Why Flexibility? Need for Flexibility:
The concept of flexibility has permeated much of current human resources management thinking, providing justification for recent developments in more flexible and variable working patterns. Its need arises from the following:
The changing business environment- highly competitive "global" product markets, an increasingly rapid advancements in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and increasing capital intensity of production.
A changing social environment– for example, the increasing female participation ratio and the trend towards early retirement and rising divorce rates.
Government policy environment – a desire to reduce unemployment and make the economy attractive to inward investment as a source of employment and long-term growth
Flexible Firm Model:
Atkinson and Meager’s model of ‘flexible firm’ identifies four types of flexibility that companies seek:
1. Functional: This refers to a firm’s ability to adjust and deploy the skills of its employees to match the tasks required by its changing workload, production methods. This is done by multi-skilling / dual skilling / dismantling of traditional rigidities between occupational groups (horizontal and vertical flexibility). This is designed to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
This is a core area of traditional conflict within the division of labour between distinct skilled groups and between the skilled and the non-skilled (Penn, 1985).
2. Numerical: This refers to a firm’s ability to adjust the level of labour inputs to meet fluctuations in outputs. There is increased use of part-timers, temporary, short-term contract staff, job sharers and agency workers.
There is a contrast between ‘core’ permanent workforce and ‘peripheral’ non-permanent. The general idea is that an increasing mixture of non-standard employment forms will be more efficient and cheaper.
3. Distancing Strategies: This refers to the increased use of other firms that undertake non-core activities such as catering, cleaning and transport. Such a strategy will be cheaper.
4. Financial: This refers to achievement of flexibility through the pay and reward structure.
5. Temporal flexibility: It is concerned with the pattern of hours worked and linked to the demands of the business. Seasonal or demand work is provided leading to Flexi-time systems. In addition, annual hours contracts allotted with increase in evening working.
These flexibilities are achieved through a division of employees into:
• Core workforce: The core group is composed of high-skill and high-pay workers recruited from the primary labour market. These workers are expected to deliver functional flexibility. Core group workers have brighter career and promotion prospects and they usually are provided with comprehensive training and development.
• Peripheral workforce: The peripheral group consists of two-types of group.
More new products need to be introduced and research needs to be done to find out which products will be most popular and profitable.
Casual employment is often connected with unpleasant working condition including irregular working hours, low wages, intermittent employment and employment insecurity. Casual employment is usually dubbed with as employment with few benefits and rights. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), casual employees are defining as the employees who cannot get paid for their sick leave or annual leave. This definition reflects the most important aspects of causal works (Buddelmeyer, and Wooden, 2011).
Flexibility is important of firms an operation that enables it to react to their customers quickly and efficiently. Some companies use they two types of flexibility: the customization or the volume flexibility. Customization is usually the ability to satisfy the unique needs of each customer by changing products or services design, with different features, or making them look unique. Primark’s uses both operations. To satisfy their customers need. While volume flexibility is the ability to quicken the rate of their productions to handle large variations in demand.it is usually important for operations. Both companies use both operations.
In addition, the management should enhance flexibility I the workplace. Flexibility makes the workplace environment more manageable. A clear manifestation of a flexible workplace is one that allows employees adjust the hours of work if the adjustment is necessary. It may also include allowing them to work from another place other than the office, for instance working from a nearby restaurant. This seeks to make their working experiences more realistic and manageable. This flexibility will also aid the employees meet their non-work responsibilities and this greatly motivates them.
Contingent workers have long been employed to fill seasonal jobs, to complete specialized projects, and to fill in for employees on leave. When business is cyclical, companies hire temporary employees during their busy season, such as summer vacation, the winter holidays, harvest time, and tax season. Temporary staffing firms emerged in the 1960s, primarily to supply clerical and secretarial jobs (Rassuli, 2005). Some companies hire temporary help to protect regular employees from overextending themselves. Some projects require workers with a specific skill set which may not be needed the rest of the time. In this case, an organization relies a on contractor or freelancer to complete the project. Contingent workers often provide immediate temporary replacement for employees on vacation or leave (Paul & Townsend, 1998). Agencies such as Robert Half may supply companies with contingent workers with as little as a few hours notice (M. Kelley, personal communication, December 12, 2013).
