The Evolution of the Modern Workplace - Essay Example

FLEXIBILITY IS EQUALLY ADVANTAGEOUS FOR EMPLOYERS AND WORKERS, BASED ON THE THEORIES PRESENTED SO FAR by + Name University Name City, State Date Following a growing pattern inside dual-earning partners, growing spouse and children requirements to manage old age, more and more sophisticated health insurance and other health care arrangements, much more indicated need involving older workers to keep up a number of link with and then labor force from older age, much more indicated dependence on freedom may be happening more often. (Gregg, 2011) Unfortunately, the functioning organizations soon enough and area have got changed reasonably minor, especially considering the substantial change in the economy and also the growing purpose played by versatile function policies’ rendering. Staff get sequentially recounted them to want increased do the job freedom applied at his or her locations, and some businesses get solved through leading the way in order to implement insurance policies that make it possible for freedom. From the circumstance associated with perform, mobility has become utilized to allocate very a range of strategies. A number of the procedures advantage business employers, and others had been supporting employees and largely best for each enterprise and employees. (Brown, 2009) As an example, firms may well provide you with the type of mobility in an effort to deal with this workforce letting them react environmentally friendly alterations simply by changing informally all doing the job circumstances and expectations. This specific flexibility will involve supplying individuals much more choices inside exactly where, just how and once to accomplish their function, how they can prepare their careers to fulfill requires about household in addition to particular together with cultural jobs. For the full-time workers, schedule flexibility can range from a three 12 hour days with four days off for a compressed week to a seven 10 hour days with seven days off. Place flexibility means work can be done in satellite offices, in the office, at home or a combination of any of the above. (Rubery, 2003) Flexibility on career allows workers’ multiple entries to jobs; with the option of mixing full-time with part-time work or spending few years or months out of the workforce to attend to family matters and social life. Flexible working hours enable employees to arrange their activities of work by choosing a starting and ending time for work, compressing weeks of work volunteering or rejecting overtime work, receiving compensation for overtime as well as accepting part-time or part-year or full-year work. Workers may be given paid leave for some or all of maternity/paternity, family caring, illness, training/education, holidays, and vacations. Even if contracting has become a frequently stated alternative for employees interested to have more freedom, it gives a different kind of relationship in employment with independent contractors being more of self-employed laborers. (Sisson, 2010) Although there is a proposition that working with independent contractors aids employers meet their demand for acquisition of skills quickly adapting to changing environments, it is also seen as undermining the loyalty of employees and unique capabilities development impediment. Independent contracting has been as well used as means of retaining skills and older workers’ experience. For instance, reducing working hours from full-time to part-time as a way of attaining partial retirement often has an effect on the pensions, health and other benefits of the older employees. Flexibility in the workplace can be an important strategy in business. Studies have proven that employees in more flexible and efficient workplaces are more likely to have more engagement in their work, higher job satisfaction levels, less stressful and negative spillover from work to home and work to home and better health mentally. Although some employers seem to have workplace flexibility, many see the policies as part of employee benefit packages, defining them as worker demands the company must incur accommodations that are the benefits primarily add to the worker and the costs. Researchers argue that the increasing suggestions of self-employed employees at older ages includes evidence that older workers have more arrangements of work that are flexible. Even if older workers often show interest in phased retirement, studies of the process of retirement have shown consistently that reducing working hours and effort gradually with the same employer is rare. (Moynagh, 2005) Analysis of HRS data by Per Un, Penner and Steuerle (2002) shows that 26 percent of employees in full-time work of age 51 to 65 worked for employers who gave a reduction in working hours. Single parent families and dual-earner families more often with women heading them, are affected by family unfriendly places of work. By allowing employees to reduce gradually their working hours, coordinate their different sources of income, modify their responsibilities at workplaces, we may bring in a new stage in work life- a “phased retirement” stage. (Milkman, 1998) What makes this kind of arrangement different is that the process earnings supplements are already in place. Women are challenged particularly by workplace policies that do not recognize the competing family and work responsibilities. Their role biologically, in pregnancy and childbirth, also expectations of the society for mothers put women at the center of their family network. Therefore, as a society, there is need to have an interest in ensuring that working women who want also to have and care for children. Flexible working in organizations helps employers to attract top talent in society. This is because any employee would like to work in a flexible environment, enabling them to have time for other activities besides work. To attract top talent, firms actively push their openness in discussing flexible work. Many workers currently, especially fresh graduates have higher expectations and see working flexibly as a norm rather than an exception. Flexible working also helps employers retain their top talent. Any parent knows the challenge of balancing their working lives with the care of children. (McGovern, 2013) Flexible arrangements of work to aid in the school run or fit work around care of children are important to enable parents continue their careers while attending to childcare as well. Employers that discuss options for flexible working with parents have a better chance of finding a solution meaning that they can keep holding their best staff. Technology can as well enable this. Firms can save vast amounts of money through flexible working. It reduces expenses in business as; sick time is less used, employees become more productive, fewer resources such as computer space and access, increased customer service hours, increased employee safety as little accidents occur thus reducing medical expenses, teleworking reduces relocation of workers thus cutting the relocation costs. Flexible working also reduces operation costs. In a recent survey, (YouGov poll 2013 March) showed that flexible working