Why flexibility can work both ways

Tomorrow's workers were still in primary school when the social partners began to address flexible working in the 1990s, but little progress has been made, writes Gerald Flynn

OVER THE past two weeks I found myself, unusually, spending 18 hours in various university examination halls. The very noticeable feature was that two out of every three of these talented students, poring over examination scripts, were young women.

The majority of those in their final college year will now go on to spend another year or two pursuing either master's degrees or professional qualifications and, overall, will devote between five and seven years to post-secondary education.

The real issue is where this professional talent will be in 15 years' time. A lot of it will be lost to the workforce as a majority of these young women will by then have children and parental pressures will ensure that they, more likely than their prospective husbands or male partners, will have left the workforce.

Those who become parents face care issues but, in reality, their employers are the ones facing the more serious problems. Hiring, nurturing and enhancing talent in an organisation is key to success but the chances are that these young people will not really develop embedded careers, due to the conflicting pressures of work and family demands.

Those students sitting their finals in recent weeks were still in primary school when the "social partners" began to address the issue of flexible working patterns in the mid-1990s, but little real progress has been made - apart from the grudging transposition of an EU directive on parental leave.

We hear lots of commentary about the need for a flexible workforce in an era of change and building a knowledge economy. What greater investment could there be in a knowledge economy than in dropping or collecting children to or from school because you enjoy workplace flexibility?

Unfortunately the calls for macro flexibility do not fit in too closely with the micro issue of individual employees benefiting from flexible working arrangements.

New research indicates that employees are afraid to broach the issue of flexible working arrangements formally because they fear, apparently with some justification, that it will damage their career and promotion prospects. They and their line managers find other ways around dealing with caring responsibilities and, overall, it does appear the flexibility by both employees and management does benefit the overall organisation as long as it is not abused by either party.

A positive relationship between flexible working practices and employee performance is a key finding of a new piece of research called Flexible Working and Performance, which is the result of a two-year research project by Cranfield School of Management in collaboration with a British charity, Working Families.

Seven leading companies, from a range of sectors, participated in the research including accountancy firm KPMG, Lehman Brothers bankers, Microsoft software and Pfizer chemicals. The report demonstrates that flexible working can be a win-win option for employers and employees but, in 71 per cent of cases, workers had informal arrangements rather that exercising potential rights under parental or carer's leave legislation.

This finding may have an impact on those campaigning for more structured entitlements for leave but, more importantly, help change a situation where a "career break" is considered "career suicide" or even an act of corporate disloyalty.

As the availability and types of flexible work continue to increase, there is a greater need to know exactly how such working practices affect the organisation with regard to performance of individuals, and the impact on colleagues and managers.

Key findings of the report include:

The majority of flexible workers, co-workers of flexible workers and managers of flexible workers reported that there was either a positive impact or no impact on individual performance. This was true for both quantity of work produced and quality of work produced.

The majority of employees reported that flexible working had a positive effect in reducing and managing stress levels. However, there was evidence to suggest that for some individuals flexible working itself could become a source of work stress.

Significant positive relationships were found when comparing those who work flexibly with other employees. Flexible workers were found to have higher levels of organisational commitment, and in some cases they also had higher levels of job satisfaction. In addition, the availability of flexible working was a key competitive strategy within the labour market.

There was a high degree of informal flexible working across the organisations. This may reflect "personal" arrangements negotiated with a line manager.

Report co-author and strategic human resource management specialist from Cranfield School of Management, Dr Clare Kelliher, said: "These findings are important because they show both performance-related and longer-term benefits from flexible working. However, flexible working should not be seen as an add-on activity. Other HR policies may need to be adjusted in order to ensure they support flexible working."

Working Families chief executive Sarah Jackson said: "The key findings of this rigorous two-year research project strengthen the business case for flexible working. The research involving seven blue-chip companies shows that flexibility has a positive effect on the quality and quantity of work and on employee commitment. It is also clear that flexible working works best where it is available to all employees."

The days of an organisation offering security for life have gone but the response is the lack of personal commitment to an organisation. It is amazing how quickly a core of employees can be lost, as we have seen in some of our larger utility organisations. The result is poorer levels of service, less commitment and increased customer mobility providing less predictable profit margins.

Flexibility seems to run both ways: a flexible workforce will also demand flexible organisations and employment patterns.

Gerald Flynn is an employment specialist with Align Management Solutions in Dublin.

[ gflynn@alignmanagement.net ]