Disadvantages of Flexible Working

Disadvantages

Elsewhere on FlexTime's web site we consider the virtues of introducing a flexible working scheme to your workplace (and go here for a current article by our CEO in EHS, the on line U.S. magazine for Health and Safety issues).

Therefore in order to balance this, most people will want to also think ahead about what disadvantages could possibly lie in store, that they may not have yet considered.

We at FlexTime have found that there are several arguments cited against the introduction of flexible working. However first organisations need also to:

• Take a serious look at the appropriateness of their current arrangements for working time and also the impact of the policy in repect of where employees work now
• Compare that to what can be achieved through combining newer, more effective practices backed up by clear and agreed rules of engagement combined with web technology specially designed for the environment
• Appreciate how research confirms that absences, overtime and staff turnover will all reduce through flexible working

Ask FlexTime about how we can supply a business case to help with these issues at 00353 1 2609680.

 

Frequent Concerns

Extra or Less Heating/Lighting Costs - which is it ?

Some will argue that because buildings have to be left open through a wider bandwidth, extra lighting, and heating costs can result. However, that point of view can equally looked at in another way. This is in the sense that a well managed flexible working policy, where job sharing, hot desking and home working are applied, working space can actually be utilised in a more efficient way.

So through having a sound energy policy which is matched with flexible working arrangements, it can in fact result in facilities being run more cheaply.

This provides management with new choices/challenges:

• To turn off Light and Heating in working spaces that are not being used due to say job sharing. home working etc
• To use the newly aviable Space in differerent ways

For example, often organisations are hard pressed to find space to hold meetings - some even resorting to hiring rooms at a cost.
Instead customers of FlexTime are now using our Working Space & Room Booker - part of our Resource Allocation system, to support this more efficient method of utilising workspace. Ask us for more details at 003531 2609680.

Will staff be available when needed?

Before embarking on flexible working practices some, especially managers, can fear an exposure, as employees may not always now be conforming to a fixed working day or maybe even fixed working location.
Naturally, when any new concept and system is introduced, a certain amount of adjustment is required. This is why we recommend a pilot period of say one or two groupings of Staff and their supervisors. Initially in this plilot, departments may not always be fully "manned" during flexible times, at the extrmities of theday i.e. the beginning and end.
However, concrete evidence shows that even with the opportunity of flexible hours, people do set their own patterns of arrival and departure at work and tend to stick to them. Ironically, it can often mean the employee reverting to a type of fixed hours - but the key point is that now the employee has a "personalised working time pattern". This can equally suit the issue of workplace cover in a Department, as our daily habits, are in generall, reasonably predicable.

Why such patterns can be predicable, is because employees decisions about working time is governed now by matters such as wanting to avoid traffic, catch a particular train, or by personal committments suchas maybe school runs in the case of parents with young children. Then the fact that not everyone in the workplace is of the same age and stage of life or have the same needs, it means that each person is now creating their own "personalised working time pattern". In turn this is within the quite restricted flexible bands at the begiining and end of day.

This reasonably fixed behaviour by employees is connected to the very issue that flexible working sets out to solve i.e. the employee's work : life balance.

In a survey carried out in one organisation, 1,000 calls were made to staff before the introduction of FWH and again afterwards. It was found that they were just as easy to contact on flexible working hours as they had been on fixed hours.

How can we be sure that will can be available when needed?

 

FlexTime has designed software programmes and hardware featues to counter issues like the concern with poor workplace cover - caused by employees being able to use flexible working.
So for instance to allay such concern there is a report available in our system called "The Cover Report". This shows how many employees have been available for work during the various segments of the working day, over a date range.

So in this way, if a senior manager is worried that staff are not available during critical operational times, he/she can, for example, find out how many people were at work between 9.00 and 9.15 in January. Or how many staff were available yesterday between 12.00 and 13.00.. and so on.
Meanwhile other reports can look at varying aspects of how attendance needs to be handled.

Question: If your organisation is not offering a flexible working hours scheme, can you then easily know just how many of your staff were actually available yesterday between 12.00 and 13.00?

