In March 2001
o Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and Education and Employment Secretary of State, David Blunkett launched the Government's campaign to promote a better work-life balance
o The campaign encouraged employers to introduce flexible working practices which enable their employees to achieve a better balance between work and the rest of their lives

The Working Day
o no longer as rigid as it once was
o the influence of new technologies allows for much greater flexibility and freedom
o Employers are beginning to realise that a flexible attitude towards working hours can make for solid results

Flexible Working Options In The UK
o Working hours can be arranged in a number of ways to suit you and your employer

Part-time Working
o At present, about five million women in the UK (roughly half of whom have dependent children)
o defined as anything less than the regular number of hours worked in a week
o It might be a good solution to the problem of managing work and home, but be careful that you are not looked on as a less-than-regular employee just because you are working fewer hours
o often badly paid
o female part-time employees earn 60 pence for every hour worked by full-time male employee
o However, new regulations in place since July 2000 should improve the lot of part-time workers

The Idea Of Flexitime
o Was developed in Germany and spread to the UK in the early 1970s
o You agree to work at certain hours known as core time
o For example, 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm
o Outside of these hours you can arrange your starting and finishing times and your lunch hour as you please
o You agree to work between a minimum and maximum number of hours each month

The Application
o If you work up to the maximum hours, you can carry them over as time off the following month
o If you only work the minimum number of hours, you owe your employer for the next month

1. Annual Hours
o Agree with your employer that you will work for a set number of hours over a year
o For example, a 37.5-hour week works out at 1,702.5 hours over the year

Annual Hours
o You agree to work this number of hours altogether - in some weeks, you will work for 60 hours and some weeks only for 20
o Working annual hours can be a useful way of arranging work that has seasonal variations

2. Job-Sharing Schemes
o Pioneered by many UK authorities in early 1980s
o All the responsibilities of one job are split between two people
o Income, including benefits such as holiday pay and pension rights, is also divided between the two

3. Term-Time Working
o Helps parents solve the problem of child-care during school holidays
o Your employer agrees to give you unpaid leave during school holidays and, if you wish, to spread your payments out over the year to make sure you have a regular income

4. School-Hours Working
o Useful for parents
o It leaves them free to drop the children off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon

5. Compressed Hours
o If you would rather work fewer days but don't want to lose out on pay
o You work more hours in the day in exchange for time off in the week

6. V-Time
o Developed in the United States and now available in the UK
o V-time (voluntary reduction in hours) means you and your employer agree that you will spend less time at work for a certain period (often a year)
7. Working From Home
o Some or all of the time is an ideal flexible option for some people
o 2 million people currently work in this way
o Working from home cuts out some or all of the commute to work
o The national average of time spent travelling to and from work currently stands at an astonishing 7.5 weeks a year
o If you work from home you have to be sure that you do not end up actually working more hours than you would in the workplace

8. Teleworking
o A relatively recent variation on home-working
o You work from home and are dependent on a phone and a computer to do your job
o This is a new and rapidly expanding method of working
o as many as a quarter of a million home-based teleworkers in 1998

Flexible Work Options A Comparitive Summary

Flexitime
o Combines "core time" when all are expected to be at work and "flexible time" when employees may or may not be present
o Employees are usually expected to work 40 hours/week
o Variations include length of day, and starting and quitting times

Current Status
o Available to 15.1% of the work force
o 54% (up from 38% in 1988) of US businesses have implemented it
o More common with managers, professionals, technicians, and sales staffs
o than manufacturing and service workers

Examples
o IBM:
o Most of IBM's domestic employees are eligible for flexitime
o Includes variable, customized and staggered work schedules

Auckland, New Zealand City Council Offices:
o Have a long core time, with fewer flexible hours

Effects
Advantages:
o Improves employee morale; accomodates the needs of employees with children and other outside demands

Disadvantage:
o Lack of supervision during some work hours

Compressed Work Week
o Usually a 40-hour work week is compressed into less than 5 days

The two most popular condensed weeks
o 1- four 10-hour days
o 2- the "9-80" model
five 9-hour days in one week
followed by four 9-hour days the next with every other Friday off

Current Status
o 36% of responding companies report use
o Fields where it is most commonly used are
o Entertainment/recreation (42%)
o Health care (31%),
o Government (29%)
o Especially police and fire departments

Examples
o Shell Canada:
o Converted from 8-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts
o Giving employees 3 days off per week

Effects
Advantages:
o The number of worker trips to the plant are reduced by one-third
o employees have longer blocks of personal time

Disadvantage:
o Difficult to adjust to 10-12-hour days for some workers

ANNUAL HOURS or HOURS AVERAGING
o Labor and management agree on total number of hours per year
o establish a schedule to fit
o a variety of schedules result

Current Status
o Most common in round-the-clock production
o pioneered in Finnish, Swedish, British pulp & paper
o In UK spreading to service organizations like finance and health care

Examples
o Pedigree Petfoods (UK):
o A contract of 1,739 annual hours was established
o joint management/ staff councils drafted options for employee approval

Effects
o Advantages:
o Establishes annual framework within which flexibility is possible
o Has broad potential application

Permanent Part-time Work
o Most positions require more than 20 hours/week but less than 40
o include job security as well as all other rights and benefits
o often on a pro-rated basis

Current Status
o Between 65%-85% of companies have some part-timers
o 18% of all non-agricultural workers were part-time in 1990
o Major increases have occured in health services, banking/finance and insurance

