Flexibility and the Contract of Employment - Essay Example

? Flexibility and the Contract of Employment s Introduction Flexibility of work involves a bargain between employers and the workers regarding duration and place of work (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.187). Due to globalization and diversity of work, many people in the modern society prefer jobs that they can do from their home places or other places of their convenience (Smith & Debrah 2002, p. 74). Most of the institution traditionally hire workers and require them to perform their duties during fixed time which are normally eight continuous working hours a day and in a specific places. In the modern society most of the employees and employers are shifting away from this tradition and are focusing on a variable working agreements to enable workers perform their duties according to their wishes. This has enabled workers to have time with their families and also be able to utilize their working time effectively since they only work when they are ready to work (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.191). This has result to gains from both parties in terms of productivity and convenience of discharge of the obligations. 1. Different Recruitment Techniques Every organization aims at acquiring the most efficient and effective workforce who are capable of improving organization’s performance and make it competent (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.198). Though there are many qualified job seekers who are ready and willing to work for such organizations, sometimes it is not easy for organizations to hire the most qualified workforce as they would wish (Lipsey & Mucchielli 2002, P.76). The approach taken by the human resource managers during recruitment and hiring of workers will determine the quality of their workforce hence the overall performance of the organization. Approaches for recruiting qualified workers Through recruiting agencies: there are numerous agencies who hire workers on behalf of the organizations (Lipsey & Mucchielli 2002, P.83). Those agencies are ran by qualified hiring personnel who have potential to establish what the organization requires in terms of manpower and look for job applicants with those particular requirements. The advantage of using agency is that agencies normally have time to scrutinize the potential workers unlike organizations which may rely on experience of busy managers with limited resources for recruiting workers. Also, agencies rarely engage in canvassing with job applicants hence there is possibility for getting the best candidates (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p. 202). Agencies also maintain records of all job applicants hence they can easily trace the most qualified workers whenever they are required to do so hence providing a quick solution to the organizations’ needs of personnel. Also some trade associations encourage their member organizations to advertise their jobs through their websites. Therefore, job seekers can easily access the vacancies in various organizations and apply for them hence giving organizations an opportunity to select the best candidates from the list of applicants (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.217). The advantage of this approach is that it offers cheap method for the organization to acquire workforce since most of those association do not charge their members anything. Internal recruitment where organization selects existing workers to fill higher positions left vacant in the organization (Lipsey & Mucchielli 2002, P.90). This approach is efficient because it enables organization to maintain its loyal workers. This instils trust and loyalty among workers because they have confidence that once chance occurs within the organization the existing employees have equal opportunity of being upgraded. This method further enables organization to save its expense they would otherwise incur in hiring workers from outside the organization. Another approach is use of eternal recruitment of employees approach to acquire workers for their organizations. This approach involves inviting job applicants from outside the organization through advertisement of vacancies using newspapers, radio, posters, and magazines among others (Smith & Debrah 2002, p. 89). This approach enables company to reach a wider market of potential workers hence enabling them to attract young innovative workers hence creating a higher change for advancing their organizations. Whether recruitment is carried out directly by the organization or by a third party, potential candidates might be required to submit their application letters either in advance or when an opportunity arises (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.218). Therefore, it has become much easier with the advent of computers and increased use of internet since organizations can effectively interact with their potential workers and select the best from across the globe. 2. Avoidance of Redundancy One of the causes of employee’s redundant is outdated skills which render the services of workers inefficient especially due to change of technology (Smith & Debrah 2002, p.108). Therefore, employers should consider offering their employees with relevant training to enable them to upgrade their training and increase their efficiency. The employers should introduce training programs in their organizations to enable the workers to acquire relevant skills that match the organizations requirements (Lipsey & Mucchielli 2002, P.141). This will be a long term solution aimed at enabling workers to adjust to the work environment through acquisition of relevant expertise to increase their productivity in the organization. The employers may provide this training internally to their workers through on the job training or may grant their workers study leave in order for them to undergo additional training that is relevant to the current skills (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.219). However, in order for this training to be effective in the organizations, employers should ensure that workers are given responsibilities in the organizations according to the skills and training they have acquired without discrimination in order to encourage others to continue upgrading their education status. Employers should assign their workers duties that match their qualifications by shifting them to relevant departments in order to ensure they continue being productive in the organization (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.221). Also, employers should consider varying the positions occupied by workers to ensure that the duties and responsibilities assigned to the workers are the ones they are best suited. This will offer a short term solution to low workers output that may result to redundancy. Another short term solution is engaging workers trade union to solve the issues by ensuring that workers are not treated unfairly by their employees (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.225). This may be the case in which the employers may decide to lay off their workers in case they request for better working terms or better pay. 3. Contracts of employment Employment contract is written or verbal accord between employers and employees stipulating the terms of the relationship between the two parties (Smith & Debrah 2002, p.123). It defines essential factors such as wages, leave or holidays, and duration of work. When signing an employment contract, both parties should declare their interest and each party should be aware of other ordinary requirements in regards to the work they intend to engage in. Employment contract becomes valid immediately after the candidate has accepted the job offer. The conditions employment can only be varied by the relevant parties to the agreement. Under flexible employments, both parties should agree on the mode of payment, number of hours the employee will be required to work in a day or in a week and mode of submitting completed piece of work as well as mode of payment for the work done among other things (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.229). Also, they should agree on penalties to be imposed on each party or the benefits they are entitled to get in relation to the work. 4. Legislations covering equal opportunities of employment According to employment act, employers should treat all the workers equally regardless of their physical, gender, age, religion, race, mental biological or any other differences they may exhibit. These factors are stipulated in United Kingdom employment equality law which includes Protection from Harassment Act 1997. Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 prohibits impartiality based on conditions for work such as part-time workers, full-time employees and other forms of work status under the European law. The law requires conflicts between employers and employees to be determined in the workplace either with intervention of trade union or employment tribunals (Smith & Debrah 2002, p.143). There is Equality and Human Rights Commission that was established by equality Acts of 2006 to impose equality law. Representation of the People Act 1918, gave equal opportunities for both men and women to acquire wealth (John & Steven 2007, P.227). Disability Discrimination Act 1995 protects people with physical challenges against discrimination. The employment legislations requires employers to treat all workers with equal terms and should therefore offer employment based on their qualifications for the job being offered. Employers should uphold impartiality when dealing with their employees hence they should treat all workers with respect regardless of any differences that may exist between them. There is a lot of discrimination based on race or ethnicity when it comes to flexibility of employment. However, in most cases some of these issues may not arise under flexible employment opportunities since the employers and employees rarely meet face to face. It is also a legal requirement that both parties should maintain personal details of the other party a secret affair against unauthorized parties (Smith & Debrah 2002, p.165). For example, workers should not discuss salary issues with their colleagues in some case, while employers are forbidden to disclose employee’s personal details to any third party. Such details might expose company to its rivals or employers to fraudsters who may abuse such information for their own gain. 5. Flexible Working Alternatives When people want to engage in flexible work, there are several options that they can engage in. It is upon the worker to decide on the options that will suit them better and make such an arrangement with the employer so that they can decide on how to keep record of the completed work (John & Steven 2007, P.221). The main flexible work alternatives available include; Compressed work weeks: this is whereby a worker decides to take the usual forty working hours within lesser days instead of usual five working days (John & Steven 2007, P.237). This is achieved by increasing the number of hours in a day, but will have a benefit of free day or days. Hot desking: This is whereby the worker is not assigned a fixed working position (Smith & Debrah 2002, p. 187). Therefore, the workers carry out their duties at home and sometimes at their offices without any specific desk, but they use the ones that are available. Part-time work or job sharing: This is whereby a worker may opt to work for less than forty normal working hours in a week or where more than one worker decides to share the same piece of work and also the benefits accruing from their work (Smith & Debrah 2002, p.188). Flextime: this whereby workers may decide to vary the working time by either starting their work earlier and leave earlier than official time or may start later and extend after the normal working time (John & Steven 2007, P.238). The workers will however end up working the usual eight hours a day. Flexplace or telecommuting: This is whereby workers decides to carry out their official duties in a different office that is closer to their residential places or just work from their own homes without having to travel to the office (John & Steven 2007, P.237). 6. Benefits of Flexible Working a) Advantages of Flexible Working to Employers It increases the workers output because employees can make arrangement to take their work when there are in the best mood rather than being forced to work at specific time or place even if they are willing to work at that particular time (John & Steven 2007, P.241). Unlike the traditional method where they have to commute to their places of work and get tired for travelling, flexible working will enable employees to work from home or other places of their convenience where they are more relaxed. Flexible work encourages more qualified people to offer their contribution to the y working from home or offices near to their residential areas (Smith & Debrah 2002, p.204). Therefore, organizations will have a large pool of workers from where they can select the best workers to meet the objectives of their organizations. In case of some job specifications that are temporary in an organization and whereby the company may find it expensive to hire a full time worker, they can conveniently hire the services of experts for a short time whenever it is required without necessarily having to pay somebody full time for a job available occasionally. Flexible work employment reduces the huge expenditure of organizations hence reducing the operations cost (John & Steven 2007, P.251). This is because employers will reduce huge space occupied by workers hence saving expenses on furniture and office spaces. Furthermore, organizations will be able to reduce the expenses they would otherwise incur to provide compensation to their workers who sustain injuries at work, paying workers on leaves and so on. Absenteeism of the workers results to additional cost to the employers who may find