can save businesses in Britain 34 billion pounds a year. Companies significantly underestimate the money that can be saved by reducing the number of working desks and enabling flexible working. Working flexible can have significant environmental benefits. (Legge, 1995) Home working means fewer desks needed by businesses and physical real estate. This in turn saves money on property and energy costs, and with less commuting for staff, reducing their respective costs smaller businesses mostly use flexibility as a successful tactic in employment. It is one way to stay competitive with the bigger and well-established companies. Additionally, many firms provide flexible schedules of work because of the notion that such policies just make good sense of business. Schedules that are flexible provide a work-life balance that is favored by many potential workers, and using such systems can help small businesses attract and retain best in the society. Increased staff morale increases the firm’s bottom line, productivity, and profits. Studies and evidence show that flexible and enlightened practices of work are good for business. Achieving a balance of work life between the needs of work and home is a win-win for both employer and worker. Flexibility at work increases employee satisfaction. A happier place of work is created, and improved teamwork, reduced stress levels, increased motivation, and knowledge as well as enthusiasm is shared. Flexible working as well reduces absenteeism. This happens when stress levels drop, there is reduced unplanned absences as workers can balance their family and work responsibilities. Flexibility also increases management skill for the executives in the company. Managing a more diverse workforce as managers and leaders makes the executives look beyond their available choices. This in return improves their decision-making skills and experience. Businesses need to consider carefully which workers to accord flexible working practices. Gone are the times when just working mothers and fathers who need or want work from home for purposes of childcare. (Hyman, 1975) If employers want equality and opportunity promoted within an organization, then the practices should be more open to the majority of their employees where appropriate. After organizations recognizing the business benefits of flexible working, the human resources departments of the future will be asking employees if they really want to come to the offices as opposed to what they ask currently, which is; do indeed employees need to work from their homes? The firm should ensure that they have the right IT infrastructure for flexible working management. Managing mobile devices involves ensuring that the firms have the right mobile security policies and systems in place to allow employees to work as they please, without any compromising of corporate data. (Glyn, 2006) With the emergence of mobile devices, it is important than ever that firms protect business-critical data rather than ending up in unmanaged devices. Such business end up reaping the benefits of the continuously connected workforce without any risks. The job market has also become diverse with time as young workers join the workforce. The new generation poses challenges to traditional working patterns and is used to flexibility and independence. (Esping-Andersen, 1990)They likely take the responsibility of a wave of business innovation over the next ten years or so, as they expect to work with what, when, how and where they want. Without any additional information, it is hard or impossible to understand why sex difference exists among full-time workers. The question whether older women would be more likely working full-time jobs exists. Policy recommendations depend on thorough understanding of such issues. Studies of employers can often or sometimes leave the perception that workers have greater access to flexible systems of work than their employees claim to have. (Dore, 2000)The difference seems to be that employers may report that such arrangements may be possible at the same time that employees say that the methods are only available informally. Additionally, employers can deny or grant such arrangements. So, flexibility, in that case, is not equally accessible to all workers. Workers as well, are often concerned about choosing flexibility that they will become less competitive for when it comes to promotions, career opportunities, as well as key assignments. Although workers affiliated to information technology are typical in many cases, a recent study of IT workers to show whether contracting provides employees with personal schedule and flexibility in the career that was stronger than standard arrangements in employment. Ethnographic studies have proven that a desire for flexibility usually motivates the decision of becoming a contractor. However, once the change has been made, expectations of the client constrained flexibility amidst the individual contractors. Employers willing to offer time, career or place flexibility have more likely been providing such arrangements in an informal way, limiting them to white collar employees, and viewing the as special accommodations. Formal programs are more often found in large companies with either 500 or more workers. As the social institutions work schools, and marriage have gone through changes, birth rates have as well reduced. (Esping-Andersen, 1990) The trends in demography declining numbers of children, as well as increased longevity and survivorship among the older parts of the population, have posed a challenge to public finances and national economies. Through OECD countries, workforce participation rates by parents have been on the rise. Although we might be having some general information from the current demographic surveys about employees by occupation and industry, age or sex who utilize flexible options of schedule, extensive national surveys like the CPS don’t allow matching of employee actions with policies implemented by the employer. Also, we can’t follow workers all the time to determine whether their career paths are affected by their choice of flexible arrangements or even whether workers who take advantage of flexibility are indeed more productive. How for instance we measure flexibility in the workplace and how we assess the relationship between performance and flexibility at the individual level, the team, as well as the organization, are also important when making considerations. (Colling, 2010)In some cases, what flexibility means to the worker remains something ambiguous that making comparisons across time and other groups may be of little use. In other situations, flexibility is narrowly defined that we even risk shifting the debate away from the full range of flexibility policies to a much more set of alternatives. References ARMY WAR COLL CARLISLE BARRACKS PA, & ALLEN, CHARLES D. (2010). BOWLES, P. (2013). Capitalism. Hoboken, Taylor and Francis. BROWN, W. A. (2009). The evolution of the modern workplace. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press. EEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, QI, E., SHEN, J., & DOU, R. (2013). 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