a turnover rate taht was up to 80% at its high point and helped the business to grow. The family support programs included allowing employees to share jobs, telecommute, and have flexible schedules. All the programs were successful: “the turnover rate is in the low double digits and the company rarely loses employees to voluantary attrition,” according to the president of Cross Country. “I found that people were more focussed on work, that they redoubled their efforts and made sure they worked well.” (Corzo, 2000)

Managing Talent Retention: An ROI Approach

 By Jack J. Phillips, Lisa Edwards

Organisations expect employees to achieve organisational goals, yet employees have lives away form their work. Work/life balance refers to the need of employees to balance the workplace demands with their personal lives. Organisations that support employees’ non-work activities help them with work/life balance and, as a result, employees are more satisfied and loyal.

The constantly growing competitive landscape, combined with increasing customer demand and globalization, has turned up the pressure to work 24/7. As a result the distinction between home life and work life has become lees clear. For many managers, especially for senior managers, an unwritten expectation is that they are constantly accessible. Additionally, employees with international responsibilities regularly work off-hours to accommodate for meetings held across time zones. In a survey conducted by IRC/ORC Worldwide, 55% of surveyed employees reported that they do not take all of their earned vacation. More concerning is that employees continue to check e-mail or participate in conference calls, even when they do take that vacation (Cummins, 2007). Further, 34% of workers in United Kingdom say that the demands of their jobs “seriously interfered” with their private lives (Wiltjer, 2005). In the United Kingdom, almost half of workers find it difficult to balance their work at least sometimes, and more than 25% indicated that it was difficult to balance their work all the time (Hurst & Baker, 2005).

The impact of work/life balance on retention is significant. A study of Spherion revealed that workers who take advantage of the work/life balance benefits offered by their employers indicated that they are 20% more likely to stay with their employers for next 5 years (Spherion, 2003). Additional research has demonstrated that employees who perceive their organisations and supervisors as supportive to their family needs are more committed to the organisation and more likely to remain with their employer (Jahn, 1998). Finally, one organisation realized a saving of $70 million per year in reduced turnover by being sensitive to employees’ needs (Schu, 2001).

Top talent may find value in flexible work schedules or being able to choose their own work hours. Part-time work or flexible work hours benefit both the organisation and the employee because these programs reduce absenteeism and turnover and allow people to set their own work hours. 55% of employees in 006 stated that flexible work