Examples
Levi Strauss & Co, San Francisco (corporate headquarters):
o Most part-timers are in accounting and secretarial positions
o opportunities are growing in professional-level jobs

Effects
Advantages:
o Flexibility in work hours
o trained-employee retention
o improved recruitment

Disadvantages:
o Increased benefit costs
o less chance for advancement

JOB-SHARING
o The voluntary arrangement in which two people share a single job with salary and benefits pro-rated

Current Status
o Increasingly popular option
o Only 11%-18% companies reported its use in 1986
o by 1991, 47% of firms were implementing it, and 22% more expect to offer it by 1995
o Especially popular in health, education, and legal sectors

Examples
Sheffield City Council (UK):
o All posts are eligible; benefits and holidays are divided among job sharing "units."
Rolscreen Co:
o Available to all 1,700 employees; sharers work out own schedules while company serves as clearinghouse for future sharers

Effects
Advantages:
o Allows employee attention to non-work related concerns
o retains valued employees
o higher productivity through creative scheduling

Disadvantages:
o Disproportionate production of "partners" in work unit
o difficulty in supervision

Phased And Partial Retirement
Phased:
o Provides for gradual retirement through reduction of full-time work in phases
o over a number of years

Partial:
o Senior employees are given part-time employment
o retirement income and salary may be combined

Current Status
o Increasing number of employees want to combine part-time work and partial retirement
o most surveys indicate a growing number of early retirees

Examples
Polaroid Corp:
o "Tapering-Off" program allows older employees to reduce work hours gradually - on daily, weekly, or monthly basis
Aetna Insurance:
o "Graduate Retirement" plan allows reduction to part-time status 2-3 years prior to retirement

Effects
Advantages:
o Retains talented senior workers, while reducing burnout;
o expense of health benefits and pension phased in over time

Disadvantage:
o May be abused in corporate downsizing efforts

Voluntary Reduced Work Time (V-time)
o Either ad-hoc or part of a formal program whereby employees are given the option of reducing hours (from 2%-50%)
o compensation for a specified period of time
o (6 or 12 months, for example)
o At end of agreement they can either return to full-time work or renegotiate V-Time

Current Status
o Option is used by 2%-5% of employees in organizations where offered
o often by those with young families
o Rarely available as an option in the private sector

Examples
New York State:
o V-Time available to 70,000 of employees through reduction in worktime from 5%-30% in 5% increments
o the most popular being a 10% reduction

San Mateo, California:
o All county employees are eligible for V-Time

Effects
Advantages:
o Return to full-time status guaranteed and reduction of time is flexible and negotiated
o reduced labor costs

Disadvantages:
o Possible reduced commitment to job by employee and abuse by employer as way of gradually getting rid of full-time jobs

Leave Time
o An authorized absence from work that may or may not be paid but does not risk loss of employment rights
o There are varying policies about the continuation of benefits during the leave period, reasons for which range from family or education to need for personal or leisure time

Current Status
o The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) extends the right to unpaid leave for medical and maternity reasons to employees in companies with more than 50 people
o Sabbatical/career break offered by 24% of firms (1991), another 15% expected by 1995

Examples
Wells Fargo Bank (Calif):
o Social Service Leave allows a 1-6 months leave to any 3-year employee whose proposal is accepted by a selection committee
o their decision is based on the community service content of applicant's goals

Effects
Advantages:
o Employee retention, expansion of skill base, reduction of burnout, ability to fulfill family responsibilities

Disadvantages:
o Difficulty in managing workload during employee absence
o tight guidelines can be a problem

Work-Sharing - STC (Short-Time Compensation)
o In order to avoid layoffs, most or all of an organization's workforce will agree to a reduction in hours and pay

Current Status
o STC and V-Time widespread in Europe as alternative to layoffs
o 17 states have passed laws
o based on California model allowing partial payment of unemployment

Examples
State of California:
o Work Sharing Unemployment Insurance (WSUI);
o employees whose wages and hours are reduced receive unemployment insurance benefits as a temporary alternative to a permanent layoff

Effects
Advantages:
o Unemployment "shared" by all employees and costs of layoffs are avoided
o preserves affirmative action gains

Disadvantage:
o Possible loss of unemployment and fringe benefits

Flexiplace
o Applies to any number of arrangements where the employee works off-site
o either at home or in a satellite office
o commonly known as telecommuting
o Also known as "virtual office"
o staff are supplied with all necessary equipment

Current Status
o Rapidly expanding option in both private and public sector
o In 1993 41.1 million were homeworkers
o (doing 8 or more hours a week at home) versus 9 million in 1985
o 6% of labor force are "telecommuters,"
o 4.5% are "pure telecommuters,"
o up 22% from 1992

The NEW WORK ORDER in the USA
Americans who telecomute
o 1990 3.6 Million
o 1998 11 Million
o 2002 15 Million

Examples
JC Penney:
o Employs a telemarketting staff of around 10,000
o Customer service reps work "on- line" from their homes with company equipment

AT&T, PacTel, US West:
o All creating working models

Effects
Advantages:
o Reduction of employer cost
o maximum flexibility for employee with family or other obligations

Disadvantages:
o Loss of esprit de corps/community aspect of company
o supervision problematic

JobBank Flextime Evolution
o LTS has no desk at the Office
o Only a net work cable link

The Virtual Private Office
o VPO 1 - at desk without interruption
o VPO 2 - work in meeting room with laptop
o VPO 3 - work from anywhere you wish

Full Flextime
o Developed by the team
o Implemented May 1, 2001
o 4 Teams

The JobBank Flexitime