Discuss about the Work life Flexibility Will Replace Work Life Balance.
This report will describe the importance of work life flexibility in the working hours. The implications of managers and leaders, employees and the HR in the work life flexibility will also be described in the report. Flexibility in the work life can be described as any type of working arrangements that will provide some kind of flexibility in the work of employees. Basically, the flexibility is working hours are very helpful for the employee to meet with their needs. Every organization has much pressure to produce goods and provide services with the best quality. Customers also want the same from the organizations. To meet with the demands of the customers and to achieve the set goals and objectives, organizations have to find out the new ways of working to make the best use of resources. Along with this, flexible pattern of work is very helpful to minimize the pressure on the staff (ACAS, 2015).
Every organization has a ‘duty of care’ for its staff and employees. It is important to protect the employees from every kind of risks such as health and safety. The flexibility in the work life is important to balance in the work and home life. Along with this, flexible working is also helpful in improving the health and fitness of the employees. It is the cause of reduced absenteeism, increased productivity, and improved employees engagement in the work (Thomson, 2008).
There are number of different groups in an organization who want work life balance in the organization. There are many key players such as HR and training managers, line managers, senior managers, leaders that play important role in providing work life flexibility. But work life balance is the joint responsibility of the employees and the organization. All the work life flexibility policies and practices will not be successful without the support of the employees within the organization. Employees of the organization need to understand the decisions of the senior management within the organization. There is very important role of every employee while managing the work life flexibility for the growth and success in the future. Employees should take some time to understand the proper meaning of balance in the work life of the organization. Each and every employee should focus upon their own work and his or her personal needs to identify the priorities. Along with this, employees should try to be self managing and proactive. They should ask for training from the training management and workload management if possible (Skinner & Pocock, 2011). Employees should plan their time and workloads properly in the work life flexibility as they have to achieve the goals and objectives also. Apart from this, if the employees feel continuous pressure or stress in the work life, then they should talk with their colleagues and especially line managers about the reason of stress in the work. There are different stages such as struggle, juggle, balance, integration and harmony for the employees to balance the work life in the organization. To achieve the work life flexibility in their work, employees have to follow those stages. Those are as follows:
Struggle:
This is the first stage i.e. struggle stage. In this stage, the employees do not even know and understand that what they are missing in their job and work. They only know that they are out of control and they try to fit in their job and work continuously.
Juggle:
This is the second stage of the employees. In this stage, employees begin to understand the missing part in their work and they try to use techniques and tricks to balance in their work and personal life. This stage is called juggle because the techniques used by the employees might be failed without proper knowledge.
Balance:
The third stage for the employees to balance the work life. In this stage, employees start to fulfill their various responsibilities. Along with this, they have the energy and resources to fulfill their multiple responsibilities. The resources are also used by employees for career growth, career planning, and personal growth and development. In this stage, employees have the sense of their goal and future.
Integration:
The fourth stage is work life integration in which employees become able to fulfill all the responsibilities for day to day operations. In this stage, employees focus on all their energy to fulfill the responsibilities. This is the time for the employees to look forward for the growth and success in the future.
Harmony:
The fifth and last stage is the work life harmony. In this stage, employees get the sense of control of all the aspects of the life. In this stage, employees become able to manage the career, family, finance and personal life with the work (Kossek, Kalliath & Kalliath, 2012).
Now, in the present environment, flexible working is becoming very common within the organization. So, there is the need to think by the employees that how flexibility in work life will improve the quality and quantity of their work and how they will be able to manage their personal and working life effectively. Sometimes, growing number of employees can face the work related issues within the organization. to minimize the stress and fit in the work life flexibility, employees have to cooperate with the management of the organization (Hughes & Bozionelos, 2007).
For the flexible working, employees should be focused on their work. They should identify whether flexible working will suit their needs and requirements or not.
To maximize the productivity of the organization and the employees, the organizations are investing time money and energy. The organizations are developing and implementing work life flexibility to get maximum output from the staff and employees. With all this, the organizations need to create a supportive environment to encourage the employees for adopting new work life policies. HRM has significant role in the process of creating policy of work life flexibility. Basically, the change in the organizational culture is a critical process. There are many factors such as social norms and identification which makes the process more critical and difficult for the organization. HRM plays an important part in the strategy implementation and building supportive work life culture for the employees (Wei, Yili & Tian, 2013).
