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What is 'flexible working' doing to our workforce?

Guest post by: Kirsten Hemingway

Article Overview: The MD muses over the changes for the next few years in our workforce.

What is 'flexible working' doing to our workforce?

We are positive about the changes that flexible working can bring to the workforce of UK Plc, we would be though it's our business.

In our company we see flexible workforces being more diverse and creative than the more traditional workforce. Our managers become leaders and individuals work on the basis of their contribution or output. The future, for us, is a world where each individual trades their skills on their terms - negotiating on the basis of value to the organisation - measurable benefits - a bit like a sales person or professional does already. The individual is task oriented, allowing them to complete the tasks at times to suit them and their own work rhythms. This allows them to be responsible for their own work life balance; managing their personal goals and their work goals. Where a team is time oriented they organise themselves in terms of who is on duty at a particular time to answer the phones or deal with customer enquiries. In some cases technology allows us to be more flexible about where we are when customers call as we can divert phones to mobiles and answer questions for anywhere.

Traditionally, individuals have traded their skills for a wage. Getting and keeping a job for a period of time and managing their careers and their lives on the basis of those roles within companies. Companies measure their size and status on the number of employees they have and legislation is still built around the size of the employee community. The traditional shape is easier to manage and easier to recruit for, we can physically see if a person is working when they are sitting near us in an office or standing at their space in a factory. Even so - companies struggle with individuals doing inappropriate things in work time, people often find ways to continue their lives around and during their work. Because the mechanism is created to be managed, these errors of judgement have a consequence in a workspace. The human condition can sometimes be rebellious and in a traditional environment this is disruptive.

In a job there are rules and policies to guide us on our standards of behaviour - this absolves us of responsibility, we still get paid for turning up!

Take this scenario - two houses, both have a problem with their central heating system, it is exactly the same problem. House one employs plumber A and house two employs plumber B. Plumber A fixes the problem in house one - it takes him one hour, he bills for that hour. Plumber B fixes the problem in house two - it takes him three hours, he bills for three hours. Two houses, same problem - different bills! We could go on in depth in to this scenario and say that plumber B may not be in business as long as plumber A but then if they both have the same amount of capital plumber A could be out of business before the word gets out on plumber B. Anyway, it is just a light hearted example of how we currently value a persons skills and time.

The age of the portfolio worker was supposed to take off in the 90's. Studies commissioned by the TUC and the ONS show that actually there was a down turn in self employment at that time. The year that self employment actually began to take off was in 2004. At Work Wise UK their mission is to increase the number of smarter working companies in the UK. They state the benefits as:

• Motivated workforce - in a DTI Work Life Balance Survey in 2003, 75% of companies introducing these work practices said they had a more committed and motivated workforce and BT has recorded savings of £52m a year after changing its work patterns.

• Reduced staff turnover - according to the DTI Work Life Balance Survey 2003, 60% of companies surveyed reported reduced turnover of employees. When BT introduced flexible working practices leaver levels fell to their lowest.

• Reduced absences for sickness - currently costing UK business £12.25 billion a year.

• Infrastructure cost savings - savings in real estate and office costs and 24/7 operations can be introduced as a result of flexible working.

• Social Responsibility - working smarter practices will assist groups that have traditionally found work difficult, such as single parents and those with disabilities. When BT introduced smarter working practices, the number of working mothers returning to work after maternity leave increased to 99 per cent. There are over one million disabled people who want to work but don't have a job. (Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey, summer 2003).

We must also value the individual - not everyone will want to work this way, many people do prefer the comfort of a full time job. Not all organisations will find that having a flexible workforce is right for them but both groups need to learn the lessons that we are presented with. BT Say:

For a flexible working policy to work well - there needs to be trust between employers and employees and management styles need to adapt, to take into account those employees working from home. Of course, working from home isn't for everybody - some people need the companionship of other colleagues and don't like the isolation of being away from the office environment. Others find it hard to work under their own initiative and need reassurance and encouragement that they are doing their work well.

When employees see their employer encouraging flexible working by defining their jobs by outputs not inputs, then organisations and people will flourish. Managers need to be trained to manage in different ways and those at the top must champion flexible working.

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Article Tags: consequence, customer enquiries, flexible working, job, judgement, legislation, measurable benefits, period of time, personal goals, rhythms, sales person, trades, traditional shape, traditional workforce, uk plc, work goals, work life balance, work time, workspace



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