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Work-life flexibility will replace work-life balance

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4
The Changing Context of Work ..................................................................................................................... 4
Work – life Flexibility Practices ..................................................................................................................... 5
Benefits to Employee .................................................................................................................................... 5
Implications for the HRM .............................................................................................................................. 6
Benefits and Challenges for Managers ......................................................................................................... 7
Barriers in Adopting Flexible Work Environment ......................................................................................... 7
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
References .................................................................................................................................................... 9
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Executive Summary
Creating a balance between the work and personal life is a dilemma faced by almost every
working person. Several literatures have focused on devising policies that promote work-life
balance. This report discusses the changing context of the world that has led flexibility
arrangements at work as the most favorable solution to this problem. Flexibility in time and
location of work are two primary ways to offer work-life flexibility. Further the implications of
adopting the work-life flexibility policies by organizations and employees are discussed. The
flexibility at work as shown by several studies, increases morale of employee, reduces stress,
enables them to better balance work and life. The organizations, though apprehensive of
adopting flexibility due to the traditional way of working and face-time business culture, have
realized that this increases the productivity and commitment of their employees, hence beneficial
for the company. HRM plays an integral role in promoting the work-life flexibility programs at
companies as well as attracting skilled workers and retaining talent by these incentives. There are
several barriers faced by organizations and employees in implementing the flexibility options,
the report presents a concise analysis on how to overcome these barriers.
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Introduction
Due to the rapidly changing way of work, several companies, employees and human resource
management (HRM) face new challenges and opportunities which can be met if the companies
adopt agile behavior with flexible working environment. The changing demographic trends
present several employees with the dilemma of creating a balance between, work, family and
personal life. There has been much debate in the past years as well regarding the work-family
balance practices (Lazar et al, 2010; Hill et al, 2001). However in the recent years, the term
work-life balance has replaced work-family balance, since it is acknowledged that a person not
just have to create a balance between his/her work and family, rather there are other
responsibilities like elder care as well as other activities like travelling, healthcare, voluntary
work, study and leisure time (Hudson Resourcing, 2005). Organizations are urged to design
work-life balancing practices for the employees so they can fulfill their office as well as home
commitments in effective way which will be more productive to the company as well. The most
popular way by which companies can help their employees in work-life balance is by providing
flexible working arrangements and family-friendly policies (Hill et al, 2010).
Work – life flexibility occurs when the employees are able to have flexibility in when to work
(flexible timings or time) and where to work from (flexible place, like telecommuting) (Kossek
& Dyne, 2011). Several work-life researchers have suggested that perceived flexibility at work
using flexible arrangements is positively correlated to employees’ attitude hence increasing
productivity (Eaton 2003). The purpose of this report is to analyze the implication and
opportunities for the employees in adopting these practices, the advantages and challenges to the
companies by offering work – life flexibility options and the implications for HRM in promoting
work-life flexibility. De Cieri et al (2007) discuss the barriers in implementing these flexible
arrangements at work by a survey conducted with HR departments of several Australian
organizations over the period of 1997 – 2000. In the last section of this report we shed some light
on a few barriers with some solutions proposed using work of several researchers. The next
section discusses the changing global trends leading the companies to think about flexibility
arrangements.

The Changing Context of Work

The need for work-life flexibility has arisen by the changing of traditional ways of working. The
multi-faced and competing demand for balancing between work and home for employees is due
to the changing demographic trends, more dual earner couples, having child and elder care
responsibilities to handle (Kossek et al, 2010). Mostly the people starting a family and reaching
managerial position at office is at the same time i.e. between the ages of 27 – 35, hence they feel
difficult to meet the demands of both ends (Hill et al, 2001). Also Lazar et al (2010) highlights a
transformation in family structure with single – parent problem being more common.
The technological advancements have offered new ways of collaborating (Lewis et al, 2007).
The portable electronic devices and advance ways of connectivity by internet, has led people
doing job from a virtual office with flexible locations and timings (Hill et al, 2001).
The rapid globalization has also led the companies to adopt flexible arrangements. The
requirements of customers in a global market are that they can buy and sell things whenever and
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from wherever they want. Hence this necessitates the need for 24/7 customer care service which
is not possible without flexible arrangements (Lewis et al, 2007).

