Managing Equality and Diversity at Work - Flexible Working - Coursework Example

Flexible Working Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Word Count (2513) Flexible Working Managing equality and diversity is a paramount strategy for any businesses wishing to be successful in today’s business world. Businesses that successfully manage equality and diversity reap multiple benefits in terms of performance and productivity. One of the main issues in managing equality and diversity is eliminating discrimination. Flexible working is a common and significant approach used to eliminate discrimination and thus promoting equality and diversity. Nonetheless, the issue of flexible working can in fact promote and reduce discrimination for all employees in the work place. The following essay aims at discussing the extent to which flexible working can promote and reduce discrimination for all employees in the workplace. To begin with, flexible working can be defined as a kind of working arrangement that offers a certain level of flexibility in terms of how long, when, where, and what times staffs work. It generally offers employees everyday choices in the scheduling of work and non-work responsibilities or activities (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2015). According to Kirton & Greene (2010), flexible working enables employees undertake or implement a choice related to personal situations and work requirements, but which is well-matched with the attainment of business goals and objectives. The basic examples of flexible working are maternity leaves and parental leaves that are meant for employees with family responsibilities. However, employees without family responsibilities can still practice flexible working through homeworking, job-sharing, and part time work among others. Flexible working is also associated to work-life balance that is the apprehension employees and businesses have in terms of balancing work time and other personal responsibilities such as caring. Balancing work and life is all about developing new ways of employees to effectively relate to domains of work and non-work (Crompton, 2002). Therefore, the overall idea behind flexible working is to ensure that employees have access and opportunity to numerous ways or practices that enable them to balance or effectively address their work and non-work responsibilities, situations, and activities while ensuring the achievement of business goals and objectives. The aspect of flexible working has been cited and recommended as a possible solution of eliminating or reducing discrimination. Moreover, the current legal framework on equality and diversity in the UK and other countries offers employees the right to seek flexible working arrangements. Therefore, it would be hard for an employer to treat their employees unfavorably based on personal characteristics such as being elderly, disabled, or a parent. Nonetheless, flexible working can also promote discrimination to a certain extent. This is based on the issues of gender where flexible working has only favored the female gender in most scenarios. Generally, flexible working has been in favor of the female gender. This is because females tend to have greater responsibilities when it comes to maternity and parenting responsibilities compared to the male gender (Jones & Jones, 2011). Before 2014, the UK legal framework on flexible working did not recognize any possible needs that would qualify a male without parental responsibilities to apply for flexible working from their employer. However, in 2014 the decision was overruled following an incident where one employee Erik, Pietzka had been discriminated against by Price Waterhouse Coopers after they turned down his request for flexible working (Working Mums, 2014). The employer PWC cited that their refusal to grant flexible working was because the employee would harm his career, which was not a reasonable excuse to offer. Pietzka requested for a three-day week for his work duties and 2 days off to spend more time with his daughter (Crawford, 2014). However, the employer rejected his request while mums and women in the similar offer were granted flexible working arrangements. In this case, the employee was discriminated based on his sex or gender. Sex discrimination should be avoided at all costs to ensure equality and diversity within an organization. According to the tribunal, men are increasingly becoming father and employers cannot take for granted that men possess similar right to those of women when it comes to requesting for flexible working. The council passed a legislation that now ensures that flexible working requests apply to all sexes including males and females (Crawford, 2014). This is a significant example on the extent that flexible working can promote discrimination for employees in the workplace. Traditional or unconventional beliefs is that mothers or women are the primarily care givers and thus are the first point of call when it comes to matters of parental responsibilities (Radcliffe & Cassell, 2015). Nonetheless, the rise in young father has changed all this as the demand for flexible working extends to dads especially in the UK. According to a report by Working Families, about 31% of working parents lack access to flexible working arrangements. Most businesses especially in education, healthcare, and retail sectors are the most likely not to offer flexible working solutions. Moreover, an OECD report found that the UK lags behind in terms of family-friendly working policies where statistics indicated that only 24% of part-time workers are males compared to 37% in Denmark (Bird, 2014). This means that males have been continuously and still do undergo sex discrimination in seeking for flexible working arrangements. The continued lack of accessing flexible working arrangements can be detrimental to the motivation, performance, and productivity of young fathers (Hemsley, 2014). Another major extent of discrimination is in terms of offering increased attention to parents be it mums or dads and leaving out employees with no caring responsibilities. Flexible working goes outside caring responsibilities to education and training or other personal situational