Managing the Flexible Workforce

Richard Pettinger

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000142785
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Negocios y empresa
• Categoría: Negocios en general

The average workforce today is far different to that of a few years ago. Companies now employ more freelancers and temporary staff, while there is increased job-sharing and sub-contracting, not to mention more staff working from home. This brings with it its own particular set of problems for managers. Here, Richard Pettinger looks at the changing employment situation today and outlines what the flexible workforce is, what flexible working is and how to manage both successfully. The text includes sections on conceptual aspects, motivations, empowerment, organizational streamlining, and management qualities and performance.

Chapter 1
Introduction

Flexible working is the term used to describe the creation of work patterns and arrangements based on the need to maximize and optimize organizational output, customer satisfaction and staff expertise and effectiveness. It has come about as the result of the expansion of globalization of competition and choice, increased pressures on all resources, enhanced customer demands and expectations, and changes in patterns of consumption.

Flexible workforces are created to maximize and optimize the use of capital, premises, technology and equipment, to produce high quality products and services that are available to customers where and when required.

Flexible working is not new. Energy, telecommunications, emergency services, health care, transport, travel and leisure services have always operated around the clock. Personal selling - of insurance, building products, double glazing - has always taken place at times suitable to customers, especially evenings and weekends. Since the middle of the 1980s much of this has been extended into retail, banking and some office services.

Flexible work and extended working hours have therefore been around for a long time. The purpose here is to consider the potential, the opportunities, and also the pitfalls, afforded by flexible working in order to ensure that organizations that follow this path gain the best results possible, identify the best approaches, and avoid the main problems.

Flexible Workforce

The flexible workforce is a combination of:

• patterns of work, based on hours, expertise, needs and demands of customers and clients, the capability and capacity of technology, location and specific aspects of particular activities;
• attitudes and values, especially responsibility, dynamism, individual and collective responsiveness, commitments to service and satisfaction, positive approaches to solving problems;
• a commitment to training and development, enhancing the value brought by all members of staff to the organization;
• individual and collective commitment to improve all aspects of work,procedures, practices, response times as well as products and services;
• organizational commitment to flexibility and to each of the above points, and a commitment to invest in and support everything that is necessary to achieve this (see Summary Box 1,1 ).

Summary Box 1.1 The NatWest Tower, Bishop's Gate, London EC1

The NatWest Tower is the headquarters of the National Westminster Bank. It was designed and built in 1981 as a high profile, high prestige symbol of the Bank's enduring quality and continuing affluence.

In a study carried out in 1996 by the Bartlett School of Architecture, Building, Design and Town & Country Planning, University College, London, it was found that:

• on a series of random sampling activities carried out over a three-month period, the Tower was on average only 33% occupied;
• on one occasion, the Tower was only 15% occupied.

There is clearly a strong cultural and perceived commercial pressure to have such premises. However, this has to be balanced against the fact that on the basis of this study, a great deal of capital is being tied up in facilities which (rationally) are not being used to full advantage.

This also has to be balanced against the real and perceived advantages of giving people their own specific space and territory. In some cases the commercial and operational advantage that accrues from having a fully equipped specified location available for predetermined business activities clearly outweighs the cost of otherwise having the space empty.

At the very least, the example indicates the need for constant monitoring and review of space and facilities utilization.

Flexibility

Flexibility is a corporate attitude; and the flexible workforce is the product of this corporate attitude. The reasons for having a flexible workforce are:

• to produce better quality, more effective work;
• to develop the reservoir of talent and potential that exists in all workforces, and which traditionally has remained constricted by procedures and hierarchies or otherwise largely untapped;
• to serve customers and clients at times suitable to them. This is especially true of retail and other service activities, following the decision of supermarkets, agencies, restaurants and other shops to open for longer hours, and following the Sunday Trading Act of 1992 which further extended their scope for opening;
• to make full use of talented persons who (for a variety of reasons) are unable to work regular or traditional patterns or hours, and to harmonize their capabilities with the demands of customers and the requirements of organizations (see Summary Box 1.2).

Summary Box 1.2 The affluent worker

The 'Affluent Worker' studies were carried out in the late 1950s at Luton, Bedfordshire. The purpose of the studies was to ascertain levels of motivation and morale among the workforce. It also dealt in some detail with alienation, identity and the loyalty of the workforce to the company.

Three companies were studied in detail - Laport Chemicals; Skefco Ball Bearings Ltd; and Vauxhall, the car makers. At each company, work was highly specialized. Members of the workforce were given very specific jobs to do. They were not normally allowed to exceed these jobs. Supervision was distant and coercive. The main problems that were found concerned boredom, repetition and a complete lack of willingness to take any direct interest in the company products or state of well-being. There was also a general indication that this form of work led to serious mental and physical health problems (and this has subsequently been strongly demonstrated in more recent studies).

The companies studied paid their staff extremely well. However, high levels of payment did not compensate for the levels of boredom or alienation experienced. Nor did this in any way alleviate the health problems indicated.

Moreover, these practices have not lasted. Each company has since transformed all of their work practices and arrangements. Those working on production processes are now fully skilled and transferable between departments and activities. At Laport and Vauxhall, staff training is not optional. At Vauxhall also, there are moves afoot (not yet fully realized) to make specific production teams responsible for quality assurance and customer complaints on the cars and car products produced on their particular line.

