Flexible Working Hours As a Work-life Initiative - Assignment Example

Flexible Working Hours As a Work-life Initiative With the current hard economic situation, it has prompted many organizations to come up with work life initiatives. These initiatives are geared towards creating a supportive environment for the employees struggling to balance between personal and work commitment. It is a form of supportive culture that ensures the organizations policies gives the employees a room over the control of their day to day activities. The current employment landscape has been characterized by short business cycle and workplaces that run around the clock have made the working pace to increase tremendously. The 24/7 workplaces has made it easier for most organization to try to adopt flexible working hours initiative for their employees to cater for their wellbeing as well as meet their work-life needs. The provision of a friendly work-life environment creates a win-win situation for the respective employees as well as the employer. In an attempt to clarify on this, Heathfield (2009) defines the flexible working hours as those that allow an employee to perform his or her duties with disregard to the normal company working schedule. For exempt employees being generally from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. or 9 a.m.-6 p.m. which amounts to a total of 40 hour work week while for non-exempt employees depends on the nature of their work. I this regard the employer expect the employee to cover all the hour that is required of him in a week while covering all aspect of his job description. He further categorizes flexible working hours as either compressed work week or flexible starting and stopping times. In a compressed work week, the most common flexible schedule is a four day work week in which employees work four ten-hour days. Variations on this flexible schedule exist and generally allow employees to have an additional off-day to manage other aspects of their lives. A daily flexible schedule involves staggered opening and closing time on work attendance where an employee can either come to work early and go home early or stay late and arrive late as long as he or she covers the required time. In his journal, Sato (1997) claims that there are two types of flexibility hour that can be introduced in an organization. The first one is type A involves the ability of the firm to fine tune its demand as its need for the seasonally fluctuated volume of work while the second one (type B) is mainly on the ability of the worker to independently set his or her hours of work. According to Sato the first type allow an organization to match the demand and supply of labor while the second time allow the employee to fine tune his work to be in tandem his or her current need and lifestyle. There exist an overlap between the two types in terms of flexibility though type A down to the organization success in predicting looming fluctuation of demand of labor and supply and allocating the working hours accordingly. According to the Japanese researcher, flexible working hours contributes to the overall sense of wellbeing on the part of employee as well as a net reduction in the hours of work. In addition the employees should be well trained on how to effectively manage the work assigned to them and also given authority for them to be autonomous. To ensure that workers pa attention to their work, personnel appraisal system should be put in place. Sato further claims shortcoming to the successful implementation of flexible working hours occurs when a certain work cannot be completed by a single employee and involves collective responsibility. In addition inadequate directives by the supervisor can result to confusion in executing various tasks. Lastly when the volume of work to be handled is unreasonably heavy can demoralize an employee under this initiative. With regard to the work of Costa (2006), the process of developing a 24- hour business environment with respect to social organization has been made possible by use of flexible working hours initiative. Earlier long time constraints has been the main factor restricting most employees from handling home and work related tasks with high efficiency. The boundary between social and working times has been made flexible and the changes in working time can now be varied depending on the prevailing social and economic climate. This phenomenon is down to the establishment of flexible work shifts coupled with night work as well as engaging the latest technologies in the market. To cope with this process an individual has to avoid passive acceptance at the social and individual levels. The adoption of compensative and preventive strategies goes a long way in ensuring that the society built is more efficient and sustainable. Embracing flexible working hours thus comes in hardy in coping with the high demands brought about by modern life. On the part of the employer it is initiated by the need to adapt to technological innovations and market demand while for the employee it is a move to improve their social and working life by reducing work related constraints as well as increasing autonomy and control. Further analysis are required to show the effect of interaction between individual-based 'flexibility" and company-based flexibility" on the health and wellbeing of an employee. Jansen (2004) tried to dwell on what is meant by implementing flexible hours. He noted that there lacked a suitable definition which is generally accepted for what is meant by flexible working hours. He claimed to be a misconception in many people that any arrangement that deviate from the normal working hours to be flexible working hours without paying attention to regular shifts which are very rigid systems. In addition there lacked valid and reliable empirical evidence on the role of flexible working hours on the wellbeing and health of the employee. He terms this as unacceptable from the ergonomic point of view. He asserts that empirical evidence drawn from drawn from shift system can help create assumptions that flexible working hours could also bring varying level of successes upon implementation. Proponents of this program also claim that it increase employee loyalty and commitment. Heathfield (2009) noted that employees under this initiative are more comfortable doing their job and always rate their organization highly for paying attention to their day to day lifestyles which at times may interfere with the job. This in turn improves their overall productivity since they are better organized to perform their duties. This can be attributed to the morale boosting aspect of this initiative. Flexible working hours brings competitive advantage to an organization as it helps a firm retain their most valued employees. This has led to most organization opting to take u this program to prevent their best employees from being “poached” by rival organizations. Another reason that has made this initiative rise in popularity is due to its warm reception to fluctuating labor demand and supply. This helps an organization to maintain a constant product supply to the markets using the most cost effective chain of production. Another legitimate business rationale of taking up this initiative is reduction of absenteeism in the workplace. Flexible working hours ensures that employee can carry out home related task and still perform his or her duties at the work place without cases of absenteeism. Finally, proponents say the flexible working hours can help raise the company’s public image since the clients can be assured of being served at any given time out of the usual business hours. This can also enhance the relationship between the employees and customer due to the satisfaction levels that accrue from this initiative. Despite flexible working hours having a large support from employers as well as employees, it is evident it comes at a cost. According to Jansen (2004), flexible working hours initiated by the employer in response to labor demand and supply can lead to accumulation of working hours straining the health of the employee. This at times may not be well compensated adequately in the limited resting periods. In addition, most companies have to sacrifice most of their routine work in order to accommodate employees work related inadequacy. Sometimes this is counterproductive as customer has to wait for services at the convenience of the employee for example an employee who gets to work at 9:30 a.m have to keep customers waiting as from 8:00 a.m which is the official opening hours for most organizations. With regard to views from Sato (1997) this initiative is hard to implement when a process needs more than one person for example in the factory setting where a product has to undergo different stages. In a nutshell, this review clearly shows that flexible working hours initiative should be a win-win situation for it to be termed as being successful. In addition more research is required in this area to ascertain the real benefit that an employee gets from being in such a program as well as negative implications. This will help organizations in determining if it is cost effective or not before entirely embracing it. References Costa, G. (January 01, 2006). Flexibility of working hours in the 24-hour society. La Medicina Del Lavoro, 97, 2.) Heathfield, S. M. (January 01, 2009). People at Work - Workplace Conflict Resolution - Follow these management tins to create a better work environment. Water Well Journal,63, 1, 34. Janssen, D., & Nachreiner, F. (January 01, 2004). Health and psychosocial effects of flexible working hours. Revista De Saúde Pública, 38, 11-8. Sato, H. (January 01, 1997). Flexible working hours system and conditions for its active utilization. Japan Labor Bulletin, 36, 12.) Read More