Work-Life Flexibility Will Replace Work Life Balance

Work-life flexibility will replace work life balance

Submitted by:

Sukhdeep Kaur (dac8004)

Contents

Work life balance        3

Work flexibility        3

Work-life flexibility will replace work life balance        4

References        7

Work life balance

One issue surrounding the concept is that ‘work life balance’ is often loosely defined as simply referring to the balance between an individual’s time spent at work and on home life. In fact, employees are usually monitored on various factors including their attention whilst at work. ‘Central to definitions of work-life balance then is the notion that the modern employment relationship is a negotiation to establish the boundaries around the attention and presence required,’ creating the need for employees to consciously incorporate practices into their lives to integrate the work and non-work aspects. Work-life balance can be defined as ‘a reconciliation of paid employment and life.’ (Redman and Wilkinson 2006) It has suggested by McKee and colleagues that a series of historical shifts has shaped, to some degree, the debate about work-life balance. Broadly speaking they suggested these were the absence of fathers from home through war, imprisonment or long working shifts, the entry of large numbers of women into the workforce; the changing composition and structure of the family; expanding male unemployment; the increase in singe working parents; the intensification of working hours; an ageing population and the growing number of cared for groups; and the growth of equal opportunities. It is accepted that the feminization of the work force increases the need for family friendly policies, however studies are said largely to have narrowly focused on the experiences of women with the double burden of employment and domestic and child care tasks, at the expense of a broader concept (Ransom, 2007). It also must be noted that the intensification of work and employers’ high expectations of employees whilst they are at work increases the need for plenty of time for rest and pursuing other interests outside of the work place. Also to be considered are the economic and social pressures and expectations brought about by the long working hours’ culture which is particularly apparent in the US and UK. On average US employees take only 13 days’ holiday a year, less than what they are entitled to and whist in Britain it is much higher at 28 days the Bank of England estimates that by late 1996 26.4% of UK employees were working more than 45 hours per week. Presently at an organizational level initiative within the work-life balance movement tend to be grouped together under three relatively limited sets of activity;

• Practices focusing on balancing parenting responsibilities with paid work and generally combining employment with any caring responsibilities
• Allowing for time off work for family emergencies and dependent relatives
• Pursuing different options to extend the family friendly policies of working from home, (Sparrow and Cooper, 1993). In March 2000 the government launched a work-life balance campaign to tackle the issue with three main focuses;

• Tackling the long-hours culture
• Targeting the sectors with acute work-life balance problems
• Providing support and guidance to both employees and employers

Work flexibility

Flextime is essentially an arrangement between employers and employees, which allows for the negotiation of hours of work around a core time. It is a work schedule that varies, in contrast to traditional work arrangements having the need of employees working a standard 9am to 5pm a day. Flexibility takes different shapes and it is all about finding new ways to achieve success in an increasingly complex world.

This not only includes employees having more choices in when to work but also the amount of working hours is adapted to fit the employees. There are also more choices in where to work through having the options to work from places other than the office all or some of the time, this being occasionally or on a regular basis. Last but not least, employees have more freedom about how to do the work; meaning the employee is able and given the chance to figure out the best way to get the job done.

Flextime is able to aid the recruitment and retention of employees. It is also able to help provide employers cover outside normal working hours and reduce the need for overtime. In addition to that, flextime can also improve the provision of equal opportunities to employees that are unable to work the standard hours.

There are three main types of work flexibility. The first being flexible location, mainly known as home working or telecommuting. This process known as working from home or telecommuting is usually done on a regular basis or intermittently with the aid of computers, fax machines, the internet, phone and other forms of telecommunication equipment. It helps avoid time-consuming activities of having to travel to work which contributes to traffic congestion during peak hours, petrol costs, pollution, and so on. With this kind of flexibility in working hours, employees are able to work at the hours which they feel they are most productive at. Employees are also able to manage their own workload with their home or parental responsibilities around and still keep up with their leisure interests. It also helps the company save on overheads like rental and furniture costs.