In order to get by in the world today and especially the work place you have to be flexible. You have to be able to drift or move from one city or job to another with ease. This drifting and moving about is becoming more common in today’s work place. Constant downsizing and the hunger for change causes people to drift (Sennett 22). The hunger for change, is described by Sennett as the desire for rapid returns or impatient capital (Sennett 22). The rapid return is ones expectation or wanting of more money as quick as possible. This urge for rapid returns causes people to seek out more profitable places of employment. This search for rapid returns requires people to be flexible in such a way as to be able to pack up and move and have no problems doing it. In a pure business sense, the flexibility in drifting is very ideal to the management.
Flexibility in the workplace should be a benefit for the employee as well as the employer. According to Christensen, “Having flexibility in the workplace will ultimately lead to better morale, increase retention, and become an effective tool for recruitment.” (Christensen, 2005) Flexibility is an important factor toward overall workplace success. As mentioned by Christensen not only is this a great tool for companies to use for recruitment and retention, but improving diversity in the organization. Flexibility means taking a varied approach to the old way things are done. Some examples, changing work hours, location of where the work is done and restructure of the job. The traditional Monday thru Friday, nine to five work design is no longer the norm. Having a flexible work structure allows an organization to modify schedules for employees which in turn gives the employee opportunity to balance work and life. By doing this...
Moreover, the company has placed great significance on open and honest communications with the employees on many levels. Even more, leadership expected a plan that would utilize all human assets in a way that would support the organization’s attitude in servicing customers and employees. As such, they found it important to centralize the staffing initiative in order to maintain the unique corporate culture created in the beginning. Every one of these strategies would be focused on centralizing staffing, brining in the best possible employees, and retaining each on a high
When management and employees are flexible, they are quicker to respond to the external business changes than someone that is static. The world will always have new demands for specific products and Gore can deliver with their fast paced change system.
This means individual emotional experiences from long term aspect in which character precise by commitment or loyalty through long term goals. (Hughes,2005:606) Furthermore, Sennett, (46:1998) point out the flexibility in the new capitalism, express flexibility as “tree’s capacity both yield and to recover”. This suggests the new conditions of working is breaking and the capacity is to adapt with changing conditions without losing essential character. Regarding with the new capitalism, Sennett emphasis that work is turning from something that was once considered to be constant and secure. Consequently, Svensson (2011:127) argues that flexibility as something very diverse now than it did once as workers moving from job to job as there is no long
Miles and Snow’s typology is centered on four types of businesses; each with its own strategy. These business types are those of prospectors, defenders, analyzers, and reactors. A prospector tends to be a firm which often introduces new products to the market (p.196). These businesses can be described as risk takers, typically being some of the first firms to introduce a new product to the market. Prospectors are flexible and meet industry changes head-on by rising to challenges and creating new and improved
Employees are increasingly interested in jobs with flexible work schedules. What factors are driving this interest?
In preparing for future workforce situations, employing organization and job seekers are projected have will look for workforce employees with some of the following characteristics.
Keeping up with technology is difficult, tiresome, and firms find it very costly to keep at pace with it. Technology rapidly and constantly keeps on changing. Being at par technologically requires extensive research and strategic analysis of acquiring new innovation. Enforcing new technology requires staff retraining and in some cases making employees redundant.
Advances in technology have changed businesses dramatically, in particular the communication and information technology that are conducted in firms, which changed the appearance and pace of businesses over the past few decades. ICT in particular, has evolved a lot over the past 30 years; important information can be stored in computers rather than being in drawers enabling information to be transferred at a greater volume and speed (Guy, 2009). ICT has also expanded various forms of telecommunications and workload conducted in businesses, internet examples of this include: e-mails can be used to communicate with others...