Work – life Flexibility Practices

With the changing demand of work, the organizations need to introduce various flex-styles to
accommodate their workers (Kossek et al, 2010). The two main ways in which this is done is by
providing flexibility in time (flextime) and flexibility in location of work (flexplace) (Hill et al,
2001).
Flextime: flextime means to allow for variability in timing to work, by certain given guidelines
by the office. Often the work place defines certain core time e.g. 10 am to 2 pm when the
employee has to be present and give flexibility in choosing the starting and ending time (Hill et
al, 2001). A parent may have to go to school to pick the children, is allowed to leave early and
compensate for that time later on. It is shown by studies that this has a positive impact on morale
of the employee and hence affects the business in a positive way (Kossek and Dyne, 2011).
Flexplace: This implies the ability to choose where to work from i.e. flexibility in place of work.
The employee may choose to work from home, some remote location or site of client to reduce
the commuting time (Lazar et al, 2010). Telecommuting (work from home) and satellite working
(work from a remote location) are becoming more popular (Kossek, Lautsch & Eaton, 2006).
There are other family – friendly ways in which the employers may accommodate the employee
providing them work – life balance like job sharing, compressed work weeks, part – time work,
parental leave and on-site child care or day care facility (Hill et al, 2010).
The above mentioned flexibility practices have a positive impact on the employee in several
ways which is discussed in the section below.

Benefits to Employee
Flexibility in working tends to give the employee a sense of control and ownership on their lives,
enables them to select more productive time for work and manage time for family in an effective
way. Hayman (2009) in his analysis of work-life practices in Australian organization conclude
that perceived use of work-life flexibility was correlated to better work - life balance. This lead
to a better relationship with management of office and satisfying family requirements as well,
allowing them to managing the home and work issues simultaneously (Eaton, 2003, Richman et
al, 2008).
A potential benefit of flexibility in location and timing of work is reducing stress associated with
the traveling involved. The daily commute to work involves a great deal of time, in a flextime
environment commute to office can we scheduled in an off-peak hours to reduce the stress and
time involved in travel. In tough weathers, like heavy snow, telecommuting may be practiced
(Hill et al, 2010). Telecommuting also reduces emission of greenhouse gases associated with the
commuting using a vehicle (Kossek et al, 2010). Flexplace gives more options to where the
employee is willing to live, since commuting distance to office which is one of major
consideration is eased (Hill et al, 2001).
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Several studies suggest that working environment flexibility, which takes care of employees’
choice and gives him control, has positive outcomes on mental and physical health (Lazar et al,
2010). A study conducted for employees in an extended-care facilities concluded that when the
managers are reluctant in providing work-life balance the employees have a higher risk of CVD
[cardiovascular disease] and sleep deficiency as well (Berkman et al, 2010).
When tension or attitudes from work is carried over to home affecting the personal life and vice
versa this process is called the spillover (Hill et al, 2001). Spillover between work and family
could be negative or positive depending on whether there is a conflict between the two ends or a
harmonious relation. A job that requires long working hours may result in negative spillover.
Flexible working arrangements reduce the negative spillover, especially in the software jobs
which have long and late working hours (Scholarios & Marks, 2004).
Hence the above discussion shows that work-life flexibility is beneficial for employee in a
number of ways, hence the HR should design ways to integrate this into the organization system.

Implications for the HRM

The perspective of human resource management is designing a workforce strategy which fits the
business goals, environmental and cultural circumstances of the organization and the practices of
human resource management should be internally consistent and interrelated with one another
(Dreher, 2003).

It is revealed by various researches that flexibility arrangements at work, are a human resource
benefit for attracting good talent, keeping them motivated and long-term retention as well
(Barnett & Hall, 2001; Kossek & Dyne, 2011). Also since women are more bound with the
family life, child care and elder care responsibilities, flexibility at work, is a motivation for
attracting female talent and making use of their capabilities (Lazar et al, 2010). Studies across
various organizations in Australia have shown that woman working part time are most
productive, hence the HR of various organizations have considered to offer work flexibility
options to their employees especially women (Yoshinaga, 2015).

If the HRM mainstreams the work-life flexibility practices this would have potential impact on
decision and practices of all employee. This would give a feeling to the employee that the
company acknowledges their legitimate life beyond work; giving them positive motivation and
reduce the work-life conflict for employees leading to better performance and organizational
effectiveness (Kossek et al, 2010). Hayman (2009) shows that assessing benefits of flexibility,
HR departments of several Australian organizations have designed policies that promote
flexibility at work, like timing flexibility, telecommuting, and compressed work weeks.