First of all, HRM department should make aware to the employees about the organizational culture and the implemented policies. The HR managers can show their commitments by providing the needed resources to the employees and the staff of the organization. Employees cab get security by the top management by encouraging their participation and inputs in the business operations. Along with this, Human resource management can provide the best communication channels between employees and the top management. The HR managers should communicate with the top level managers about the impact of new programs on the work life of the employees and their organizational performance. They can support the flexibility programs in the organization (Baptiste, 2008).
Second, HR supervisors and line managers should offer new training programs for the employees so that they will be able to accept the change in the work place. By this, managers will be able to help the employees to overcome form the difficulties in the work life. Along with this, HR depart should appoint line managers for providing assistance to the employees in the new work arrangements.
Third, performance evaluation methods should be set by the HR department in every organization. For the effective utilization of policies related to work life flexibility, HR department has to evaluate the performance of the employees in the new environment. In other words, HR department should establish the performance based assessment which will be helpful in measuring the contribution and commitment of the employees towards the work in the organization. So, the organization should lose its managerial control from the employees while doing changes for best outcome of productivity.
Last but not least, the HR department should make policies for the effective work life flexibility in the organization. For this, managers and supervisors should share their duties and controls with the employees. To establish supportive work life within the organization, managers and supervisors have to understand the viewpoints of the employees. Only by motivating the employees for the change in the workplace will not be sufficient. It can be the cause of fear of using flexible work options in the mind of employees. HR department should also implement the changed work policy on itself (Pruyne, Powell & Parsons, 2012).
The culture of the organization impacts on the attitude and behavior of the managers. Work life flexibility is important for the managers to balance the work life as if the manager is out of balance and stressful then they will not be able to engage themselves in the operations of the organizations. Along with this, they will also be less committed with their tem members, customers and services or products which the organization is offering to the clients. So, work life flexibility is very important for managers and leaders in the organization to stay engaged with the business operations (Blair-Loy & Wharton, 2002).
There are many things which can be done by the managers or leaders to support the environment of work life flexibility. The first thing can be done by managers that they can influence their team to work life balance by providing flexibility in the work life. Then can model and then communicate about this with the employees. As the role of managers, they should introduce the flexible working policy for the employees in the organization. Policy would be helpful to discuss and handle the flexible working for the employees. With this, managers or leaders should also consider that what the employees want with this policy (Lewis & Humbert, 2010). There should be proper and effective objectives while introducing the policy of work life flexibility. Managers should consider about the main motivation behind the creation of work life flexibility policy. The objective should be in the favor of growth of the organization such as better customer care, improving production level, more committed employees and better work life balance for the employees and staff. The policy of work life flexibility should be in such manner so that employees or other staff can be able to present their views and thoughts without any hesitation. This can be beneficial to the managers as by introducing of new ways of flexible working, employees would be aware of practical and potential problem of the organization. In the policy of work life flexibility, managers or leaders should understand some points of the employees by some implications (Anderson & Kelliher, 2009).
Figure 1: Work life balance manager
(Source: McCartney, 2003)
Managers should create the environment of open communication for the employees so that they can be able to share their view points on the work related issues. With this, they can be able to share issues in the personal life and work life balance. It is important for the managers to create open-door communication with the employees as employees will feel free to discuss about their personal needs and issues with the management of the organization. Without any clear and proper communication, employees will not be able to express about their issues and managers will not be able to ensure balance in the work-life of the employees. To develop open based communication is very important by the managers for those employees who feel lonely in the organization. Managers have to make sure that they are able to influence the employees by the organizational policies and procedures (Jain, Giga & Cooper, 2009).
Understanding the issue of employees:
It is crucial to understand the issues of the employees while doing work life balance. Every employee is unique and has different needs at the different stages of the life. Mangers having good work life believe that there is the need to manage the employees at individual level. For this, managers have to take time to understand the personal situation and circumstances of the employees. It will enable the managers to address the personal needs of the employees (Possenried & Plantenga, 2011)
Being role model:
Managers can be the role model of the employees. It is an effective tool to reveal the commitment of the work life flexibility with the motivation of the managers; employees can progress within the organization. If managers support work life balance but do not practice themselves, employees will not follow that policy. Along with this, managers have to develop good relationship with the employees of the organization by having open and sincere behavior (Lyness & Judiesch, 2008).
