Objective
Now days every organization is looking out for new ways and efficient and effective workforce planning mechanisms which can help them increase their productivity, make proper utilization of the resources (especially human resources) and provide complete employee satisfaction. Flexi-Time working is being accepted by more and more number of organizations now days because it is highly effective in providing complete employee satisfaction and helps the organizations to increase its productivity.
There are many reasons why organisations should consider a more flexible approach to working patterns and leave arrangements. The benefits can be wide-ranging and long-lasting as well as providing short term solutions.
As a business case will demonstrate, investing in employee well-being makes good business sense, not only in terms of improving performance, raising morale and reducing stress, but also improving attraction, recruitment and retention performance.
“Companies that allow their staff to work flexibly reap handsome dividends. It is a case of a little going a long way.”
“Work organisation and flexible working practices that benefit both the employer and the individual, will characterize the high performance work place of the future.”
Efficiency, Effectiveness and retaining the employees for longer period can be got through Flexi working approach.
The purpose of this article is to report findings from a study taken up on an IT organization (Navaraga Corporation held at Hyderabad) which gave up flexible working to its employees by using web collaborations tools and to examine the impact on the work and employees.
Navaraga Corporation held at Hyderabad had been actively promoting this approach for several years and have measured the benefits across a wide range of criteria over a significant time period.
Methodology
Navaraga Corporation, has introduced a policy for flexible working since the time it started operations in hyderabad. The types of flexible plans are:
a) Being available in core hours at office and remaining time can be considered flexi time
b) Geographically dispersed work teams working from their location.
c) Individuals taken up as special cases and would be considered working from home for a limited period – like employees who have small children etc.
d) During unexpected incidents like band’s, curfews etc also flexi working from home had been considered.
Let us look into this flexible plans in detail:
a) Being available in core hours at office and remaining time can be considered flexi time: Here the employees can work (eg between 10 am and 4 pm), at office and whilst the rest of the working day is “flexitime”, in which staff can choose to work from anywhere subject to achieving total daily, weekly working hours and should complete the tasks assigned in time. Multiple time options followed by employees were:
? Begin work between 7.00 – 10.00 or 16.00 – 22.00 hours (flexitime can work from anywhere)
? Must be available at office between 10.00 – 14.00 (core working hours) for discussions and meetings on the work.
Here there should be an understanding between the employee and their team leader about the arrangement of the time and work items and the employee should be clear about the expectations of his team leader. Their rationale is that as long as an employee’s productivity does not suffer, they have no issues about the number of hours he/she spends in office. They believe that more than observing work patterns, it is important to evaluate output. Similarly they appreciate the need of every employee to balance his/her work and personal life. They believe that it impacts the overall level of motivation, productivity and even influences the engagement levels of the organization.
c) Individuals taken up as special cases would be considered working from home for a limited period – like employees who have small children etc.: Navaraga Corporation offers its employees the option to have flexibility in its standard working arrangements. These include family reasons, health reasons, and pursuit of academic/professional courses, which require part time working and are relevant to the company. The policy can be in the form of reduction in the standard working hours to a minimum of 4 hours a day or 20 hours a week. However, the option of allowing employees to avail flexi working hours will largely be determined by their needs of a particular role and at all times, the person must have connectivity.