The answer is probably ..no; and the reason for this "no" answer is that it is most likely your staff are not clocking in/out - which is an essesntial prerequsisite for people operating on flexible working hour schemes .

Individualised flexible arrangements if not monitored well, can put pressure on the workplace

As individualised flexible working arrangements are on the increase, it places further emphasis on managing a flexible working scheme more closely. To specifically counteract issues that can arise, VisionTime, our specialised system for managing such schemes, has programmes to draw attention to "stress points" that might occur.

Above we mentioned "The Cover Report, but there are many other techniques in the system to ensure the smooth running of the scheme e.g. The Who's In programme - Read more

This way, within any group of employees, or at an organisation-wide level, management have an overview on behaviour and on how working time arrangements are being "treated".

The Time Recording System:

The system itself can be viewed by some as a "disadvantage", in this context. So, some staff might initially be uncomfortable at the prospect of having to use a time recording system. Well, according to our latest independent research - those concerns are totally unfounded and the opposite is the case.

The research found that over 1,000 users of VisionTime, when surveyed, strongly felt that they have enhanced job control which points to their being less stressed than employees not using the system.

Therefore after a short while the benefits to be gained will override that concern. For example:

• Punctuality is no longer in need of being watched
• Being an interactive system means they keep a permanent and personal check on worked time
• There is an appreciation that because of the sheer flexibility of what is being offered, and the associated calculations required, that management would not cope without a system, and thus flexible working would be a “non starter”

Some organisations might feel that they can offer flexible working on an honours basis – as we “trust our staff”. Trust is not the primary issue here and the main consideration is the “loss of shape” which would become quickly evident in the organisation trying out flexible working on an honours basis.

The specially designed VisionTime system – will ensure that “shape” will be kept, meaning that flexible working will not only stay for good in the organisation, but will allow for will allow for newer flexibilities to more easily emerge to the benefit of management and staff e.g. home and mobile working, term time, time in lieu, individualised working time arrangements, varieties of job and work sharing.

Such wide combinations of flexible working arrangements, are becoming commonplace in our user group. However, it might be a fearsome consideration, were it not for the availability of a system specially designed and fit for the purpose.

For more information phone: 00353 1 260 9680

Disadvantages

Elsewhere on FlexTime's web site we consider the virtues of introducing a flexible working scheme to your workplace. Therefore in order to balance this, most people will want to also think ahead about what disadvantages could possibly lie in store, that they may not have yet considered.
We at FlexTime have found that there are several arguments cited against the introduction of flexible working. However first organisations need also to:

• Take a serious look at the appropriateness of their current arrangements for working time and also the impact of the policy in repect of where employees work now
• Compare that to what can be achieved through combining newer, more effective practices backed up by clear and agreed rules of engagement combined with web technology specially designed for the environment
• Appreciate how research confirms that absences, overtime and staff turnover will all reduce through flexible working

Ask FlexTime about how we can supply a business case to help with these issues at 00353 1 2609680.

 

Frequent Concerns

Extra or Less Heating/Lighting Costs - which is it ?

Some will argue that because buildings have to be left open through a wider bandwidth, extra lighting, and heating costs can result. However, that point of view can equally looked at in another way. This is in the sense that a well managed flexible working policy, where job sharing, hot desking and home working are applied, working space can actually be utilised in a more efficient way.

So through having a sound energy policy which is matched with flexible working arrangements, it can in fact result in facilities being run more cheaply.

This provides management with new choices/challenges:

• To turn off Light and Heating in working spaces that are not being used due to say job sharing. home working etc
• To use the newly aviable Space in differerent ways

For example, often organisations are hard pressed to find space to hold meetings - some even resorting to hiring rooms at a cost.
Instead customers of FlexTime are now using our Working Space & Room Booker - part of our Resource Allocation system, to support this more efficient method of utilising workspace. Ask us for more details at 003531 2609680.

Will staff be available when needed?

