The Ways In Which Flexible Working Is Changing the Nature of Work Today - Essay Example

?The ways in which ‘Flexible working’ is changing the nature of work today  Introduction Flexible working is a new concept developed in worksite environments globally and it allows employees to work in a way that their work and home life commitments are equally met. Flexible working can be of many forms including home working, job sharing, part time, compressed hours, flexitime, annualised hours, and staggered hours. In the United Kingdom, an employee can request his/her employer for flexible working facility if he/she needs to care for someone (for instance, a child or adult); however, employers can refuse the request if there are sufficient business grounds for doing so1. This paper will discuss the ways in which ‘flexible working’ is changing the nature of work today and its advantages and disadvantages for both employees and the employer. Effects of flexible working With the introduction of flexible working, the nature of work and worksite environment has undergone tremendous changes over the last few decades. The flexible working schedule or hours would greatly assist an employee to accomplish his work and job responsibilities effectively. Studies suggest that the concept of flexible working is obtaining wide popularity across the globe. To illustrate, a study conducted in the United States indicates that today nearly 24 million US people opt to work from home and the figure represents 16 percent of the total employment; and according to a recent published survey result from the Bureau of Labour Statistics, the number of home workers increased from 19.8 million in 2001 to 20.7 million in 2004 in US; that is, a 5 percent increase over the 2001-04 period2. The development of many outsourcing works also contributed to the scope of flexible working. Today, majority of the call centres allow people to attend calls from home in order to increase the number of calls taken a year. Many employers opine that the concept of flexible working would add to the firm’s overall productivity and employees’ job satisfaction. In contrast to this, some other argue that this concept may reduce employees’ focus on work and hence negatively affect the organization’s productivity. Advantages of flexible working Undoubtedly, flexible working benefits employees more than employers. One of the major advantages of flexible working for employees is that it provides them with increased job control, which in turn reduces the level of job stress proportionally. Flexible working is a great opportunity for employees in the context of extreme job cuts as a result of the ongoing global recession. In addition, this opportunity assists employees to get rid of the difficulties related to getting to work at fixed schedules. Flexible working also benefits employees to avoid rush traffic hours and thereby to escape from harassments when they reach workplace late. Another significant advantage is that employees get enough time to deal with their personal matters such as shopping and other home responsibilities. Also, employees can stay in good touch with their relatives and friends when they are allowed to work flexible time patterns. Finally, by choosing starting and finishing times, employees can work in accordance with their own metabolism3. The concept of flexible working definitely benefits employers too. The most significant advantage for employers is that flexible working is an effective strategy to reduce employee absenteeism. When employees are allowed to work their own time patterns, they would hardly choose to absent from the workplace. Flexible working also aids employers to maintain a diverse workforce who otherwise cannot manage a 9-5 office working schedule. Clearly, a diverse workforce can represent a broader range of skills, knowledge, and experience and hence provide an organisation with high level creativity and flexibility to address different challenges. This concept is beneficial for service organisations to keep in well contact with their service users because employees obtain more time to spend on their local communities. Since this worksite approach ensures employee satisfaction, it would assist employers to reduce the rate of staff turnover and hence to stabilise productivity4. Disadvantages of flexible working Due to family roles and responsibilities, the flexible working approach sometimes prevents employees from paying proper attention to work. As a result, employees may fail to achieve their specified tasks and this situation will certainly affect their incentives, job promotions, and ultimately the career growth. Researches indicate that employees opt longer working hours to benefit from more free days. Often, the longer working schedules put a physical and emotional strain on employees and the situation may lead them to a variety of illnesses. Another demerit of the worksite policy is that it would often result in employee conflicts if more numbers of employees need the same days off. Some companies, particularly those deal with contract works cannot predict when a huge volume of work would come together. Under such circumstances, those firms would really struggle to meet their deadlines if they allow their employees to work flexible timing patterns. In addition, organisations that allow flexible working schedules need to keep their office opened longer hours than they would do under a fixed working schedule. Undoubtedly, longer office hours would increase the operating costs of the companies and the situation in turn may reduce the profitability. According to some scholars, this system makes it difficult for employers to conduct employee meetings because they barely obtain employees together at office5. Under this system, employers cannot maintain good personal relationship with employees who are working from home. Therefore, firms that practice flexible working patterns are less likely to develop as a team. This system requires organisations to maintain additional staff or costly software to calculate working hours, salaries, and incentives of different employees and hence the situation may impose extra financial burden on firms6. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that the concept of flexible working is significantly changing the way an employee works and a worksite environment operates. This concept is really helpful for employees to combine their work and family responsibilities and to perform better whereas it benefits employers to reduce employee absenteeism and staff turnover. At the same time, this worksite approach may adversely affect employees’ career growth while it is likely to increase employers’ office costs too. Bibliography Brewster, Chris & Hegewisch, Ariane (Eds.). Policy and Practice in European Human Resource Management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield Survey. (Routledge, 1994). Flextime. ‘Advantages of Flexible working hours’, [web document] accessed 15 Dec 2012. flexibility.co.uk. ‘The flexible worker’ [web page] accessed 15 Dec 2012. GOV.UK. ‘Guide Flexible working’, [web page] (22 Oct 2012) accessed 15 Dec 2012. A Working families Publication. ‘Flexible working and performance’, Cranfield University, [web document] accessed 15 Dec 2012. Read More