week 16 - flexible working

Flexible working

Flexible working has become a lot more popular in recent years; it is when an employee can work hours which suit them. An example of flexible working is a parent working around school hours so as to be able to collect their child from school. There are many different types of flexible working to suit different people, and many companies use these techniques to boost staff motivation and productivity.

Identify 3 companies who offer flexible working.  Try to include different forms of flexibility, eg part-time, zero hours, using contractors, working from home.

John Lewis is one example of a company which has flexible hours available to its staff. A career break scheme was introduced to enable staff to take an unpaid break from work of up to 12 months in the knowledge that their service continues and that they have a job to return to (Smith, 2009). This enables employees to do certain things, like go travelling, with the security of knowing that they have a job at the end of it. This can be beneficial to John Lewis as employees may decide to take a year out to further their education or gain new experiences. It also gives people a good incentive to work for them.

Tesco also offers a flexible working scheme but in a different way. They try to make sure everyone can work in a way that suits their circumstances by offering flexible working such as: offering part-time roles, encouraging job-sharing opportunities and shift-swapping where possible, Tesco (2012).

Another company who offer flexible working is Johnson & Johnson. For example; my mum works for them and has chosen to work from home every Wednesday and has chosen hours which suit her. They are also lenient when it comes to having odd days off fir appointments, etc. Another perk of working for Johnson & Johnson is that after 25 years of working for them they offer the chance to take 6 months paid leave.

Explain the different types of flexibility. 

The different types of flexible working have been described on the Direct Gov. website to make people more aware of it; it means that some people who think they cannot work because of other responsibilities, can in fact work. Here are some examples of different forms of flexibility from the Direct Gov. website:

Flexitime
Flexitime allows you to choose, within agreed limits, when to start and end your working day. You work a standard core time, but you can vary your start, finish and break times each day.

Homeworking
Homeworking is where you work all or part of your contracted hours from home. It allows you to spend all or part of your working week doing your job from home or a different location to your workplace.

Term-time working
This is where your work follows school term patterns. You work as normal during term-time then during school holidays you don't go to work but you are still employed. For example you could choose not to work during school holidays in order to care for your children.

Structured time off in lieu
Structured time off in lieu is where you agree to work longer hours during periods of peak activity or demand. These extra hours are recorded and you can then take the time off (with pay) at a less busy time.

Compressed hours
Compressed hours are where you work your agreed hours over fewer days. For example, instead of working a 35 hour week over five days, you could ask to work the same number of hours over four days.

Part-time working
Part-time working means you are contracted to work less than your normal full-time hours. You normally agree with your employer which hours you work.

Annualised hours
Annualised hours average out your working time across the year so that you work a set number of hours per year rather than per week. Normally, they are split into core hours that are worked each week and unallocated hours that can be used for peaks in demand.

Job-share
Job-sharing is where you work part time either, part day, part week or part year and share the duties and responsibilities of a full-time position with another part-time worker. You agree the hours between you and then share the workload, decision making, problem solving and sometimes staff supervision.

Staggered hours
Staggered hours are where you and your workplace colleagues have different start, finish and break times, allowing your employer to cover longer opening hours. It is essentially a shift system.

Advantages to employers

By providing employees with the opportunity to work flexible hours, employers will find that they are more motivated and have higher productivity. Allowing them to work to their own schedule will mean lower rates of absence and lower staff turnover. It will also increase the number of people who want to work for their company.

Advantages to employees

Some employees may be able to work when before they could not; if the job offers hours which suits them around their other responsibilities then they will be able to work. It will also mean that they are happier at work and willing to work harder. New mothers will be able to go back to work early if they need to, and homeworking would be a good opportunity for them to earn money. Overall, flexible working offers a lot of opportunities and advantages for both employees and employers, however there are some disadvantages.

Disadvantages of flexible working

·        It may be harder for flexible workers to keep up to date because they may not be in constant contact with their manager

·        They will need to have the right equipment, resources and space if working from home to allow them to work efficiently

·        If employers allow workers to choose their hours they may be a period in which no one wants to work

·        It may be hard for line managers to keep track of who is working when

The different forms of flexibility are:

¡  Locational Flexibility - Employed to work in one place but can be asked to work somewhere else, or homeworking

¡  Temporal flexibility - Altering work hours to enable more efficient use of labour eg staff working longer hours at sale time

¡  Numerical flexibility - Increase or decrease headcount to meet customer needs eg take on extra staff at Christmas

¡  Functional Flexibility - Employees are multi- skilled and can switch between jobs eg at supermarkets

¡  Financial flexibility - Pay and reward differs between groups of employees eg part time and full time get different benefits

I think that the most efficient forms of flexibility would be temporal and numerical. They are both good because they mean that staff can be used to the best advantage by the company by only employing the amount of people that they need at a certain time. This means the company will not lose money by having to pay employees which are not necessarily needed. However, it may not be popular with the employees as they would not have any work at quieter times, therefore not being paid.

In conclusion, flexible working has a lot of advantages for the company and the employees, however it needs to be controlled and only certain factors should be flexible. If the company is too lenient they may lose out on money or may find themselves with too little employees at particular times.

References

Direct Gov. (2012) Types of flexible working. [online] Available from: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Flexibleworking/DG_184872 [Accessed on 06/05/12]

Smith, K. (2009) Flexible working case study [online] Available from: http://www.bitcdiversity.org.uk/best_practice/exemplar_employers/flexible_working/case_studies/jlp.html [Accessed on: 06/05/12].

Tesco. (2012) Why join us. [online] Available from: http://www.tesco-careers.com/home/working/why-join-tesco [Accessed on: 06/05/12].