Options in Flexible Workforce - Coursework Example

Running head: Flexible Workforce Your name Course name Professors’ name Date Introduction This paper presents an analysis of flexible workforce both as a desirable and achievable goal of an organizational resourcing strategy. The first part is a detailed description of flexibility in relation to organizational workforce. This is followed by an examination of the key options in workplace flexibility. Under this category, aspects such as flexible time, reduced time, flex leaves, and flex-careers will be highlighted. Subsequent to this, forms of workforce flexibility will be analysed with an intention of bringing to surface ways that an organization can practise flexibility without hampering success or killing employee morale. Eventually, the paper will give a succinct account of strategy approach to workforce flexibility. Flexible Workforce According to Beardwell (2004), flexibility simply defines how and when work is supposed to be done. It further illustrates how careers are organised to achieve workforce effectiveness. Flexibility is often employed by organizations to improve recruitment and retention of staff. It further assists in managing workload and responding to employee diversity. Stredwick (2005) affirms that flexible workforce is indispensible where an organization is focusing on tapping new skills and minimising future deficiency of skills. Emerging issues within an organization related to skill shortages will be addressed by flexible workforce strategy given that an organization is be able access specific skills from a pool of talent. A business is therefore not restricted to search for candidates who are pursuing for permanent role. Flexibility in workforce further implies finding a balance between permanent staff and temporary employees. This is in recognition of the fact that success in workforce flexibility goes beyond utilising temporary staff for a specific task. Moreover, flexible workforce deals with long-term strategy of managing workforce where factors such as peak demands, annual leave, and system updates are recognised. Options in workplace flexibility The traditional flexible time is an opportunity for employees to choose when to start and quit working within a specific range of hours. Flexible time can also be in form of daily flextime where employees choose their working hours within core-operating hours. Employees may as well be allowed to work in terms of compressed workweek. In this case, an employee may work for 10 hours daily over 4 days instead of 8 hours daily over 5 days. Some companies have a flexible time arrangement where employees work an extra hour from Monday to Thursday then end work at 12.00pm on Friday. Flexibility can be achieved in a reduced time basis. A workforce assumes a part-time job by working part of the days. Job sharing is also part of reduced time form of flexibility. In this situation, employees share a full-time job with its salary and benefits. Additionally, there is part-year work, which necessitates working annually on reduced hours. An example is a labour force working fulltime during school year then going for holidays. It is noticeable that many organizations allow its labour force to take up flexible leaves. Such period are utilised by employees to attend to personal and family matters. In the same vein, time off is allowed when an employee wants to seek medical attention. Under organizational arrangements, parents may obtain parental leave with an objective of taking care of a new born or foster child. Moreover, a flexible career was highlighted as one approach of achieving organizational workforce flexibility. According to this strategy, there are multiple entry, exit, and re-entry over a career period. A person can take time out with the ability to re-enter. Forms of Workforce Flexibility The first form of workforce flexibility is numerical flexibility, also termed as quantitative flexibility (Atkinson, 1984). A company can vary the quantity of labour input in response to changes in demand and technology. Quantity is varied by utility of flexibility such as flexitime. At the same time, a company can vary the staffing levels by contracting temporary staff, hiring staff from agency or even subcontracting business establishments. Numerical flexibility may also be interpreted as members taking up the tasks of absent employees, otherwise called covering up. This form of flexibility is applied when creating core and peripheral employees. Core workforce are the consistently employed labour force while peripheral are the once utilised during high demand. Peripheral employees are found on the reserve list or agencies that are managing workforce. Functional flexibility is the second form of workforce flexibility, which makes use of employee’s ability to perform various tasks. This requires skill development and involvement in decision-making. To achieve this form of flexibility, workforce is rotated. The benefit attached to multi-skilling is the possibility of creating a personnel deployment chart that shows employees who can perform some specific tasks hence lead to formulation of a substitution system. This type of flexibility is applicable in a company handling volatile product or service. Atkinson (1984) gave the third form of workforce flexibility as temporal flexibility. Working hours are shifted with a view of meeting production demand. Example of temporal flexibility is an employee working overtime and subsequently spreading the working hours depending on fluctuations in productions. During peak hours, a company may employ part-time staff to cover the high demand. The last form of flexibility postulated by Atkinson (1984) is financial flexibility. This strategy is executed by an organization, which is seeking to reduce cost associated with labour thus improve profitability. In order to apply financial flexibility temporal flexibility will be used partially in conjunction with cost savings realised from adjusted wage levels. The levels of wages are occasionally manipulated to reflect organizational performance. A strategic approach to workforce flexibility A strategic approach is necessary to develop a flexible workforce and subsequently avoid unsuitable