Planning and scheduling:
It is well known that the planning scheduling has good impact on the employees of the company. The targets and goals can be achieved easily by the proper planning and scheduling of the work for the employees. It is very important to take top level decisions by the managers to achieve the set targets and goals. Along with this, managers should also ensure that the set targets are clear and realistic to the employees and all the work loads are shifted among the team members equally (Torrington, Taylor, Hall & Atkinson, 2011).
Managers or leaders have to set patterns such as flexible work patters, create work life balance culture, flexible management, show caring attitude, support personal life and workload management to ensure the effective work life flexibility in the organization.
It is analyzed that to maximize the productivity of the organization and the employees, work life flexibility is very essential. So, organizations need to create a supportive environment to encourage the employees for adopting new work life policies. There are some recommendations that should be adopted by the organizations for effective work life flexibility:
Conclusion
This report is basically discussed about implications of managers and leaders, employees and the HR in the work life flexibility. From the above discussion, it has been observed that to meet with the demands of the customers and to achieve the set goals and objectives, organizations have to find out the new ways of working to make the best use of resources. Work life balance is the joint responsibility of the employees and the organization. All the work life flexibility policies and practices will not be successful without the support of the employees within the organization. Further, HRM has significant role in the process of creating policy of work life flexibility. The HR managers can show their commitments by providing the needed resources to the employees and the staff of the organization. HR department should establish the performance based assessment which will be helpful in measuring the contribution and commitment of the employees. In the part of implications of managers, there should be proper and effective objectives while introducing the policy of work life flexibility. It is important for the managers to create open-door communication with the employees as employees will feel free to discuss about their personal needs and issues with the management of the organization.
References
ACAS, (2015), Flexible working and work-life balance, accessed on 3rd February 2017 from https://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/j/m/Flexible-working-and-work-life-balance.pdf
Anderson D., & Kelliher, C., (2009), “Flexible Working and Engagement: The Importance of Choice,” Strategic HR Review, 8(2), pp. 13-1
Baptiste, R. N., (2008), “Tightening the Link between Employee Wellbeing at Work and Performance,” Management Desicion, 46(2), pp. 284-308
Blair-Loy, M., & Wharton, A. S. (2002), Employees’ use of work-family policies and the workplace social context, Social Forces, 80(3), 813-45
Bottos, L. M., (2006), Mind the Gap: Knowing What Employees Want Is Key, Employees benefit review
Hughes, J. & Bozionelos, N. (2007), Work-Life Balance as Source of Job Dissatisfaction and Withdrawal Attitudes: Personnel Review, 36(1), p. 145 – 154
Jain, K. A., Giga I.S., & Cooper, L. C., (2009), “Employee Wellbeing, Control and Organizational Commitment,” Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 30(3), pp. 256-273
Kossek, E. E., Kalliath T. & Kalliath, P., (2012), “Achieving Employee Wellbeing in a Changing Work Environment,” International Journal of Manpower, 33(7) , pp. 738-753
Lewis S. & Humbert, A. L., (2010), “Work-Life Balance, Flexible Working Policies and the Gendered Organization,” Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 29(3), pp. 239-254
Looker, T., (2011), “Manage Your Stress for a Happier Life,” Copyright Licensing Agency Limited, London
Lyness S. K. & Judiesch, K. M., (2008), “Can a Manager have a Life and a Career? International and Multisource Perspective on Work-Life Balance and Career Advancement Potential,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(4), pp. 789-805
McCartney, C., (2003), Work-Life Balance: A Guide for Organisations, accessed on 3rd February 2017 from https://mbsportal.bl.uk/secure/subjareas/hrmemplyrelat/roffeypark/115756worklifeguide03.pdf
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Pruyne, E., Powell M. & Parsons, J., (2012), “Developing a Strategy for Employee Wellbeing: A Framework for Planning and Action,” Ashridge Business School, Nuffield Health
Skinner N., & Pocock, B., (2011), “Flexibility and Work-lIfe Interference,” Journal of Industrial Relations, 53(1), pp. 65-82
Thomson, P., (2008), “The Business Benefits of Flexible Working,” Strategic HR Review, 7(2), pp. 17-22
Torrington, D., Taylor, S., Hall L.,& Atkinson, C., (2011), “Human Resource Management,” Prentice Hall, New Jersey
Wei, C., Yili, L., & Tian, Y., (2013), How Can HRM Help Organizations Build the Supportive “Work-Life/family” Balance Culture: International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4(9)
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