Vauxhall especially suffered severe industrial relations problems over the entire post-war period up to 1979; and there have been less serious disputes in 1983, 1989, 1991 and 1996. One of the findings of the 'Affluent Worker' studies was that the strike/industrial dispute was a tool available for the use of both workforce and management. Above all, it could be used as a safety valve by either party when the pressures inherent in this kind of working built up to intolerable levels. This approach to strikes and other industrial activity has subsequently been found to have been extensively used in all mass production and primary activities over the period 1945-1985.

Part of the transformation of this form of activity - in both these and other companies - has been to engender the qualities and attitudes inherent in the flexible approach. In the main, this has concentrated on staff training and development, multi-skilling and job enlargement. Alongside this however, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the required attitudes have also been developed - and this is borne out by the evidence of the level of dispute at Vauxhall in 1991 and 1996. Both disputes arose simply as the result of misunderstandings over pay awards and working arrangements; rather than being allowed to fester (or being used actively as a release), they were settled very quickly.

Key qualities

For effective flexible work to take place, the following must be present:

• Staff commitment: to the organization, its customers, clients, products and services; to the quality of whatever is offered; to customer satisfaction and contentment; to continuous personal and occupational development and advancement.
• Organizational commitment: to its staff, to products, its services, its customers and clients; to improvement in all areas and activities, including the quality of management and administration; to continuous training and development to improve the capabilities and expertise of the workforce.
• Dynamism and responsiveness: rather than passiveness and dependency on procedures and bureaucracy.
• Empathy: with customers and clients; with managements and supervision; with peers, superiors and subordinates; with suppliers and distributors; with governors, shareholders and backers.
• Identity: between the organization and its staff; between the organization and its customers and clients; within immediate work teams; with its wider environment and community; and with others with whom the individual comes into contact.

This is underpinned by the creation and development of positive attitudes and values in all areas. The responsibility for this rests entirely with the organization. None of this can take place without organizational commitment. Flexibility and capability in skills, knowledge, attitude, behaviour and expertise all feed off each other. It all leads to greater all-round understanding, capability and confidence, and to the required levels of commitment.

Expectations

Flexible attitudes and approaches to work raise the expectations of everyone. Shareholders, governors and directors of organizations expect increased levels of efficiency, effectiveness, profitability, all-round performance and all that entails - improved morale, increased sales and levels of service, increased customer satisfaction, reduced levels of complaints, better and fuller use of technology and equipment and higher returns on investment.

Staff expect an increased job Interest and satisfaction, work variety, opportunities for training, development and advancement and higher pay and reward levels. They anticipate greater feelings of identity. By virtue of being multi-skilled, they expect greater job and employment security. They expect to be redeployed rather than made redundant when one set of activities comes to an end. They expect to be consulted on work methods and patterns, form levels of performance, to know what is going well and why, and what could be improved.

Customers expect product quality and service levels to be maintained and improved. They expect to be valued. They anticipate a long and beneficial relationship. Because of the increases in competition and choice, they are entitled to expect these high levels of quality and service; and organizations must anticipate that customers will look elsewhere for satisfaction if this is not forthcoming or if levels and quality fall.

Pitfalls

There are potential problems in raising the expectations of everyone concerned and then not being able to meet them. Successful flexible working therefore arises as the result of a strategic decision that this is the best way forward for the particular organization, department or division. It consists of:

• a long-term commitment to creating the necessary environment and conditions supported and resourced by top management;
• investment in up-to-date technology, staff training and development, and organization development; a
• long-term view of the results desired. These do not happen overnight and the benefits may not be apparent for months, or even years (see Summary Box 1.3);
• a long-term commitment to creating the required skills, knowledge, attitudes, behaviour and expertise; including training programmes, job rotation, enlargement and enrichment; opportunities for project work and secondments; development of potential for the future: drawing out talents and capabilities of everyone; identifying their strengths and weaknesses and maximizing the use of strengths;
• a commitment to organizational performance based on the long-term view rather than the pursuit of instant or short-term results. Again, this requires continuous and substantial investment in training and development, technology, attention to work methods, procedures and practices, an attitude of continuous improvement of everything in and around the workplace; all of which is conducted in the pursuit of customer satisfaction;
• a commitment to supporting staff, supervisors and managers in their decisions and activities.

Summary Box 1.3 Short-termism

Short-termism is the anticipation and expectation of instant or near instant results. There are great stakeholder pressures for this. Shareholders expect annual results that produce dividends on their shares. In public services, governors and budget holders expect financial targets to be met so that they meet the aspirations of politicians; in extreme cases, this (rather than the service demand) is the overriding driving force. Media analysts, financial journalists and consultants expect instant results and returns as they have to make instant pronouncements about companies and organizations.

Short-termism is therefore highly influential and a major driving force in many circumstances. It is also self-evidently in direct contrast to required and sustainable levels of business activity. Neither business nor public service activities cease on the date of the annual report only to start up again the following day. The example of Japanese companies locating in the West is also in direct contrast to this approach - without exception these companies have taken the view that, as they have come to locate permanent, their first duty is to provide permanent employment and permanent high quality products.

Moreover, as an attitude, flexibility requires a long-term and sustainable commitment if it is to become a reality. Instant results are not therefore apparent as the result of 'adopting' a 'culture' of flexibility. Short-term minor achievements may become apparent. The full benefits of flexible working - technology maximization, the optimization/maximization of customer access and the employment of high quality, fully motivated staff-only become apparent over the long term.

Conclusions

Flexible working is a form of organizational investment, the purpose of which is getting the best out of existing and finite resources, es...