Flexible Working Practices and Work-life Balance - Dissertation Example

number: Unit Word count: 1889 Table of contents Introduction 2. UK Labour Market 3. Legal Framework 1 4. Women in the work field 2 5. Difficulties in implementing 2 6. Benefits of flexibility 3 7. Disadvantages of flexible labour market 5 8. Resistance 6 9. Conclusion & Recommendation 7 Reference 9 Appendix 10 Terms of Reference: Considering the changes in the traditional labour market and the demands for work-life balance, this paper advises an international law firm on introducing flexible labor. The advantages and the challenges in adopting such a model have been highlighted. 1. Introduction The concept of work-life balance has gained importance in the last decade because of opportunities policies, rising levels of female labour force participation, demographic trends, and skill shortages (Hogarth et al, 2001). Organizations like Opportunity Now, the European Commission, and the Equal Opportunities Commission are supporting the idea of work-life balance as it benefits the businesses as well as the social equity causes. The concept does not revolve round the balance between the family and career but it needs to be a more comprehensive approach that analyses the balance that employees and employers strike between work and life outside of work. While it is very difficult to achieve a perfect work-life balance, difficulties have been perceived even in achieving a sustainable or a desirable one. 2. UK labor market The UK labour market is one the most flexible in the world which benefits both the workers and the employers. UK has a high employment rate of just below 75% which indicates a strong and healthy labour market. The unemployment rate is low but the labour market exhibits a high degree of labour turnover. Around 6 million leave jobs every year and similar number find new jobs. These job changes are voluntary and they feel secure in their jobs. Amongst other reasons, flexibility and work-life balance have caused changes in the traditional labor market model (Doogan, 2003). 3. Legal framework The legal framework influencing work-life balance has to be taken into account. According to the Employment Relations Act (1999) an individual is entitled to 18 weeks of maternity leave and 13 weeks of parental leave apart from leave for emergency situations connected with the dependents at home (Hogarth et al, 2003). Through the Part-time Workers Regulations 2000 the government encourages oppurtunities for part-time working. Part-time working has gained importance because of changes in human resource strategies, increased female participation rates, industrial restructuring, impact of technology ((Hogarth et al, 2003) and due to changes in family structure and an ageing population (Lewis & Smithson, 2001). 3. Women in the work field The increase in women’s employment has predominantly been in the services sector which provide little career enhancement oppurtunities even though these are low-skilled and part time jobs. The hospitality industry in the UK employs a large number of workers that are women who are not keen for career progression. Women change jobs twice as often as men, which is a reason for concern and warrant research. They even switch jobs between sectors and prefer a job where they can make a difference (Womenomics, 2006). They prefer jobs which offer facility for skill development to increase their employability. Women have been taking advantage of the family-friendly policies and now the duration of work life has been the same for men and women. Both employers and employees can sustain employment relationships because of flexible working arrangements but this has not been possible. There are various types of working arrangements operating in the economy which has been demonstrated in Appendix I. 4. Difficulties in implementation Despite equal oppurtunities for both men and women, women continue to take primary responsibility for parenting and domestic work. They have to make choices between domestic responsibilities, employment and career development. The situation is changing as the number of both parents in employment is increasing. Where employers recognize that employees have responsibilities beyond the workplace, loyalties have increased and employee turnover has increased. The barriers include impact on the career and its identification as a woman’s issue. The employees most often are not aware of what is available to them for flexible working, The existing organizational culture also becomes an inhibiting factor and managers have been found to be the main barriers to implementing work-life balance policies (Hall & Atkinson, 2006)). Research suggests that informal flexible working is more prevalent and more widely valued than formal flexible working by both employees and managers. This form of flexibility has great potential as it is valued by both parties and produces a productive relationship. 5. Benefits of flexibility Labor market flexibility is considered a prerequisite for progress. It leads to high rate of employment and low stable inflation. It helps to maintain a high rate of employment stability over the economic cycle and raise the rate of growth of productivity (Bontis & Fitz-enz, 2002). Employees in the UK have been seeking something beyond the 9-5 view of employment. They believe that this would give them the work-life balance to accommodate family and other requirements. Flexibility in labor market includes flexibility in working time schedules, numerical flexibility, functional and wage flexibility. Employers have responded by applying different forms of working-time flexibility to enable employees to manage multiple roles but difficulties have been found in implementing them. Functional flexibility could result in innovation in management and could lead to efficiencies in teamworking, multiskilling and upskilling (Crompton, 2002). It also allows for the exercise of strategic choice and the positive development of productive resources. Numerical flexibility can lead to exploitation of the workforce. Women have always worked flexibly both in numerical and functional sense of the term. Initiatives in work-life balances and enhancing choice in working patterns has led to reduced nurses’ turnover, lower sickness absence and reduced need for agency staff (Hall & Atkinson, 2006). It has also resulted in enhanced management of patient care and improved health and well-being of the nursing staff. It has also led to high satisfaction rate among the staff. Both organizations and individuals attempt to be flexible in their approach. Organizations try to be agile by a flattening of hierarchies and a focus on core competencies. Individuals are flexible in their approach to their jobs and they develop a range of skills that allow them to shift between varieties of roles. Employers try to be flexible in the way they employ and manage people so as to provide work-life balances (Gibson, 2003). At the strategic level the core staff have to be flexible in the range of jobs they are able to undertake. The non-core functions can be outsourced so that the peripheral staff is not a part of the organization. Thus the number of part-time workers can keep changing as per requirement. 