In the last three years, France has shocked many people, even within France, with two new laws that redefine working time rules and create an unprecedented level of collective negotiation within companies.
The move away from the rigidities of the traditional working week has generally been referred to as the 35-hour week law, although in reality it is a 1,600 hours a year law. At the same time, there has been a fundamental conceptual shift in the treatment of graduates, specialists and managers. These groups represent an increasing percentage of the labour force for whom a regular, fixed working-time pattern is wholly inappropriate.
France is among the first countries in the world to change the units of reference for working time from hours to days. The intention - and the result - of the measures is to enable companies to develop a range of solutions, each customised to individual circumstances.
Since the changes were introduced, five million French employees have had their working time reduced. France has also moved from a vicious economic spiral of rising unemployment and welfare charges to a virtuous growth circle. The measures to reduce working time have played an important part, accounting for the creation of 200,000 jobs.
But steps to reduce working time are not limited to France. With the exception of the UK, similar changes have taken place in nearly every industrial nation. In almost all cases, three key trends are changing irrevocably both our concept of, and our approach to, working time. The first is the historic tendency towards greater productivity, which allows people to work less but to produce the same. The second is the general movement towards individual work schedules, which, for the first time, makes it possible to reconcile social, family and school-related demands. The third, and obviously related, trend is the larger number of women in the labour force.
Companies have no choice but to take these changes into account. But today's workers expect more than just a better work-life balance. They also want transparent management; recognition of their contribution regardless of age, seniority or education; less hierarchical structures; less red tape; and more project-based work. They expect to be part of an organisation that will develop their skills and competencies. As a result, the new approach to working time calls into question both national and corporate cultures. In Germany, Friday is getting shorter and is gradually becoming recognised as a half-day. The French approach is more individual and more flexible. In the high-tech sectors of California that need to attract and retain talent in a labour market with very high turnover rates, it is becoming common to have additional days off.
The old model, in which employees adapted to a prescribed work schedule, was key to the way we structured our lives, but is now over. New expectations are giving rise to new challenges. First, with new work times, employers need to change the way they organise staff, to maintain teamwork. Second, to keep in touch with change, a significant proportion of our spare time will have to be allocated to learning. We need to work out how this can happen.
Information technology will help, but further cultural change will also be necessary. Flexible schedules will have to be applied not only by the week, the month or the year, but also to the whole of working life. The working-time challenge should be taken up at all levels: in companies, through a la carte policies; and at the national level, through the modernisation of existing regulations. A minimal framework of regulation is likely to fit best, but it must ensure genuine flexibility and individual choice.
The writer, a senior vice-president, group human resources, at Thales, was an adviser to Martine Aubry, the former French employment minister. This article is extracted from the Journal of Policy Network: www.policy-network.org
