Advantages of Flexible Working
Overview of Advantages of Flexible Working :-
There are many advantages for management and employees listed here. However to start with here's something "hot off the press"......
MultiTime’s research programme just completed and done in conjunction with the City Of London University shows that amongst over 1,000 users of our VisionTime system in the UK and Ireland, there is a strong connection between reduced workplace stress and employees having working time arrangements that matches their work : life commitments.
The connection is in fact that our systems users feel greater sense of job control.
This is following on from a previous reseach programme done between MultiTime and Adelphi University of New York. That study found that that there is a direct connection between employee morale and the provision of flexible working hours/flextime.
Our studies show that :-
a) when the organisation first recognises the work:life conflict that employees now have in a modern working environment and then shows it will make, what is termed as "a crucial intervention", meaning in this case, providing flexible working hours as a support mechanism for the employee – then
b) the employee will “reciprocate” with a new and more positive attitude to work and to the workplace.
This reciprocation can be concious or otherwise. However, the main point is that it results in advantages that flow from having flexible working as covered on this web site e.g. reduction in absenteeism, overtime and improved staff retention.
The Research also supports other general research that has been carried out on other Human Resource subjects, whereby it had been already well established that there is a connection between improved employee morale and reduced absence levels, better employee retention rates and also productivity. To add further to this, often this neccessary management "intervention" mentioned earlier i.e. the provision of flexible hours, is most appreciated at a time of pressure, perhaps even crisis, in an employee’s life cycle e.g. when needing to care for small children or an elderly parent.
Therefore, unusually, for a H.R. subject, flexible working hours can reach right into the employee’s home and homelife.
The study found that this is can explain why the benefits of such interventions can be felt even after that “pressured” part of that employee’s life, referred to above, has passed e.g. the child is older or the caring phase for a parent may have sadly passed. So, the initial gesture of having offered/implemeted flexible working can furthermore assist towards a more lasting workplace harmony. In other words, the employee's positive perception, in this context, can be sustained.
In addition, the concept of work:life conflict is an issue for all people at work irrespective of their age group, their family commitments etc. So, for example, a younger or single person, will see the benefits of flexible working in his/her own way e.g. avoiding traffic, attending night courses more easily etc.
So over 25 years MultiTime has been involved in 5 major research studies. Ask us for more details about the outcomes from them at 0044 207 495 1221.