A workstyle revolution? A survey of flexible employment practices

Citation

(1999), "A workstyle revolution? A survey of flexible employment practices", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 20 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.1999.02220fab.005

A workstyle revolution? A survey of flexible employment practices

Keywords Flexible labour, Surveys

A research report on flexible working in Britain has recently been published by the Institute of Management (IM) and Office Angels, the UK's leading secretarial recruitment consultancy. The research for the project began in November 1988 and 684 replies were received to a postal questionnaire sent to a random sample of 4,000 IM members. The project also included a qualitative stage, involving face-to-face interviews with senior executives from ten major organizations in the services, retail and manufacturing sectors.

The survey confirms the widespread extent of flexible employment practices - used by over 80 per cent of UK organizations.

The research identifies two types of organization at different stages of flexibility: those where it is well established - flexi-leaders; and those in the early stages of introducing it - flexi-laggers. Working for a flexi-leader or a flexi-lagger is likely to have an impact on how you are valued, managed and rewarded.

Flexi-leaders are far more likely to value their flexible employees highly and stress the benefits they bring to the organisation. Sixty-eight per cent of flexi-leaders say flexible workers contribute significantly to organizational performance and 66 per cent say they help the organization respond rapidly to change. Flexi-leaders are most likely to employ flexible workers in key front-line roles, with 35 per cent using them in customer services and nearly four in ten using them in project management.

On a day-to-day basis, flexi-leaders demonstrate the value they place on flexi-workers through the way they manage them. They are more likely to include them in team briefings (83 per cent), appraisals (72 per cent), employee attitude surveys (56 per cent) and suggestion schemes (47 per cent). They are also more likely to empower employees to manage their own work and time, with over a third encouraging home working.

In contrast, flexi-laggers are less likely to place such value on their flexible workers, with fewer believing they contribute significantly to company performance (51 per cent) and fewer still who believe they help the organization respond more quickly to change (49 per cent). They are less likely to deploy them in front-line positions, with 27 per cent using them in customer services and one in five in project management.

Flexi-laggers are still struggling to make their flexible employees feel part of the organization. They see the major challenges as ensuring flexible employees identify with the corporate goals and culture (30 per cent against 20 per cent of flexi-leaders) and maintaining a sense of cohesion in the workforce (26 per cent against 17 per cent).

There are strong drives for organizations to move to more flexible working. The flexiworker has become integral to many organizations' success, enabling them to meet rapidly changing business demands and remain competitive. But equally, adopting flexible working practices has become a powerful way for employers to meet the needs of new discerning employees who seek to balance the demands of their professional and personal lives.

Seven to ten managers say using flexible working practices enables their organization to match peaks and troughs in demand, nearly four in ten state it helps to relieve permanent employees' excess workloads, and over a quarter believe it enables them to meet the needs of today's round-the-clock, 24-hour consumer and business culture.

At the same time, managers say flexible working practices can help organizations recruit skilled people who are unavailable for traditional full-time work and almost a quarter (24 per cent) say the drive for flexibility comes directly from employees. Indeed, half the managers surveyed say they would like to change their own working patterns to work more flexibly.

Secretarial and clerical skills are not the only tools of the trade for today's flexible worker. Flexible employees are found at all levels of organizations, delivering areas of the business which demand specialist skills and are central to company success. Forty-three per cent of managers say their organizations employ flexible workers for IT services, 42 per cent for training and development, 31 per cent for customer services and 28 per cent for project management.

Most organizations make use of a mix of flexible practices. While part-time and temporary employment remain the most popular, used by more than six in ten organizations, other forms of flexible working are growing, with 49 per cent of employers using fixed-term contracts, 28 per cent job sharing and 27 per cent home working. Managers expect their organizations to introduce newer forms of flexible working over the next three years including phased retirement (32 per cent) and annualised hours (31 per cent).

Mary Chapman, Director General of the Institute of Management, commented: "Today's flexible employees are increasingly found on the front line in positions key to company success. If organizations want to make the most of flexibility and improve their competitiveness, they can learn by following the flexi-leaders in valuing these employees and adopt their winning strategies for managing them and making them feel part of their organizations in every sense".

Paul Jacobs, Corporate Communications Director of Office Angds, said: "For the first time we have a synergy between employers and employees, creating a workstyle revolution. As we continue to move towards becoming a 24-hour society, both organizations and their staff are discovering the considerable benefits from the significant increase in flexible working".

The report, "A workstyle revolution", is available from the Public Affairs Department, Institute of Management. Tel: 0171 497 0580.