pressures to costs. The present financial crisis and the agenda on quality, innovation, productivity, and prevention provide an opening for organizations to reflect on past management of temporary staffing. Organizations will then be able to describe an effective future strategy that is linked to workforce planning. To achieve a flexible workforce, resourcing personnel should first seek to understand requirement of a flexible workforce in an organization. This is followed by the second stage of evaluating strategic options for managing temporary workforce. Understanding Organizations Flexible Workforce Requirements To register success in a specific workforce strategy, employers and resourcing departments are required to improve the knowledge on temporary staffing by analysing data and making better forecasts (Sarantinos, 2007). Regional variations, cultural differences, and varying organizational requirements mean that employers should undertake review to formulate an actionable workforce strategy. To understand vividly organization’s flexible workforce needs, the following steps can be followed. a. Understand activity level Organizational annual demand and activity levels need to be identified by consulting the Electronic Staff Record. This will indicate the basic staffing requirements in addition to both peaks and troughs thus reducing reliance on agency staff. Activity level makes it possible for resourcing team to predict period during which additional labour will be required for a short period. To illustrate this point, a car manufacturing company would demand for additional workforce when output is high. If this company’s resourcing team do not have records of its staff, there is a possibility of generating less income. b. Examine work patterns This is the second step of understanding the requirement of flexible workforce strategy. After reviewing the activity levels, work patterns and preferences of substantive and pool employees is analysed to allow appreciative of potential staff shortages. This will entail examining staff annual leave patterns, and making regular reviews to be able to make a plan of response when leave requests are anticipated to be high. Leave requests are usually high during long holidays including Christmas and festive season. This understanding of leave patters culminates to an even distribution of leave patters. It is also prudent to carry out a re-evaluation of contractual employees to establish those who are likely to vary their working patterns. c. Review processes and reasons for recruitment Demand for temporary staffing varies from one organization to the other. At this stage, it is necessary to identify and measure reasons for requesting for specific number of temporary staff. These reasons will ultimately indicate areas that need reduction in unplanned pool and agency staff. Some of the reasons for recruiting temporary staff include unfilled vacancies, cover for leave, staff sickness, and sudden organizational demand. Other reasons for temporary staff may be in relation to poor workforce planning i.e. staff cover for a study leave. There is a necessity to analyse existing internal governance and control procedures that regulates requests for temporary staff. In the same vein, policies to guide on temporary staff recruitment should be examined to understand how they are controlled and implemented. In Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Trust, authorization for use of agency staff is carried out at assistant director level. This gives allows for intense examination of the need for temporary staff and further gives options of how the deficit could be filled differently. In the end, use of agency staff is reduced to minimum levels. d. Analyse spending This will involve comparison of temporary costs with total staff spending. An understanding of temporary staff full-time equivalents in addition to total spending allows organizations to consider value for money and price and volume changes. The way spending on temporary staff is recorded affects management information that are used to make decisions. Records about finance allows for a detailed review of spending on finance. It further permits for benchmarking and measurement of success. The responsibility of overseeing and controlling expenditure on unforeseen and planned absences lies with both senior and local managers. e. Use of technology Information technology is a valuable tool in collecting and managing information concerning flexible workforce. Softwares can assist in planning, identifying demand, deducing work pattern trends, and identifying when to use temporary staff. For a successful flexible workforce strategy, it is essential to consider staff pool, e-rostering, and contingency workforce management software. E-rostering empowers staff to highlight their own preferences i.e. to fit individual non-work responsibilities. This will lead to satisfaction and commitment on the part of employee. Line manager administrative responsibility is also reduced through “self-rostering.” Strategic options for managing temporary workforce Organizations have varying workforce issues, regional variations, and temporary staffing demand drivers. Data needs to be collected to facilitate formulation of options for a planned flexible workforce strategy. One of the options for a flexible workforce strategy is to reduce underlying reasons for the use of temporary staff. Frequently, temporary staff is requested to fill vacancies, cover for leave or take position of a sick staff. To reduce demand for temporary staff, employers are obliged to review recruitment figures that are available at a senior level. It is advisable to re-evaluate time to hire and subsequently conduct a review of recruitment practices. Policies that reduce staff turnover such as induction must be checked to avoid unnecessary recruitment. An organization may focus on health of staff to avoid sickness absence. It is apparent that poor workforce planning and rostering has the capacity to generate an increased need for temporary workforce. This means that workforce planning must be linked with demand planning so that temporary staff is employed only when there is need. Technology such as e-rostering serves the purpose