Before embarking on flexible working practices some, especially managers, can fear an exposure, as employees may not always now be conforming to a fixed working day or maybe even fixed working location.
Naturally, when any new concept and system is introduced, a certain amount of adjustment is required. This is why we recommend a pilot period of say one or two groupings of Staff and their supervisors. Initially in this plilot, departments may not always be fully "manned" during flexible times, at the extrmities of theday i.e. the beginning and end.
However, concrete evidence shows that even with the opportunity of flexible hours, people do set their own patterns of arrival and departure at work and tend to stick to them. Ironically, it can often mean the employee reverting to a type of fixed hours - but the key point is that now the employee has a "personalised working time pattern". This can equally suit the issue of workplace cover in a Department, as our daily habits, are in generall, reasonably predicable.

Why such patterns can be predicable, is because employees decisions about working time is governed now by matters such as wanting to avoid traffic, catch a particular train, or by personal committments suchas maybe school runs in the case of parents with young children. Then the fact that not everyone in the workplace is of the same age and stage of life or have the same needs, it means that each person is now creating their own "personalised working time pattern". In turn this is within the quite restricted flexible bands at the begiining and end of day.

This reasonably fixed behaviour by employees is connected to the very issue that flexible working sets out to solve i.e. the employee's work : life balance.

In a survey carried out in one organisation, 1,000 calls were made to staff before the introduction of FWH and again afterwards. It was found that they were just as easy to contact on flexible working hours as they had been on fixed hours.

How can we be sure that will can be available when needed?

 

FlexTime has designed software programmes and hardware featues to counter issues like the concern with poor workplace cover - caused by employees being able to use flexible working.
So for instance to allay such concern there is a report available in our system called "The Cover Report". This shows how many employees have been available for work during the various segments of the working day, over a date range.

So in this way, if a senior manager is worried that staff are not available during critical operational times, he/she can, for example, find out how many people were at work between 9.00 and 9.15 in January. Or how many staff were available yesterday between 12.00 and 13.00.. and so on.
Meanwhile other reports can look at varying aspects of how attendance needs to be handled.

Question: If your organisation is not offering a flexible working hours scheme, can you then easily know just how many of your staff were actually available yesterday between 12.00 and 13.00?

The answer is probably ..no; and the reason for this "no" answer is that it is most likely your staff are not clocking in/out - which is an essesntial prerequsisite for people operating on flexible working hour schemes .

Individualised flexible arrangements if not monitored well, can put pressure on the workplace

As individualised flexible working arrangements are on the increase, it places further emphasis on managing a flexible working scheme more closely. To specifically counteract issues that can arise, VisionTime, our specialised system for managing such schemes, has programmes to draw attention to "stress points" that might occur.

Above we mentioned "The Cover Report, but there are many other techniques in the system to ensure the smooth running of the scheme e.g. The Who's In programme - Read more

This way, within any group of employees, or at an organisation-wide level, management have an overview on behaviour and on how working time arrangements are being "treated".

The Time Recording System:

The system itself can be viewed by some as a "disadvantage", in this context. So, some staff might initially be uncomfortable at the prospect of having to use a time recording system. Well, according to our latest independent research - those concerns are totally unfounded and the opposite is the case.

The research found that over 1,000 users of VisionTime, when surveyed, strongly felt that they have enhanced job control which points to their being less stressed than employees not using the system.

Therefore after a short while the benefits to be gained will override that concern. For example:

• Punctuality is no longer in need of being watched
• Being an interactive system means they keep a permanent and personal check on worked time
• There is an appreciation that because of the sheer flexibility of what is being offered, and the associated calculations required, that management would not cope without a system, and thus flexible working would be a “non starter”

Some organisations might feel that they can offer flexible working on an honours basis – as we “trust our staff”. Trust is not the primary issue here and the main consideration is the “loss of shape” which would become quickly evident in the organisation trying out flexible working on an honours basis.

The specially designed VisionTime system – will ensure that “shape” will be kept, meaning that flexible working will not only stay for good in the organisation, but will allow for will allow for newer flexibilities to more easily emerge to the benefit of management and staff e.g. home and mobile working, term time, time in lieu, individualised working time arrangements, varieties of job and work sharing.

Such wide combinations of flexible working arrangements, are becoming commonplace in our user group. However, it might be a fearsome consideration, were it not for the availability of a system specially designed and fit for the purpose.

For more information phone: 00353 1 260 9680