FLEXIBLE WORK OPTIONS, MOTIVATION AND LOYALITY

Analyzing the impact of flexible work options on employee motivation and loyalty



ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF FLEXIBLE WORK OPTIONS ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND LOYALTY

Introduction

A flexible work options, also known as a flextime options, grants employees some freedom in deciding what time of day they will arrive at and leave from work. For example, an employee may prefer to work from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. one day of the week and from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on another day. The exact administrative rules of flextime optionss vary greatly across companies, but when flextime optionss are put into place, employers usually create a band of core time during which each employee must be present (normally 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 or 3:00 p.m.). For example, a flexible work options in which all employees must be present from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. would have five core hours. Employees are free to arrive before the core start time and leave after the core finish time, but typically, there is a limit as to how early employees can arrive and how late they can stay. For example, an employer may dictate that employees cannot start before 7:00 a.m. and cannot stay past 9:00 p.m.

Another important characteristic that may vary widely among flexible work options arrangements concerns the degree of carryover. Some organizations do not permit any carryover of hours (i.e., the employee must work eight hours per day), whereas others permit carryover on a weekly basis (i.e., no requirement for eight hours per day, but employees must work 40 hours per week), and a few organizations even allow monthly carryover.

Background

Recent surveys of the American workforce indicate that more than 25% of employees have the ability to change their daily work starting and ending times, and this number is increasing every year.

However, a review of the literature reveals that certain segments of the population do not have access to flexible work schedules because of the industry they work in or the type of employment that they have (e.g., part-time versus full-time). For example, flextime schedules are used almost exclusively in nonmanufacturing organizations. This may be attributable to the fact that a flextime schedule is more difficult to implement in continuous process operations such as assembly lines. Individuals who work part-time in any type of industry are much less likely to have access to flexible work schedules. Given that manufacturing and part-time jobs are less likely to offer flexible work schedules, it is not surprising to find that employees who are female, less educated, and non-White are also less likely to have access to flexible work schedules in the United States.

Objective and Purpose

The reasons for the popularity of flexible work schedules are many and diverse but generally include a combination of personal, organizational, and societal gains that are presumed to derive from allowing workers to more effectively balance their personal lives with the demands of work. For example, the presumed positive effects of flexible work schedules include reduced ...