Objective : Identify and understand why organisations have ‘flexible’ working LO2 Flexible working practices Why do organisations have these? Companies

Objective : Identify and understand why organisations have ‘flexible’ working LO2

Flexible working practices

Why do organisations have these?

•Companies have these because they want their staff to be at work at different times….for example shops are busier at weekends so employ more people to come in then, rather than all staff in on Monday morning

•Increases productivity

•Lowers staff turnover – staff are less likely to leave if the employer can fit their working hours around home life, e.g. school hours

•Can attract more applicants for jobs because the working hours and methods suit people applying

•Cuts down on travelling time and cost if people can work from home or don’t have to come in the office everyday



Part time

Normally, full time is 35 to 40 hours per week. So part-time is working less than this, e.g. 3 says per week, just mornings or school hours

Advantages to employer:

•Gives them flexibility to cover busy times

•Research indicates that staff working for shorter periods are more productive, less likely to lose interested and more motivated

•Can bring people in for more hours if required

Advantages to employee:

•Can combine work with other commitments

•Lower stress levels having to ‘juggle’ family life and work



Flexi-time

Allows workers to decide when they start and finish as long as they complete a certain number of hours every week or months

Advantages to employer

•Staff can stay and work late when it is busy and take time of when there is less to do

•Reduces punctuality problems as there is no set time when people need to be in

Advantages to employee

•Can suit themselves when they start and finish

•Greater freedom, e.g. work longer Monday to Thursday and have Friday off

•Travelling to work might be easier as people come in during ‘off peak’ times



Job-share

Arrangement usually where one full time job is shared between 2 or more people, e.g. one mornings, one afternoons / one 2 days and the other 3 days.


•Two people can bring additional skills and experience to a job

•Again, due to reduced hours per person, can be more productive

•Continuity, if one person is off due to holiday or sickness the job still gets done


•Can balance home and work life better

•For someone coming back to work after illness or maternity, it is a good methods rather than full-time straight away



Homeworking

Workers spend either all or part of the week working from their home, which may have a room being used as an office


•Can retain staff because this is more flexible for workers

•Need less office space and equipment because fewer people are in, therefore saving costs

•Fewer interruptions from colleagues!


•Eliminates travelling time / workers can be more flexible about start and finish times

•Childcare costs can be reduced



Teleworking

Similar idea to homeworking but with a greater emphasis on technology for communication – e.g. skype, emails, texts, networks

May involve not actually operating from home but from car or train

Similar advantages and disadvantages to home working



Hot-desking

For those usually based at home or who travel within their job, hot desking is where employees don’t have their own specific desk…they just use one which is available when they come in, maybe one day per week. When they leave they pack up all of their things and leave the office/desk space as they found it

Advantages to employer

•Less office equipment – saves space and money

Advantages to employee

•Gives them the facility to come into the office building and have a place to work



List any other flexible working practices you can think of below:

•Outsourcing – ‘contracting out’ of certain activities e.g. cleaning or catering. This means that you have a contract with a separate company to do these activities, therefore you can change the company at the end of a contract

•Career breaks or ‘sabbaticals’ – extended period of leave for work agreed between employer and employee

•Banking your hours – building up hours during the week to get some time off….similar to flexitime



Describe flexible working practices which could be used for staff within a school:

•2 teachers could job share – one working Monday, Tuesday and the other the remainder of the week

•Some catering staff could work just during school hours to prepare meals and tidy up

•Janitors could arrange to work early and late shifts on alternate weeks, meaning they could finish earlier some days

•Maternity cover – teacher employed for limited time

•Supply cover for half a term until a new permanent teacher is appointed



Walkers makes and sells crisps to shops all around the UK. It has a sales force who travel around the country selling its products. How could it use flexible working practices?

•They could use home and tele-working as these staff would not need to come into the office very often, only perhaps one or two days per month.

•In addition a hot desking system could be set up for the days when they would come into the main office

•Also arrange for the customers they meet to be split geographically so that they cut down on travelling time, e.g. Person based on Glasgow covers Scotland, person based in Manchester covers northern England etc.



BT has a call centre with 200 people handling customer queries from all over the UK. Again, how could this kind of operation use flexible working practices?

•The company could consider flex-time working as long as they ensure that they have enough staff in at core times when they receive most calls

•They could employ part-time workers – again particularly during busy times when calls are coming in



Time off in lieu

If an employee comes in and does some extra work, e.g. at the weekend, evenings, or in the holidays…..rather than pay them the money for the days work….they get the time off in the future

Therefore they get time of in lieu of the money they would have got

Documents

Objective : Identify and understand why organisations have ‘flexible’ working LO2 Flexible working practices Why do organisations have these? Companies