Working nine to five - just one way to make a living

Citation

(1999), "Working nine to five - just one way to make a living", Work Study, Vol. 48 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.1999.07948gaf.005

Working nine to five - just one way to make a living

New research revealing the demise of the traditional working week suggests UK employees are poised on the brink of a workstyle revolution.

Flexible working is now widespread in Britain's organisations - used by eight in ten employers. However, employees' experience of flexible working differs, depending on the type of organisation in which they work, according to the recent report, A Workstyle Revolution? jointly sponsored by the Institute of Management (IM) and Office Angels, the secretarial recruitment consultancy.

The research identifies two types of organisation 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. Of flexi-leaders, 68 per cent say flexible workers contribute significantly to organisational performance and 66 per cent say they help the organisation respond rapidly to change. Flexi-leaders are more 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 one-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 organisation 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 organisation. 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).

So why this great change in the way we work? The flexi-worker has become integral to many organisations' 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 in ten managers say using flexible working practices enables their organisation to match peaks and troughs in demand. Nearly four in ten state it helps to relieve permanent employees' excess workloads and over one-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 organisations recruit skilled people who are unavailable for traditional full-time work and almost one-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 organisations, delivering areas of the business which demand specialist skills and are central to company success. A total of 43 per cent of managers say their organisations 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 organisations 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 organisations, 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 organisations 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 organisations 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 organisation in every sense".

Paul Jacobs, Corporate Communications Director of Office Angels, 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 organisations and their staff are discovering the considerable benefits from the significant increase in flexible working".