Flexplace is a more challenging arrangement for the organization and HRM since it is difficult to
overcome the traditional approach that manager value the face-time of the employee, i.e. being
present at workplace is a sign of commitment to work. However as Lazar et al (2010) proposes,
the HR should now focus more on outcomes and deliverables of employees rather than face-
time.
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Benefits and Challenges for Managers

Organizational leaders and managers may be reluctant in providing work – life flexibility
arrangements because of the apprehension of adversely affecting the teamwork. Secondly most
of them are of the opinion that face – to – face observation is needed to make employee work
and be successful (De Cieri et al, 2005). Though this fear of managers cannot be denied, on the
contrary several researches have shown that greater productivity and increased morale of
employee is resulted by providing them with flexplace opportunity (Hayman, 2009; Eaton, 2003;
Lewis et al, 2007).

According to study conducted by Richman et al (2008), flexibility in timing and location of work
is highly correlated with higher level of employee engagement. Flextime improves the morale of
workers and they are more willing to work for the organization with greater loyalty (Hill et al,
2010). Since flexplace and flextime enables the workers to better maintain the balance between
their family, work and personal activities, this makes them more productive which results in
better achievement of organizational goals (Lazar et al, 2010).
Providing flexibility at work helps in retention of employees since this is a positive incentive for
the workers apart from financial incentives. This is fruitful for the company in term of economic
benefits since it reduces turnover cost and makes client more comfortable since he does not have
to interact with a new person each time (Eaton, 2003). A New Zealand company, SC Johnson,
reported that work-life initiatives resulting in improved staff retention saved the company
approximately $200,000 per annum (Lazar et al, 2010).

Barriers in Adopting Flexible Work Environment

Though the benefits of work-life flexible practices are evident for many organizations,
implementations of these are challenged by a number of barriers (De Cieri et al, 2005). It is
important to understand these barriers so that steps can be taken to overcome these barriers.

The most common barrier is cultural in nature, i.e. the lack of support by senior management for
the work-life flexibility programs (Lazar et al, 2010). Managers can influence the success of
flexible timing and location since they are in a position to encourage or discourage the workers
for keeping balance in work and personal life. To overcome these barrier benefits of work-life
flexibility programs should be made clear to the seniors in order to get their sponsorship for the
purpose (Hudson Resourcing, 2005).

Another barrier is the traditional way of thinking by most managers, to observe the actions of
their employers, hence promoting the culture of “presenteeism”, where physical presence of
employee and long working hours is an indicator of his/her dedication to work (Kossek et al,
2010; De Cieri et al, 2005). The managers are also skeptical about flexplace and flextime since
this means employee working away from mangers. In order to overcome this barrier, the
traditional way of thinking should be changed and the organization should be more result-
oriented rather than adopting a ‘face-time’ business culture (Hill et al, 2001).

A common barrier in adopting flexible working practices by the employee is a threat to their
careers. Employees feel that adopting these practices would have negative consequences on their
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repute at work, labeling them as being casual at work, hence damaging the prospects of growth
in organization and chances of promotion (Eaton, 2003). This can be overcome if the managers
put in their trust in employee and observe their results rather than physical presence (Lazar et al,
2010).

Assessing the benefits of work-life flexibility programs, the Australian government has included
in the legislature new “right to request” flexibility at work by employee. The results show that
the employees’ for whom these request were agreed have better work-life balance (Skinner &
Pocock, 2011).

In order to effectively adopt the work-life flexibility options, like telecommuting, use of the
latest technologies should be properly implemented and training courses may be organized as
well (De Cieri et al, 2005). So the workers working from home or remote locations do not feel
isolated but are well connected to their managers. Larger organizations are better able to
implement these technologies as compared to the smaller ones (Hill et al, 2010)

Conclusion
The changing demographics, rapid globalization and advanced technology are pushing the way
for work-life flexibility initiatives at organizations so that the employees are able to better
balance between their work and family life. The implications of adopting work-life flexibility
steps have proven beneficial for organizations, employees and the overall economy. Flexibility at
work improves the morale of workers by reducing stress and giving them more control over their
decisions in managing home and office. Hence this makes them more productive which is good
for the organization and helps in greater retention of talent. The HR should design flexibility
policies which attract more talented employees in joining the company and providing them
incentive while saving cost. Several barriers and apprehensions by the organizations in adopting
the flexibility arrangements at work stand in the way though with some effort and research on the
pros and cons of flexible work conditions these can be conquered.
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