● The dramatic changes to the places of work, work practices and

employee expectations.

● How an organisation and its leaders can embrace flexibility AND still

deliver outstanding performance?

● What does the future look like for business leaders?

People don't want to work less.

They want to work differently

Work-life balance

Unsurprisingly, there was a positive

relationship between work-life balance

and reduced-hours working.

Yet, the benefits were not confined to

this group of employees with a majority

indicating a positive effect as shown

below.

Positive Effect

No Effect

Negative Effect

What is meant by flexibility?

Flexitime

Hoteling

Job sharing

Part time employment

Phased retirement

Phased return from

leave

Telecommuting/ telework

Virtual work

Managers and staff are free to

arrange an alternative work

schedule that may better satisfy

the needs of the supervisor and

staff member.

What is flexible management?

Flexibility for everyone in all types

of jobs

People often think of flexibility as something

for working mothers.

In reality, it takes many forms, benefiting

businesses in a wide range of sectors and

individuals at every stage of their lives or

careers.

oTechnology

oTraining and support

oThe nature of work

oCulture of flexibility

Managing Flexible

Working

Possible Options

Flex Time (when work is done)

Work Location (where it is done)

Job Restructuring

Flex Time

Staggered work

hours/shifts:

7:00am-3:30pm, or 8:00am-

4:30pm

Longer workdays

All fulltime hours need to fall

within pay period

Job sharing (2 part time

positions)

Benefits cannot currently be

shared

Reduced Full Time

Work Location: Work from home :

Predetermined or Flexible schedule

“Behind the scenes” employees

(Website)

Management of Non-Exempt staff

Accountability of unsupervised work

hours

Consider Equipment & connectivity

costs, & security issues:

Workers comp considerations:

Safe work environment

Purpose of Flexible Management

Provide useful insight to managers.

Optimum utilization of recourses and effective

administration

Scientific decisions

Meeting changing environmental requirement

Fulfill social responsibility

Flexible Management Characteristics

Loose coupling of various pieces

Offers asynchronous job queuing mechanism for

administration purposes

An alternative to the cell model

Offers administrators additional management

options not previously available

Coordinate management action across multiple

deployment managers

Direct Impact on Performance

Quantity of work

Quality of work

Team working

Retention

Indirect Impact on

Performance

Job satisfaction

Organizational

commitment

Stress

People percentage using flexibility

in Different ways

What does the future look like?

Future of working practices – what are companies doing now?

Many companies still do not embrace the concept of flexible working and according to

a survey by ISP Lumison, London who surveyed 1,013 people earlier this year, the

break down of obstacles to working from home were the following:

Good news....

According to findings in the CFO Perceptions of Work Life Flexibility Study by Cali Williams Yost the CEO and cofounder of Work + Life + Fit Inc who did a random survey on US’s top CFOs

A majority of CFOs recognized a broad range of potential bottom line impacts that flexibility could achieve, including recruitment and retention; improved employee productivity; differentiation from competitors; minimizing environmental impact and reducing health care cost.

Bad news.... Only 13 out of the 100 had a

formal approach to flexibility in

place and had a senior

leadership team that perceived it

to be a strategy for managing

work, resources and talent.

I.e. only 13% of the CFOs

worked for organizations with the

leadership understanding and

organizational infrastructure to

translate that awareness into

action for bottom line results.

73% of office workers believe

that they would be more

productive if they worked from

home (online poll ISP Lumison,

London)

65% claim to work longer hours

Suitability of tasks/job role

Short-term investment to

reap long-term gains

Management culture by

outputs>inputs

Changes to working

practices (e.g. clear desk

policy, contract

arrangements)

Advantages and disadvantages of

flexible working practices to

EMPLOYEES...

Advantages Better health

Less stress

A sense of control after making a

proactive decision

Better quality of life

Coping better with non-work

responsibilities

Retaining earning capability

Less commuting/cheaper transport

costs

More effective time management

Choice of working patterns

Good for children

Good for equality

Increased retention

Disadvantages Cost – disadvantage or advantage?

Working at home with children?

Isolation

Lack of supervision

Lower salary if you work fewer hours

Need for a dedicated work space

Difficulty in judging performance

Need to be self disciplined and highly

organised

Possible obstacle to promotion

A sense that you have been forced

into it by circumstances not of your

choosing

Difficulty of managing home workers

and monitoring performance

Deterioration in employees skills and

work quality

Five tips for businesses on implementing remote working technology

Here are 5 tips for businesses on remote working technology

1 Cost-benefit analysis

2 Staff consultation

3

4

5

Remote working security policy

Flexible working policy

Training

What is the government doing to help?

Provision of additional child-care places for parents of school-age

children, including Outside School Hours Care

Targeted and improved industry and workplace engagement

strategies

Strategies to increase employment of workers with a disability

Training for employers to manage an ageing workforce effectively

Additional training and employment preparation services for job

seekers

Conclusion

The workforce of the future will be more diverse it will consist of more older workers, more parents, and more people wanting to work part-time so new strategies will be needed

Organisations interested in creating a flexible work environment have a variety of options available to them.

It is really a matter of tailoring the specific type(s) of flexibility to employee needs, the constraints of specific jobs, and the organisation’s culture and structure.

Work flexibility practices can relate to other types of psychologically healthy workplace programs and practices.

Organisational decision makers themselves have a lot of flexibility in how they choose to utilise flexible work arrangements.

Flexible management is an

asynchronous scalable

deployment architecture

Flexible management

components include the

administrative agent and job

manager

Questions and answers