it hard to reassign the work they wanted to do and the employees who should normally work on that piece of work (John & Steven 2007, P.265). Therefore, employers can be able to budget for the time and amount of work that need to be done every time without inconveniences of having undone or incomplete work due to absenteeism of the workers. Flexible work enables organizations to get rid of the redundancy at work. This is because employers can increase or decrease the number of workers according to the organizations need at each particular time since in most cases workers are hired to perform a specific task (Smith & Debrah 2002, p.207). Unlike the traditional employment techniques where permanent workers must report to their working places and earn salaries irrespective of the work done, flexible employment agreement requires employees to perform a specific task at a specified time; hence, organizations will hire more workers if workload increases, while they can reduce the number of workers in case the amount of work declines. b). Flexible Work Benefits for Employees’ It enables workers to save time they would otherwise waste in commuting from their residential areas to their working places (John & Steven 2007, P.271). This relieves them tiredness and stress that would otherwise deny them the joy of work. Therefore, this increases their productivity hence increase in earning that leads to a better living standards. Flexible work enables employees to have more time with their families and friends and enables them to participate in other economic activities (Smith & Debrah 2002, p.211). This is because workers have an opportunity to work during their own convenient time hence they are able to use free time to interact with their family members and friends or engage in businesses during the time they are not at usual work. Workers are able to get better satisfaction for their work because they can be able to balance between work time and their families (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.246). In most cases, when workers are away from their families, they usually get worried about their families while their family members also worry about the welfare of their working members. However, this worry is reduced when people work from home from where they can interact with their family members. 7. Performance Management The concern for performance management is to ensure that organizations resources are channelled in the appropriate direction that ensures the organization meets its targets (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.247). Under flex work, the management interest is to ensure that human resources are channelled in the right activities to achieve the best results. Therefore, management will always ensure they recruit the most qualified personnel to perform the right tasks in line with management goals. They will also ensure that individual workers have performed the assigned task as required and in appropriate time (John & Steven 2007, P.273). The management will also ensure they give incentives to their employees in order to encourage them to offer their maximum contribution to the organization. In order for the management to achieve this target, they should keep daily records of the employees’ performance by using most efficient means such as employee software. 8. Concept of Adequate Staffing and Management Management of an organization has the responsibility of ensuring adequate personnel to perform the available tasks (John & Steven 2007, P.282). They should hire adequate staff depending on the number of hours and period of the day they will be executing their mandates. Though this is a laborious task, it is essential because it will ensure there is no shortage of workers at any given time. The management should start by identifying the number of tasks that need to be performed and then engage in seeking the most qualified personnel to perform the task. They should provide their workers with appropriate training and equipment that will be in line with the organizations personnel requirement. 9. Communication Problems Effective communication in an organization is very essential because it is the only way that employees can be able to learn the organizations requirements (Lipsey & Mucchielli 2002, P.231). Employment contract should be communicated effectively between the parties involved in order to avoid legal issues during execution of the agreement. Communication also helps management to get the right personnel for the right job. It also enables new workers to clearly understand how the organization operates and what is required of them. Distance between workers and organizations, available means of communication, language barrier and expenses that will be incurred on communication will affect the effectiveness and channel of communication between workers and the employees. Due to diverse location of flex workers, it is quite expensive to share information effectively among the workers on a timely manner (John & Steven 2007, P.284). It is hard to have all workers together hence the organization has to spend additional resources to ensure effective communication within the organization. Posters, email, memos and voice calls may be used in combination in order to ensure effective sharing of information among the parties. 10. Importance of employee resources in an organization Human resource personnel in an organization helps to identify the organization’s to identify the need for workforce and strive to acquire the right personnel to fill the available positions (Berndt & Hartmut 2005, p.254). They also motivate the staff, train them according to organizations needs, and evaluate the performance of the workers in line with the organization’s objectives. Conclusion Flexible workers may vary the time, place, or quantity of work they perform in a given time to suit their personal needs. This results to improved performance of the organization due to increased productivity of the workers. The management should ensure they have the right staff for the right tasks. They should also ensure that workers comply with the organizations needs, and that the workers are adequately motivated. The parties should put in place efficient approaches of exchanging information in order to make the organizations goals known to the workers and ensure workers comply with the organization’s rules. List of References Berndt, K & Hartmut, S 2005, Atypical Employment and Flexicurity: Journal of Management Revue, Vol. 16 (3). Pp.176-257 John, E, C. & Steven K, J 2007, Psychological Contract or Social Contract? Development of the Employment Contracts Scale: Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, Vol. 13(3). Pp.213-289 Lipsey, R, E & Mucchielli, J 2002, Multinational Firms and Impacts on Employment, Trade, and Technology: New Perspectives for a New Century, Routledge, London. Pp.56-212 Smith, I, G & Debrah, Y, A 2002, Globalization, Employment, and the Workplace: Diverse Impacts, Routledge, London. Pp. 64-235 Read More