6. Disadvantages of flexible labor market Frequent job changes has made “work” in the work-life balance a series of rotating or shifts that result in discontinuities between workers and the rest of their life. This makes the issue of balance difficult (Wilson, Polzer-Debruyne, Chen & Fernandes, 2007). The frequent job changes do not give rise to employee commitment and loyalty. It also affects the staff motivation and job satisfaction (Hogarth et al, 2003). Frequent employee turnover result in higher costs of recruitment, training and development. The skills and knowledge also become difficult to replace. There are arguments that the aim of neo-liberal flexibility is to push the costs of employment on to the individual employee and their families even though it allows shouldering caring responsibilities (Crompton, 2002). Flexible working is detrimental to promotion and career prospects as well. New information technologies has created new oppurtunities and increased the use of contract labors and flexible work locations but at the same time it leads to “burnout”, absenteeism and exhaustion (Johnson, 2004). Work-life conflict has led the workers to become more stressed physically and mentally. Jobs have become less satisfying and more stressful, loyalties and commitments have reduced due to role overload. This also leads to negative repercussions at home. Despite labor market and social changes work-life balance continues to be more difficult for women. Students seek part-time employment along with education to fund their studies or due to other financial reasons (Lucas & Ralston, 1997). It could also result from broken homes or single parent families. Family forms have become diverse with more incidences of divorce, non-marriage partnerships, and single-parenthood casing more women to seek part-time employment (Drago, Pirretti & Scutella, n.d.). Men still do not hold responsibility for childrearing or housekeeping and women continue to shoulder the bulk of unpaid caregiving which forces them to seek part-time employment. 7. Resistance In the UK women’s employment rights are recognized and the socio-economic factors are no longer dominant. Even though women are free to choose they give priority to domestic lives and this is the cause of the polarization of women’s employment (Crompton, 2002). In the current economic climate it is very difficult for managers to combine employment and caring. As more women are moving into bureaucratic jobs, they are exerting pressure on their partners to share the responsibility. Thus, such pressures due to changing gender roles and attitudes might bring about social transformation within the work place and the families. Nevertheless, it is believed that those wishing to pursue a career may find the caring responsibility an obstacle. Work is no more a means to earn pay as a reward but the work place bestows a degree of social value of human capital (Johnson, 2004). Firms need to respond to changes in the market demand and develop new and leaner approaches to managing production. Organizations now employ non-standard forms of employment. The size of the workforce has reduced; reorganized work of direct employees so that they can take on a wider range of tasks. Many organizations have introduced flexible working to keep abreast of legislation, to consider the ethical concerns and the consideration of employees’ well being (Dex & Scheibl, 2001). Law has been the main stimulus because for smaller organizations as providing workplace nurseries are not cost effective. In case of career breaks also the costs for smaller organizations is prohibitive. Besides, they do not have adequate staffing arrangements. To maintain work-life balance and at the same time retain the key staff has become challenging. Employers have started allowing flexibility in working hours, allowing working from home and allowing the facility to take leave to fulfill personal objectives (Gibson, 2003). Individuals are also encouraged to work at the most appropriate time and place to fulfill the individual and business needs. Consulting staff for instance can work from home and very often even work from their clients’ office. Since the prices of office space has gone up phenomenally, such flexibility in working results in savings in costs. 8. Conclusion & Recommendations for the law firm The company should not think of work-life balance as a short-term measure. It should be taken as a policy with a wider human resource outlook so that over a period of time the organization becomes the ‘employer of choice’. Flexible working has to be introduced to allow the work-life balance that has become essential in the turbulent and competitive environment today. Women’s preferences cannot be overlooked and hence the female employees should be allowed to work from home when the situation so demands. With the advancement in communications technology, it is possible to be in touch even with global clients and physical presence is not necessary. Besides, adopting flexibility would also ensure that international clients are attended to according to their time zones. Functional and time flexibility has to be adopted. Being a law consultancy, it has to be ensured that staff turnover is not high. Continuity helps to keep costs low and clients happy and hence the staff has to be kept motivated. Giving them facilities and ensuring their work-life balance can ensure that the law firm is able to retain talent. The routine, clerical jobs could be done through part-time or temporary workers which do not become a part of the regular workforce, thereby keeping the organization free from additional liabilities. References: Bontis, N & Fitz-enz, J 2002, Intellectual Capital ROI: a causal map of human capital antecedents and consequents, Journal of Intellectual Capital. vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 223-247. Crompton, R 2002, Employment, flexible working and the family, British Journal of Sociology. vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 537–558. Dex, S & Scheibl, F 2001, Flexible and Family-FriendlyWorking Arrangements in UK-Based SMEs: Business Cases, British Journal of Industrial Relations. vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 411-431. Doogan, K 2003, Job Insecurity and Long-term Employment in Europe, Viewed 14 November 2008, Drago, R Pirretti, A & Scutella, R n.d., Work and Family Directions in the USA and Australia: A Policy Research Agenda, Journal of Industrial Relations. vol. 49, no. 1 Gibson, V 2003, Flexible working needs flexible space? Journal of Property Investment & Finance. vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 12-22. Hall, L & Atkinson, C 2006, Improving working lives: flexible working and the role of employee control, Employee Relations. vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 374-386. Hogarth et al, 2001, Work-Life Balance 2000: Results from the Baseline Study, Viewed 14 November 2008, Johnson, J 2004, Flexible working: changing the manager’s role, Management Decision. vol. 42, no. 6, pp. 721-737. Lewis, S & Smithson, J 2001, Sense of entitlement to support for the reconciliation of employment and life, Human Relations. vol. 54, 1455 Lucas, R & Ralston, L 1997, Youth, gender and part-time employment, Employee Relations. vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 51-66. Wilson, MG Polzer-Debruyne, A Chen, S & Fernandes, S 2007, Shift work interventions for reduced work-family conflict, Employee Relations. vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 162-177. Womenomics 2006, Discussion Guide, Viewed 14 November 2008, Appendix I Source: Hogarth et al, 1999 Read More