With the ongoing languished economy and many businesses attempting to ‘do more with less', a growing research showed that arrangements of flexible labor in the form of flex-time and compressed workweek, etc., when appropriately implemented, can benefit both the organization and the employees who use them.
This report gives an overview of Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) to businesses by analyzing why FWAs are effective tools for both employers and employees and elaborating on how FWA programs should be conducted, in particular, in the implementation of flexible hours and flexible workplaces. Key findings include labor flexibility's importance in maintaining equal employment opportunities and in creating job opportunities in economic recession, and long-term solutions to achieve mutual flexibility between employers and employees.
In the future, more frameworks or models should be researched on to categorize the circumstances under which FWAs are not feasible. Moreover, efforts should be spent to come up with frameworks to offset the inadequate information with regard to the association between personal attributes, such as gender, education level, marital status and flexible work schedules.
[...] Program revision and evaluation is of vital importance. Common steps include evaluating progress at project milestones; implementing any necessary changes; obtaining managerial level agreement to implement FWAs in appropriate areas; launching FWAs as recognized practice in the business; and getting timely feedback from participants,and adapt plans as required (Flexible Working as HRM strategy, 2008) Flexible hours and flexible workplace How to deal with flexible hours Executing flextime has one other untold yet important consequence: It takes the stigma from asking for sick leave. [...]
[...] This report is conducted based on literature reviews and the data quoted in this report are from electronic database, trade publications, digital books, and newspaper articles Flexible Work arrangements and Benefits 2.1 Key terms term work-family refers to experiences that result from the relationships, intersections, interface, and interactions of work and family phenomena” (Eds, 2006), whereas work-life is “generally considered a boarder, more holistic term that includes one's ability to integrate or balance jobs into one's family or life.” (Lewis, 2004) As one means to achieve work/life balance, Dessler (p504, 2005) defined flexible work arrangements as systems allowing employees to obtain a more flexible schedule as opposed to adhering to the standard 8-hour workday. [...]
[...] Moreover, current literature reviews provide little information with regard to the association between personal attributes, such as gender, education level, marital status and flexible work schedules (Zeytinoglu, 2009). In a nutshell, social responsibility continues to play a key role in pushing more work flexibility. By increasing the amount of telecommuting and part-time jobs, employers will experience the benefits of reduced costs, thus realizing the goal of reducing carbon footprints. The ongoing economic recession, without doubt will be a significant reason driving flexibility in the future too. [...]
[...] In this survey, CPAs with FWAs overwhelmingly complained that while the programs help create balance, the stressful public accounting arenas and their own expectations keep the FWAs from eliminating all the conflict (Hewlett, 2009). Critics contend that flextime programs often leave HR managers in some difficult situations. "In these companies, flex policies are outlined in the employee manual but implementation is left up to individual managers. Then, when managers try to implement these programs, they discover that to be fair, flex requires them to treat different employees differently," wrote Martha H. [...]
[...] To make flexible labor a more effective business strategy, “greater attention must be paid within the HRM context to exposing the different needs of employees and employers and then negotiating between them.” (Zeytinoglu, 2009) 4.3 FWAs research limitations and future tendency Recognizing multiple agendas in FWAs and ways of integrating them is inadequate. Work-personal life can be discussed from many viewpoints, such as workplace and government policies, benefits, child care, workplace practices and culture, or gender relationship. The interdependence of these different channels must be recognized in the future (Poelamans p200, 2005). For some positions or businesses, FWAs may not work. Thus, more frameworks or models should be researched on to categorize the circumstances under which FWAs are not feasible. [...]
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