Week 16 - Flexible Working

Week 16 – Flexible Working

Flexible working is definitely a part of modern day business. A definition of flexible working is - ‘The ability of an organisation to adapt the size, composition, responsiveness and cost of the people inputs required to achieve organisational objectives’

(Pilbeam and Corbridge, 2010)

Part time work – Many people can’t work full time for a number of different reasons from disability to having family commitments. Marks & Spencer know this and they offer a very flexible working schedule to fit the vast majority of people’s needs. They can adjust the working schedule for single mothers for example, and enable them to work hours which allows them to be available to pick their kids up from school.

Working from home – Working from home is a great example of flexible working, it enables someone to earn money by not even leaving the house. This is great it you have to take care of someone, either an elderly relative or disabled friend for example. If they constantly need someone to keep an eye on them then working from home is a great way of earning money. Parents may also choose to do this as it means they can nip out for 20 minutes and pick the kids up form school or run them to football games or even cook meals. A lot of companies enable people to work as call centre representatives from home. An American company called Alpine Access are doing exactly this and they plan to hire 600 new, home-based call centre representatives in the next three months. The jobs have good salaries with healthcare benefits and flexible working schedules.

Zero Hour Contracts – These contracts were designed to create ‘on call’ arrangements between employers and employees. These contracts are suitable for anyone who needs flexible working hours, the employer is under no obligation to offer employees work. The advantages to businesses are that they can keep a lot of workers in case they need to fill the spots in case staff call in sick etc. A good example of this is some self-employed personal trainers who already have a good client base may choose to get a zero-hour contract at a gym taking classes every week. This would enable the personal trainer to attend to existing work commitments with the added bonus of more work from taking classes at the gym.

The different types of flexible working -

Part time working – Workers are contracted to work less than full time hours. Advantages for the employees include flexible working hours scheduled around important things the worker has to do. Advantages to the business are that part-time workers with expertise can be bought in if the businesses budget isn’t enough to hire more full time employees. Part-time workers can reduce the work load and thus stress of other full time employees. 

Home Working – Working from home has a number of benefits for both employees and employers, improved employee retention is a benefit for the businesses who offer home working, parents with childcare responsibilities can keep their jobs when they enter parenthood, which is obviously a bonus to them as well. It gives businesses a broader choice of employees, as they can employ disabled people who prefer to work at home. Commuting time isn’t a factor so employees will have fewer disruptions which should lead to better productivity, and not commuting is obviously a bonus for employees as well. Fewer premises is needed so it can often be cheaper for businesses. A disadvantage of home working is if the employee gets stuck with a task it could be harder to get hold of managers if they don’t have their phones on them or in case they lose numbers, where as if the employee was in the office they could just go and ask face to face.

Annual Hours Contract – This type of contract is a system that works out how many hours an employee must work over a year. Once the hours are worked out they’re put into a schedule. This system could be put into place to reduce the working week, to reduce over time, to maximise productivity or to help the business cope with peak holiday times, for example school holidays, parents might want to take the kids on holiday, and chances are more employees will want to as well. But they all obviously can’t go at the same time. Some disadvantages are that some employees can still be asked to work extra hours at short notice, this can be beneficial to employers but can reduce the freedom of employees. 

Term-Time working – This employment contract does what it says on the tin, it enables parents or just mums or dads to work during term time and get school holidays off so that they can spend that time with their kids. Obvious jobs related with this are teachers, as they get the same holidays as the pupils. The leave is normally unpaid and the contract must be discussed with the employer. Not all companies allow employees to get this contract, as it would mean finding someone to cover for up to 13 weeks a year. This would obviously be a big disadvantage to the company. Managers can refuse term-time working, however if the employee is valuable to the company they may agree to their conditions. 

Job-Sharing – This is when two, or sometimes more people share a job. They share the pay, responsibility and the benefits of a full-time job. They share the pay in proportion to the hours shared each week. They can work split days, weeks or even alternate weeks. Their hours can even overlap. The benefits of job sharing from an employer’s point of view is it can retain valued workers who can no longer commit to a full time contract by themselves, who would otherwise leave if they couldn’t job share. Increased flexibility means they can meet demand in peak times, as the two employees sharing the full time contract can work together. The employees who job share have the added bonus of working less so they can fit in other commitments, this can reduce stress and productivity.