Secondly, there is flexible time, which is most commonly found forms of non-standard or flexible hours. Flexible hours or "flextime" schemes are like a schedule that permits employees to choose their start and end times. This however, does require a standard number of hours during a five-day week, within a given time period. Part-time employment is also part of the flextime scheme. These part-timers have less involvement and work less than the standard or customary time, but at the same time, they help to fill the gaps when extra staffing is needed or when during peak periods.

Some employees prefer to work part-time due to other responsibilities like their household work or for some, their children. These part-time workers are also known as peripheral workers. They are not the core workers of the organization so there is less security in their job, because during any given crisis, these peripheral workers or part-timers will be the first ones to leave the organization s, rather than the core workers. Job sharing is known as two part-time employees' voluntarily sharing one full-time position with salary and benefits prorated. This became famous because some female workers who returned from their maternity leave do not wish to work full time anymore but at the same time would still want to continue their careers, whereas working a reduced number of hours. Another extension of flexible time is annualized hours. This could either be part-time or compressed schedules that involve a given number of hours a year, rather than a given number of hours a week. The employees work for the number of hours they are being contracted for with a guaranteed payment.

Last but not least, there are some contractual based arrangements which are known as flexible contracts. These could be temporary or fixed term contracts. For temporary contracts, people are employed for a limited period but the end or termination of the contract is not exactly specified, while for fixed term contracts, it has a fixed start and finish date.

Firstly, there are the core employees; they form the main labor market. They are highly favored by the employer, well paid and involved in all the activities of the organization. These core employees have improved career success and they offer the type of flexibility to the employer. Atkinson goes on to describe that there are two peripheral groups. The first being those who have skills that are needed but not specific to the particular firm, like typing and word processing. The second peripheral group however is made up of those enjoying even less security in their jobs, as their contracts of employment are limited because it is either a short-term or a part-time attachment. There may also be a few job sharers and many participants on government training schemes who find themselves in this category. (Human Resource Management - Derek Torrington, Laura Hall, & Stephen Taylor) With the increasing competitiveness and ever expanding global markets, ensuring growth and survival in today's business environment requires the development of new and unique approaches to attract and retain customers. These approaches are required of firms that want to succeed and keep pace in an environment that includes increasing numbers of customers, competitors, new technologies, and distribution methods.

Work-life flexibility will replace work life balance

Wood’s institutional theory suggests that organizations adopt work-life balance policies depending on the extent to which they have to maintain a sense of social legitimacy. This will vary according to industry, size, sector and ultimately their visibility as an individual organization. The benefit they derive from such policies is to protect their reputation amongst suppliers, workers and customers. (Wood, S. 1999). For example, Littlewoods was one of the 1999 Employer of the Yeah winners and perceived benefits to include enhanced corporate image. They also listed increased staff loyalty and commitment and reduced staff turnover thus reduced retraining costs which highlights another benefit for the company. Generally speaking, it is safe to assume happy staff, both in work and out, are much more likely to be well motivated hard working individuals which will lead to higher productivity; another benefit reported by Littlewoods which would likely generalize to most organizations. The long hour’s culture, combined with increased intensification of work and various other factors can cause stress which knows no boundaries. While some stress can stimulate and motivate us too much can lead to negative effects on both the quality of an individual’s work and on their personal life. This factor alone shows achieving a desirable work-life balance should ultimately benefit both employers and employees. ‘46% or workers and 70% of managers believe that stress is a huge and growing problem in the work place’ (Bloisi, W. 2003). Stress can lead to many mental or physical health problems; therefore, it is in the interest of all concerned to reduce it. An example of an organization tackling this issue, and others, is Pricewaterhouse and Cooper’s lifestyle intranet. It encourages employees to discuss and gives advice on work-life balance issues and covers flexible working, parenting, health, stress and time management and career development (Sparrow and Cooper, 2003).