In this competitive business environment, the organizations are expanding their business operations across the domestic borders and entering into international markets. Due to this, there is need of best and skilled talent in the organization. The workload is continuously increasing due to complex working structure in today’s organization. This competitive working environment includes more work-related pressure on employees. There are different challenges, which the organization is facing in the workplace environment. These future challenges may be, such as; use of advanced technology in work, absenteeism, work-life balance and flexibility, employee motivation and employee engagement. All these points can pose threats to both employees and employers as well. For this discussion, the topic, which is taken into consideration, is “work life flexibility will replace the work-life balance”. This discussion outlines the major considerations when the employers are replacing work-life balance with work-life flexibility and implementing flexible working practices. It is very difficult to attain the balance between professional and personal life because of the work load. They have various social responsibilities and their employers are forcing them to be more skilled and productive and attain better results for the organization. This report will examine the implications of work-life flexibility on HRM, managers and employees. It will include whether these practices will enhance the work-life balance and balance their roles in both the work and personal life as well. It also includes the negative facts of using flexible working practices.
There are various researches, which resulted that “work life flexibility will replace the work-life balance”. People have various responsibilities in their personal life towards their children, elderly, religion and education commitment. If there will be poor balance between work commitments and responsibilities, then it can create the problems of stress, absence and low productivity (Casper, & Harris, 2008). The employers should help the employees in balancing their work and life. There are some employers, who support their employees. These types of employers can be compensated by the employee loyalty and employee motivation. Implementing flexible working practices in an organization can be beneficial for employers, employees and HRM.
Increased competition in the market has created lot of burden of work on the employees. The employers are forcing the employees to become more skilled and productive, so that they can achieve better results over their competitors. Thus, the employees forget their personal responsibilities as they are busy in achieving the targets of organization. For proving themselves in the organization and achieving the targets, employees do overtime, which may have serious impact on their mental and physical health. Overworked employees suffer different health issues; such as; less efficient, less social, mentally stressed and sick. It can increase the rate of absenteeism. Enhancing work-life balance is very important to success, happiness and productivity of the employees and organization. This concept means establishing the balance between personal and professional life in a way, so they can get best of both the lives (Hendry, 2012). Work-life balance creates more committed, engaged and dedicated workforce in achieving the objectives of organization. Women are the major example, who faces the issues of work-life balance. The women find it very difficult to commit their professional lives as their employers do not consider their situations. If there will be absence of work-life balance, it will have negative effect on the employees’ performance. It impacts the life of their families. It can be in the benefit of both the employees and employers to avoid the issues by effective human resource management. If the people will always be busy in their work, then they will not get time to take rest and regenerate themselves. It will reduce the ability to do work and will have adverse impact on employees’ performance (Romer, 2011).
There are various factors, which may have impact on work-life balance practices in organization, such as; company size, industry, proportion of women employees, job dissatisfaction and need to nurture a high level of commitment. In an organizational environment, the problems are generated, when the employers and employees are not aware about the practices of work-life balance. If there will be optimum balance between home and work, then it will assist the employees to stay motivated and focused at the work and in their personal lives (Price, 2011). The employees will set the priorities and will be able to fulfill their responsibilities effectively. Many of the organization are taking initiatives, like; they are providing Gym facilities at office premises, giving discounts on gym memberships and child care services. It will support the mothers and single parents to concentrate on their work. It will reduce the work-life stress from their life. The organization should focus on the productivity of the employees than number of working hours. Offering maternity and paternity leaves can make the employees feel that their employers think and care about them. It increases their loyalty towards the organization. It is the duty of employees that they will be committed towards organizational goals, if their employer is providing those flexible hours and other facilities. For maintaining the work-life balance, the organization should conduct training and development program. It can change the work culture in organization, apply vacation time and offer flexible practices. If the employers successfully implement flextime for the employees, then work-life flexibility will replace the work-life balance.
In future, there will be need of more innovative practices, which can help in increasing the productivity of the employees. Work-life flexibility is not a different concept, but it is not implemented by the organizations. In organizations, the flexible working hours are developed as a benefit for the caring and parent employees for assisting them in completing their responsibilities, related to work and their personal life. According to a work-life survey, most of the workers believe that flexible working hours increases the employee morale, which have positive impact on work-life balance (Naughtin & Sun, 2015). Furthermore, the workers think that employers are able to support them in creating balance between their life and work. For example, work-life flexibility is the best method to improve the health and wellbeing of employees as it assists in handling all the duties and responsibilities without any stress.
The organization can provide different flexible working settings to the employees, like; part-time work, flextime, overtime, job sharing, work from home etc. If any organization uses the work-life flexibility at the workplace, there may be various benefits of these practices. Employees may have control on the planning of work. The work-life flexibility will assist the employees to be more efficient and productive as they have control on managing their time effectively (Kossek & Van Dynet, 2011). They can work stress free at the workplace as they are not adjusting with their personal lives. They will feel more motivated and happier. It will reduce the conflicts at the workplace.
