Blog
9 - Flexible working
Identify 3 companies who
offer flexible working. Try to include different forms of flexibility, eg
part-time, zero hours, using contractors, working from home.
What is flexibility at work?
It is ‘The ability of an organisation to adapt the size, composition,
responsiveness and cost of the people inputs required to achieve organisational
objectives’. (Corbridge, 2010)
In recent years flexibility
at work has become very important. One type of working flexibility is part time
hours. Part time hours are normally carried out by casual younger members of
staff within a company. For example within Fusion lifestyle’s leisure centres,
part time hours are contracted to young lifeguards generally studying at
college and university. These hours give the lifeguards the flexibility to keep
their work life balance in order, as well as providing that Fusion’s leisure centres
will all ways be staffed as these non core members have signed contracts stating
they will work a minimum prearranged number of working hours within a
week/month. Part time work has been defined as being, “The number of hours
worked is determined by (a) the needs of the job, and (b) the needs of the
employee. Part-time employees can increase the flexibility of worked hours for
instance if cover is only needed only at peak times.” (Council, 2011)
Companies
such as Disney allow many of its staff to work from home. Disney allows some
its staff to work from the comfort of their own home. This may be because the
staff member has commitments to a child of theirs that may be newly born or
suffer from disabilities. Despite these two options the most common job that Disney
provide when working from home is to sell Disney vacations, as a Disney
vacation planner. Disney provides up to 70% commission when working within this
position. Working from home is also known as locational flexibility. Disney is
also able to cope with the needs presented by generation Y. Generation Y employees
are born after 1982 and are interested in money and possessions. They are also known
for their motto that you ‘Work to live’ rather than the pre 1982 generations
that ‘Lived to work’. The only real problems with Disney’s work form home sceme
are that its employees could feel isolated. Prospects found that separation
from work colleagues due to lack of face to face communication leads employees to
feel isolated and vulnerable. (Prospects,
2012)
Hiring contractors is a
modern scheme used by many local councils around the country as a way of
increasing the profitability in certain industries and increases the flexibility
of working hours that they can provide. An example of a council using
contractors could be found in the borough of Hounslow. The London borough of
Hounslow uses a major contractor to manage all of its leisure centres and
facilities within the borough. The council employs Fusion life style to manage
and run its leisure centres as fusion have signed contracts saying that they
can run the centres at a lower cost and higher profitability than the council
ever could. This kills two birds with one stone for the council as they are
making more money from their facilities, but also and probably more importantly
don’t have to worry about managing any of the sites as it is all done
externally by the contractor Fusion lifestyle. The flexibility provided by hiring
the contractors are that the council is able to avoid any un-necessary
redundancies even in the world current economic climate. Another advantage of
hiring a contractor is that an established contractor will have a low staff turnover,
with strategic recruitment processes that create good staff retention of a
diverse work force appealing to as many people as possible, without discriminating
anyone.
Explain the different forms
of flexibility. What are the advantages to the employees and the employers of
these practices? Identify any challenges that may arise from these different
working methods, particularly for the line manager
There are five main types
of working flexibility:
1. Numerical
flexibility
2. Functional
flexibility
3. Financial
flexibility
4. Locational
flexibility
5. Temporal
flexibility
Numerical
flexibility is when a company increases’ and decreases the number of working staff
members to cope with customer demands and needs. A good example of this is when
major retailers take on extra staff over the Christmas period to cope with
demand.
Functional
flexibility is when employees are asked to have multiple skills and work
between differing jobs.
Finical
Flexibility is when a company provides pay and rewards that differ between
groups of employees, for example part time employees will receive different benefits
compared to full time employees.
Locational
flexibility is when a company allows its employees to work in different places
such as at home to increase their comfort ability and help them manage their
personal work life balance.
Temporal
flexibility creates altering working hours to enable a more efficient use of
labour. For example a company would make sales staff work longer hours during
peak times of the year to improve profitability.
These
type of flexibility cause line managers problems as, line managers stereotypically
fear reorganising work and don’t like working above an unpredictable work
force. These flexible working methods are also seen as some line managers as a
way of the company increasing its powers of exploitation over its work force.
An example of this would be the way in which some organisations make major
reductions in the income and security of its employees. All of the methods hold
key problems to line managers, as line managers are the first line of authority
between the main work force and management. This means that they have to deal
with, organise and structure all of these methods so that the staff stays happy
and ready to work as well as making sure that the organisation runs as smoothly
as is humanly possible while still turning a profit annually.
Conclusion
To conclude flexibility at
work is going to have to be considered by any organisation that wishes to stay
afloat. The Y generation born after 1982 have become accustom to its practises therefore
any business in operation now will have to consider and cater to their working
needs. A Harvard study found 82% of men
between ages of 20 and 39 said a “family friendly” schedule was most important
work criterion.
(“On
the Daddy Track”, Wall Street Journal, 11 May 2000)
This suggests that
flexibility is no longer an choice it has become part and parcel with everyone’s
working life. Both employees and the organisations themselves need to stay
flexible to work side by side together.
Bibliography
Corbridge, P.a. (2010) 2 May.
Council,
W.C. (2011) Warwickshire.gov.uk [online]. Warwickshire.gov.uk.
Available from:
http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/web/corporate/pages.nsf/Links/E96824CB0794591D8025738B005F2C8B
[Accessed: 2 May 2012].
Prospects
(2012) Blackboard [PowerPoint]. Blackboard. Available from:
https://blackboard.bucks.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp [Accessed: 3 may
2012].
(“On the Daddy Track”, Wall Street Journal, 11 May 2000)