Flexible-Scheduling Strategies in Work Design

While many Americans continue to work a traditional 40-hour work week -consisting of five 8-hour days with fixed starting and ending times - many companies are turning to flexible-scheduling strategies as solutions to motivation issues as well as to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse work force. These strategies include flexitime, compressed work weeks, job sharing, part-time work, and working at home.

Flexitime allows employees to choose their starting and ending times provided that they are at work during a specified core period (Figure 9). Understandably, flexitime does not reduce the total number of hours that employees work; rather, as its name suggests, it gives them flexibility in selecting the hours they work. Employees are free to schedule their work around core times in which all employees must be present. A firm may specify that employees must be present from 10:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. One employee may come in at 7:00 A.M. and leave at the end of the core time, perhaps to attend classes at a nearby college after work. Another employee may come in at 9:00 A.M. in order to have time to drop off children at a day-care centre and travel by public transportation to the job.

The compressed work week is a four-day (or shorter) period in which an employee works 40 hours. Under such a plan, employees generally work ten hours per day and have a three-day weekend. The compressed work week reduces an organization's operating expenses because its actual hours of operation are reduced. It is also a benefit to parents who want to have more days off to spend with their families.

Job sharing occurs when two people do one job. For example, one person may work from 8:00 A.M. to 12:30 P.M., and the second person would come in at 12:30 P.M. and work until 5:00 P.M. Job sharing gives both people the opportunity to work and time to fulfil other obligations, such as parenting or education. With job sharing, the company has the benefit of the skills of two people for one job, often at a lower total salary cost than one person working eight hours a day would be paid.

Two other flexible scheduling strategies are allowing full-time workers to work part time for a certain period and allowing workers to work at home. Some firms are allowing employees to work only part time for six months or a year so that they can care for a new baby or an elderly parent or just slow down for a little while to "charge their batteries." When the employees return to full-time work, they are usually given positions comparable to their original full-time position.

Other firms are experimenting with having employees work at home part time or even full time. These employees, usually in management, sales, or other non-assembly positions, are frequently connected to their workplace through computers, fax machines, and telephones. Some full-time computer programmers at CIGNA Corp., for example, are permitted to work at home two days a week. While many employees ask for the option of working at home to ease parenting responsibilities, some have discovered that they are more productive at home. Others, however, have discovered that they are not suited for working at home. Work-at-home programs do help reduce overhead costs for businesses, but they may cause problems when the absence of home-bound employees slows operations.

Companies are turning to flexible work schedules to give more options to employees who are trying to juggle their work duties and family responsibilities. A Hewitt Associates survey of 259 companies found that 56 percent offered some sort of flexible scheduling options. Of these firms, 42 percent offered flexitime; 36 percent permitted part-time employment; 17 percent offered job-sharing programs; 13 percent employed compressed work schedules; and 9 percent allowed employees to work at home occasionally. Because flexible scheduling plans are fairly new, it is difficult to evaluate their effectiveness. Preliminary results, however, indicate that they increase job satisfaction, and greater job satisfaction, in turn, may lead to increases in productivity.

1. Which of these statements expresses the main idea of the text?

a) Presently, many companies are turning to flexible-scheduling strategies.

b) Flexible-scheduling strategies include flexitime, compressed work weeks, job sharing, part-time work, and working at home.

c) Companies are turning to flexible work schedules to give more options to employees who are trying to juggle their work duties and family responsibilities.

d) Because flexible scheduling plans are quite new, it is difficult to evaluate their effectiveness.

3. Are these statements true or false? Correct the false ones.

a) Flexible-scheduling strategies allow companies to meet the needs of different employees.

b) Under the flexitime strategy, employees can choose their starting and ending times only if they are at work during a specified core period.

c) The compressed work week usually consists of three 10-hour days.

d) With job sharing, a company makes a loss because it has to pay two people for one job.

e) If an employee has overworked and needs to be refreshed, he may be allowed to work part time for a certain period.

f) Many employees ask for the opportunity to work at home though they are not suited for it.

g) The main problem associated with work-at-home programs is that that they increase overhead costs for businesses.

h) Flexible work schedules give more opportunities to employees who wish to combine their work duties and family responsibilities.

i) The supposed effectiveness of flexible scheduling plans cannot be attributable to their ability to increase job satisfaction.

4. Answer the questions.

a) What is a traditional work week like?

b) What issues can flexible-scheduling strategies solve?

c) What does the term flexitime mean?

d) What is a core period?

e) In what cases may employees ask for flexitime?

f) Does an employee work less under the compressed work week plan?

g) Who benefits from a compressed work week?

h) What does job sharing imply?

i) Does the company benefit or loses with job sharing? Why?

j) For how long may a full-time employee be allowed to work part time?

k) What positions do such employees normally take when they return to their full-time work?

l) How can employees who work at home be connected to their workplace?

m) What are the pluses and minuses of work-at-home programs?

n) Which flexible-scheduling strategy do companies use least frequently, according to a Hewitt Associates survey?

5. Write a summary of the text.

Figure 9

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 892