With these benefits, there are some drawbacks of the work-life flexibility, because men believe that these practices lead to lower income and employment insecurity. Despite of these drawbacks, male workers look at the flexible work-life practices as a mode to develop the organizational commitment, while the women employees relate the work-life flexibility with the enhancement in the work-life balance (ACAS, 2015). A research shows that these flexible hours are more appropriate for the female workers as compared to male workers. Women employees prefer to use these practices due to motherhood, so they request more for the flexible hours. Now, the men are also interested in using the work-life flexibility due to changing pattern of family. The organizations show positive relationship between health issues of employees and work-life flexibility. It decreases the mental work stress (Wilson, 2016).
HRM of an organization plays an important role in effective and successful implementation of the work-life strategy in the organization. The HR department has to discuss to the top level managers and satisfy them that implementing flexible hours is very important for increasing the productivity of employees and overall organization. HR should develop the policies and strategies according to the interests of both employees and employers as well. The HR managers have to handle the issues related to the employee resistance (Dhas & Karthikeyan, 2015). In an organization, HR department is also responsible for evaluation and monitoring of the efficiency of the employees, who are using flexible practices, like; work from home and shorter working hours. They have to make sure that efficiency and productivity of employees is not affected because they are the people, who are responsible to the decision of top level management. This department has the responsibility of creating the performance appraisal system, which should not impact the workers, who are working regularly in office. They will ensure and check that the employees are following the policies and schemes (Van Dyne, Kossek & Lobel, 2007).
It this process, there may be some legal issues, which are connected with the policies of work-life flexibility, like; the workers should receive compensations when they face health related problems when they are doing work from home. Human resource department has to make sure that the information of organization should be kept confidential (Bhate, 2013). They have to deal with all the issues, which arise from work-life flexibility arrangements. HRM can use different practices like; numerical, functional and wage methods.
In an organization, the managers and leaders have the responsibility to introduce flexible working hours for generating, hiring and retaining the best employees. They have a shared responsibility to guide the efforts of employees towards organizational objectives. The employees feel that their employer values them and their interests. Managers can be able to manage and engage the employees (Lingard & Francis, 2009). The managers have some benefits of these practices, because the people, who are approved to do work according to their own terms and conditions, decrease the costs of recruitment, because the rate of employee turnover will be relatively low.
Apart from these benefits, leaders and managers may face some issues, like employee resistance and Violation of new policies by employees. They can take the wrong benefits of the flexible policies. If the people are working from home, then managers have to supervise whether the employees are really working on their roles and responsibilities (Patty, 2014). The leaders may find it very hard to convince all the workers, who are against the work-life flexible practices. They address the problems of employees about the new working practices. Thus, these practices can be implemented by the effective support of managers and leaders.
For improving the work-life balance at workplace, there is requirement of new working practices, which are more flexible. The organization should implement an effective flexible working policy and strategy, which can get best outcome of these practices. This policy of the company can assist to make sure the reliability that how these practices are managed. This policy should be created after considering the needs and wants of the employees. Before developing this policy, it should consider some major points like; committed employees, customer care and best employees, performance and production levels and enhanced work-like balance for the workers (Collatz & Gudat, 2011). This policy should include the details about the available options of flexible working practices, a motivating statement for the employees and equal treatment with all the employees. This policy of the organization should motivate the employees, so they can be engaged in work-life flexible practices. For an organization, it is important to understand that developing the work-life policy is not enough but it should develop a new work culture in organization, which help s in implementation of new policies (Shagvaliyeva, & Yazdanifard, 2014).
Conclusion
The workplace is becoming very complex and competitive today and will become more challenging in the future. The employees are very demanding. It increases the issues related to work-life balance in the organization, so it should implement new flexible practices for both employees and employers as well. Work life flexibility is the best solution of the issues of work-life balance. It allows the employees to do work with their comfort. It is very challenging to implement the flexible practices at the workplace. These practices are very helpful the employee in managing their personal and professional lives. They can solve the work-life balance issues. There are various options available for the employees, like; work from home, over time, part time and flexible working hours. So, it is hereby concluded that work-life flexibility have implications to all the parties, i.e. employees, employers, managers and leaders. The report analyzes the benefits and opportunities in the process of implementation of work-life flexible practices. Thus, the report demonstrates that work-life flexibility will replace work-life balance in future.
References
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Patty, A, 2014, Work-life balance is getting worse for Australians: new report, retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/nsw/worklife-balance-is-getting-worse-for-australians-new-report-20141117-11otw6.html.
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