Blog 9 - Flexible Working

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)