Flexible Work Options

BY
BHASKER
REDDY

FLEXIBLE WORK
Flexible work means different
work styles and employment
practices.
It encompasses all types of
employment practices other than
conventional 9am to 5pm jobs.
It enables employees to strike a
right balance between their
professional and personal lives.

Types Of Flexible Working Options

Flexible Location
Flexible Time
Flexibility in Contracts

Flexible Location
It means working at a location which is most suitable or
favourable.

Types Of Location Flexibility

Working on the move Advancements in IT made this

possible. Devices used are laptops, notebooks, palmtops
and desktop replacement PCs and other portable devices.
Tele centres Common offices in which the facilities are
shared by the employees of several companies or
different departments of the same company.
Satellite offices Offices set up far from the main
offices of the company and are connected through
satellite to the main office. It was created basically after
the separation of the front end and back end jobs

Flexible Time
It is the most oldest and most
widely used FWO.
Types Of Flexi Time
Variable hours
Restructured Hours
Reduced Working Hours
Leave

Types Of Variable Hours

Flexitime

work for core hours during any part of the day.

Annualized Hours
Agreement to work for total working hours per annum.

Zero Hours
on call arrangement. As per the arrangement, employee
was called for work only when required.

Time Accounts
Employees could take compensatory leave anytime against
the extra time time credits put in by them.

Restructured Hours
It comprises of compressed work week option
4/10 schedule Employee works for 10 hours for 4
days a week and can take the 5th day off.
9/80 schedule It means 80 hours to be completed in
9 days. It is also called as nine day fortnight in UK.

Reduced Work Hour Options

Part-time: requires employee to work for a few hours per

day or every week.

Job share: It is a form of part time employment shared

between 2 employees. Distribution of work may be equal or
unequal.

Term time working: This is for the parents of school going

children. In addition to the 4-6 weeks of annual paid leave, an
additional 7-9 weeks of unpaid leave was granted to
employees with school going children.

Phased retirement: Option offered to the employees a few

years before retirement, where they could for lesser number
of hours per day and postpone the retirement day. This was
an unpopular option since reduced hours meant reduced pay.

Leave Options

Maternity/Parental leave

Sabbatical leave It is meant for up gradation of ones skillstechnical or academic. In many countries it is given even for a
period of more than a year for people who want to pursue
further studies and also to write a book and so on

Career breaks It is an unpaid leave granted for a period of

one year or more in which the contract of employment is
suspended. In addition to that the break is not considered
during the calculation of benefits like pension entitlements etc

Other leaves - Other leave options are like bereavement

leave which is granted to an employee at the time of a family
members death. Also, marriage leaves are provided in some
companies over and above the annual leave.

Flexible Contracts
It refers to the various flexible contracts that
employer and employee enters into.
Fixed term contracts
Outsourcing
Using agency labour contract
Individual enters into a contract with an employment
agency that finds him work on contractual basis.

Company first contracts

individual has to work for a fixed number of hours for
a company that called him first for his services.
When company does not want his services he is free
to do other jobs.

Examples of Companies applying

flexible work options

HP India was ranked 3rd best employer in India by Best

Employers in India Survey.
It was distinguished based on the flexible work options provided by
the company to its employees.
It allowed part time work or flexible work especially for young
mothers.
It also allowed telecommuting where in half a day people worked in
office and the rest of the day they could work from home.
Employee could shift or change from one flexibility option to
another easily.

P&G ranked the second in 2002 survey introduced FWO in

1999.
It offered flexi time option, tele commuting and sabbatical leaves.

ICICI which was the 4th best employer at that time offered
flexible work options for women keeping in mind their domestic
responsibilities.

Flexibility Work Options In India

In India HP India was the most flexible workplace.
Employees to start work within two hours from 8 am on
regular 8-hr working day
Allowed job sharing whereby any two employees could
work for 20-40 hours per week
Work half a day in office and other half from any location
Provided reduced hours employment and various leave
options
Apart from any statutory leave, HP offered marriage
leave for 10 days, study leave for competitive exams for
10 days, 8 weeks for legal adoption of child and 5 days
for paternity and for bereavement
HP India treated both flexi-time options employees and
regular employees equally.

 Other example - P&G India, they started offering FWOs in

1999.
The MNCs in India (HP India & P&G India) offered FWOs to
all the employees wherein Indian companies focussed more
on their women employees.
ICICI was one of the few Indian companies which offered
flexi-time as well as the work from home option to their
employees.
In 2001, 8% of ICICI employees availed these options.
Sales department of ICICI Preudential shifted its timings
from 9am - 6 pm to 11 am 8pm.
FWOs are also popular in IT, Finance and Retail industries in
India.

FWOs Advantages

FWOs best time for employees to devote time for

their families
FWOs enabled employers to become employers of
choice by adopting family-friendly policies
Cost-effective in boosting the morale of their
employees
Act as effective employee retention strategy
Many women can take up the jobs

Categorizing working time

flexibility
and gender equality in
employment

Many industrialized countries have promoted part-time

work and/or other forms of tailored working time
arrangements as a strategy for reconciling paid and unpaid
work, therefore promoting female labor force participation.
Furthermore, the ability to distribute time optimally over
the working week seems an important element of a more
female-friendly working time regime.

On the other hand, unequal working times are an

important indication of labor market inequality between
men and women, with women concentrated in lowpaid,part-time jobs. Working time flexibility thus implies
both threats and opportunities for a more equal
distribution of paid and unpaid work, depending on the
specific form of the innovation and the economic and
societal environment in which this flexibility occurs.

Modelling gender equality and

working time flexibility
Mutari and Figart (2001) have identified four distinct work time
regimes in the Member States of the European Union, by
developing measures for gender equity and working time
flexibility.
Gender equity is measured by the gender pay gap and the
married womens labour force participation rate.
Six indicators are used for flexibility; the full-time modes of
working hours of both men and women; the kurtosis (based on
the modes) that provides information about the distribution of
average weekly working hours of both men and women; and
the percentages of married women working part-time and men
working overtime.
Given the country scores on these indicators, the Member
States are categorized as

Given the country scores on these

indicators, the Member States are
categorized as
(1) Male breadwinner work time regime with low scores
on both gender equity as flexibility;
(2) Liberal flexibilisation work time regime, with high
scores on flexibility and low scores on gender equity;
(3) Solidarity gender equity work time regime, with high
scores on gender equity but low scores on flexibility.
(4) High road flexibilization work time regime, with high
scores on both flexibility and gender equity

Thank You !!