Creating Work Flexibility: Strategies for Enhancing Employee Well-being and Organisational Performance


Contemporary organisations play a significant focus on work flexibility. Work flexibility refers to employees capability to fulfil their duties beyond boundaries of time and place. Flexible employment opportunities can create a work life balance in employees, an improved job satisfaction and the well being. This blog explores the strategies of creating work flexibility in order to establish a positive work culture. 

Introducing flexible work schedules


Research has consistently shown that flexible work schedules are associated with enhanced employee well-being, engagement, and job satisfaction (Hill, Erickson, Holmes, & Ferris, 2010). Flexible work schedules will provide work flexibility for employees as well as a balanced life to manage personal commitments while meeting professional obligations.


Encouraging remote work


In a post-covid world, lots of organisations have encouraged remote work where employees can work from wherever they are without coming to the office physically. Remote work saves the valuable time and effort that employees spend for commuting, saving them from all the travel stress. Encouraging remote work only would not be sufficient here. Organisations must also focus on implementing advanced telecommunication methods and other resources, tools and technology to maintain consistent track of remote work done by the employees.




Promoting job sharing


Sharing work responsibilities and the number of hours of a sole employee among two or more  is referred to as job sharing. SInce job sharing shares the work stress, it encourages employees to allocate more time for their personal commitment and well being. To commence job sharing, organisations should provide employees with proper training and guidance to perform different job roles. In addition, to work the job sharing practically, employers should draw clear lines of responsibilities among shared positions while maintaining consistent communication and coordination between them.


Compressed Workweeks


Compressed workweeks will give employees to do overtime work in return to a less number of work days in a week. This will give employees long weekends giving space to refresh their mental health and improve personal strings. Research has indicated that compressed workweek options improve work-life balance, reduce absenteeism, and enhance employee satisfaction (McKee-Ryan, Song, Wanberg, & Kinicki, 2005). However, when executing compressed workweeks, scheduling should be balanced effectively without any harm done to operations in each department. 


Offering flexible time arrangements


Research has shown that flextime arrangements positively impact employee work-life balance, job satisfaction, and productivity (Allen, Johnson, Kiburz, & Shockley, 2013). Employers can choose their work times and schedule their personal commitments accordingly under this strategy. However, to monitor and track the job responsibilities covered per hour or per day,  effective mechanisms should be discovered by the employers.


In conclusion, flexible work life would benefit both employer and employee. Work flexibility can improve job satisfaction and reduce employee turnover.  Employers can get the maximum contribution of the employees effectively by implementing flexible work arrangements like introducing flexible work schedules, encouraging remote work, promoting job sharing, compressed workweeks and offering flexible time arrangements. Hence, implementing work flexibility is not just an innovative work dynamic but also building a positive and supportive work culture to achieve company goals.






References:


Allen, T. D., Johnson, R. C., Kiburz, K. M., & Shockley, K. M. (2013). Work-family conflict and flexible work arrangements: Deconstructing flexibility. Personnel Psychology, 66(2), 345-376.


Hill, E. J., Erickson, J. J., Holmes, E. K., & Ferris, M. (2010). Workplace flexibility, work hours, and work-life conflict: Finding an extra day or two. Journal of Family Psychology, 24(3), 349-358.


McKee-Ryan, F., Song, Z., Wanberg, C. R., & Kinicki, A. J. (2005). Psychological and physical well-being during unemployment: A meta-analytic study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(1), 53-76.


Comments

  1. Isuranga Ayesh19 December 2023 at 22:33

    This article has addressed through a burning issue of lot of organizations. Work flexibility can be identified as a key aspect of the employee satisfaction. Moreover the opposite of this has been major reason for higher employee turnovers. However, employee flexibility strategies should e advantageous to both arties and it should be supportive to the uninterrupted work flows.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nipuni Mahathanthri20 December 2023 at 10:56

      Agreed. Lots of employees are leaving their company due to inability to manage their personal commitments with the work load they have at their work space. They can't manage the work stress and work responsibilities together and no matter how much they are paid, still workers leave their jobs as they are not satisfied in what they do.

      Delete
  2. Heshana Amandi Maddumage20 December 2023 at 12:23

    Managing employer-employee relations through the implementation of work flexibility strategies is paramount for enhancing both employee well-being and organizational performance. Offering flexible work arrangements, such as remote work options or flexible schedules, demonstrates a commitment to valuing employees' needs for work-life balance. This not only fosters a positive work environment but also leads to increased productivity and job satisfaction among employees.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nipuni Mahathanthri20 December 2023 at 17:04

      Agreed. Work flexibility directly impact towards the job satisfaction. Modern organizations are adapting lots of measures to implement work flexibility for this reason.

      Delete
  3. Chaminda Senadeera20 December 2023 at 23:04

    Agreed with your points, Flexible working arrangement will increase employee retention through job satisfaction and motivation which reduces employee turnover costs and increase the productivity of the organization

    ReplyDelete

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