of improving staff satisfaction, saving time and generating savings. The second strategic option for managing workforce is make maximum use of substantive staff. This is where demands are identified to predict a when staff will be needed. It allows for flexible use of substantive staff. Managers are required to collect and monitor data on substantive staff such that own optimal temporary staff ratio is developed basing them on internal needs. The third option is to use pool staff to manage changes in activity. A part from filling gaps, pool staff comes in handy to prevent overstaffing if organizational demand falls in a short-term. Besides, pool staff assists in retain staff and their skills in a situation where permanent positions are not available. If an organization do not have an internal pool, external providers of staff banks still play a vital role. Temporary workforce is also managed by controlling costs through creation of a robust procedure for authorising and verifying temporary staffing. Sign off procedures and financial checks in form of invoices received for flexible workforce must be installed. Costs are further controlled by centralising procurement of agencies. Existence of change management practise, which is the role of human resource and communication departments, leads to successful planned flexible workforce. Finally, an organization must improve procurement by ensuring framework agreements. In some occasions, substantive staff and pool staff may not have the required skills. This necessitates external recruitment. To realise efficient spending, robust procurement procedures are indispensible. As part of saving on costs and obtaining the best value for money, framework agreements must be installed with buying solutions working in partnership with procurement hubs. Benefits of a Flexible workforce Flexible workforce cuts down costs of resourcing personnel and goes ahead to improve quality i.e. via functional flexibility (Sarantinos, 2007). In the strategic approach to workforce flexibility, temporary staff was seen to aid employers to meet variations in activity levels. This is why an analysis of activity level within an organization is carried out when assessing requirement for flexible workforce. Workforce flexibility is required to cover vacancies and short-term staff absences as well as when certain skill is needed for a short. To meet both the immediate and long-term challenges facing an organization, it is necessary to use flexible workforce in a planned manner. Different options can be employed by resourcing department to meet temporary staffing needs. This can be done through agency staff, locally or through framework agreements. While considering the different options, productivity and cost, quality, and safety ought to be factored into flexible workforce strategy. Long-term trends have the capacity to push an organization to implement flexible policies. As women continue to enroll for further studies, there will be a necessity for flexibility. This is supported by the idea that they will be working while studying and attending to their families. Evidence show that young worker, who will make a bigger percentage of workforce as baby boomers retire, have their basis on product of their work instead of hours spent in office. The Council of Economic Advisers (2010) demonstrates existence of benefits such as less absenteeism and turnover realized from flexible workforce. Challenges facing flexible programs Despite of the benefit that accompanies flexible workforce strategy, it is unfortunate that less-skilled workers have less flexibility in their schedules as compared with highly skilled labor (CEA, 2010). The report argues that while more than half of employers reported allowing workers to change their working hours, less than one –third workers on full-time basis actually had flexible work hours. The other shortfall associated with flexible workforce is the inability of employers to extend the program to all workers. In any case, one or two people will be required to be around to take care of a production. Nonetheless, organizations are devising ways of offering flexibility to wide range of workers. In a company like General Mills, some employees can take unpaid personal sabbaticals for even 12 weeks. Employees at other organizations are allowed to trade work hours. Management can be an obstruction even when a resourcing team formulates a program with good intentions. A case of top management being excluded from the program culminates to program failure. Middle managers may too act as milestone through outright rejection of the program. Deficiency of clarity about the intents of the program may amount to resistance. Conclusion To be able to perceive the workforce flexibility as a desirable and achievable goal of organizations, the paper began by covering different aspects of workforce flexibility. This included forms of flexibility and strategic approach to flexibility. In support of the view, benefits and challenges of the program were covered. It is obvious from the essay that workforce flexibility is pursued to realise flexibility in employment and realisation of accompanying benefits. On the contrary, employees are human beings with emotions and perceptions thus should not be disregarded when carrying out flexible strategy in human resourcing. Even though labour market has been externalised and has made it easy for staff hiring, organizations still need employee skill and commitment, which can be lost through workforce flexibility. Reference list Atkinson, J., 1984. “Manpower strategies for flexible organisations.” Personnel Management, August, pp 28-31. Beardwell, I., Holden, L., and Claydon, T., 2004. “Human resource management: A contemporary approach.” 4th ed. Essex, UK: Prentice Hall. Council of Economic Advisers. (2010). Work-life Balance and the Economics of Workplace Flexibility. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/100331-cea-economics- workplace-flexibility.pdf. Accessed on 23, October 2011. Sarantinos., V., 2007. Flexibility in the workplace: What happens to commitment? Journal of Business and Public Affairs, 1(2): 1-10. Stredwick, J., and Ellis, S., 2005. Flexible Working. 2nd Edition. London: CIPD. Read More