issues. Therefore, employers who focus on only offering parental-related flexible working arrangements should do that aware that also non-parental employee also have rights. The recent Families and Children Bill came to effect in June 2014 and allows any employee who has worked offered continuous service for 26 weeks have a right to access flexible working regardless of parental responsibilities. If employers choose to follow this directive it means that all employees in the workplace have the right to request for flexible working. Nonetheless, some employees may not grand request for flexible working based on personal characteristics such as for studying employees. Moreover, disabled employees may also be discriminated against based on their disability if they request for flexible working arrangements (Wheatley, 2012). Even the elderly workers can be discriminated against due to their age. However, all these people should be treated similarly by ensuring that all employees have the right to balance between work and non-work activities, responsibilities, and situations. When it comes to reducing discrimination, flexible working is among the best practices in the business world. Flexible working offers increased benefits and rights to employees that ensure they are not treated unfairly based on their personal characteristics. Globally, not all countries offer policies that support flexible working. Some countries including high income countries such as the United States do not have definite policies that guarantee the right to flexible working such as for the case of paid maternity and paternity leave (Hörning et al., 2015). One of the main features of flexible working is its ability to reduce or eliminate indirect sex discrimination. Women are the most discriminated individuals in the workplace being the most disadvantaged gender. This is because women are not only required to work as men, but also have maternal responsibilities of bearing and caring for their children. An employer who imposes working policies that only apply to full-time and shift practices tends to disadvantage women who have additional roles and responsibilities outside of work. Women workers in the UK have grown significantly over the years. In particular the number of working women without children has reduced to about 67% while that of mother has increased to 66% by the year 2010 (Peacock, 2011). This means that the number of mothers with parental responsibilities has increased. Nonetheless, women have continued to be discriminated against especially in past years in the UK. According to Acas (2012), a record 2.25 million mother with children aged below 4 years were working full-time jobs in 2010 compared to 1.9 million back in 2003. The reason for the increased number of mother working full-time is related to the economic slowdown and financial crisis (Gregory et al., 2013). During times of economic slowdown or crisis, businesses are at the very edge of collapse if not closure. This places increased pressure on management ensures all possible efforts for successful transition and operations through stringent measures. Such measures often require ensuring increased performance and productivity that eventually calls for reduced work flexibility. Nevertheless, mothers are also under pressure from harsh economic times to accept any job offering that have limited or no flexibility in order to make ends meet (Strauss, 2013). The whole inter-relation and inter-dependence tends to create discrimination. Such discrimination can be reduced by offering increased flexibility through different practices. Flexible working through policy and regulation is a significant step towards reducing discrimination. However, the practice can only work when it is regarded or defined as a legal requirement for all employers. Women in countries that have no flexible working regulations face increased discrimination from unpaid maternity leave to full-time working arrangements. The same case applies to other forms of discrimination. According to a research conducted by Atkinson & Sandiford (2015), elderly employees have occasionally received flexible working arrangements with their employees on three different levels. The first levels relates to ad hoc flexible working arrangements where employees on an individual level engage with their employers to seek flexible arrangements that illustrate balance between their personal issues/situations and work roles. For instance, one employee aged over 50 years underwent a hip surgery and had an arrangement with the management to have her work on duties that do not require the use of stairs (Atkinson & Sandiford, 2015). In another example, elderly employees were discreetly rather than formally offered extra help while dealing and delivery heavy cargo. Developing such flexible working arrangements helps employees to balance their work and life effectively, thus illustrating increased motivation and productivity (Kelliher & Anderson, 2008). These issues are paramount to reducing discrimination in the workplace. According to Russell et al., (2009), employees such as women who work full-time have a full-time responsibility of being mother or parents to their families. The case applies all the different domains of personal characteristics including disabled, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, and age among others. However, flexible working is not as simple as it may seem. This is based on the need to leverage the objectives of flexible working with the business goals and objectives. As earlier indicated, flexible working can only be effective if it allows employees to balance personal and work issues while making the choice compatible to business goals and objectives. The main challenge of flexible working is the ability of a business to re-arrange work roles and responsibilities to the remaining staff (Loretto & Vickerstaff, 2015). The issue of industries has several implications for numerous businesses based on the need to ensure operational efficiency and performance. The retail or service sector is highly affected where employers lack definite strategies to ensure flexible working policies are in place and meet consumer needs and demands. Employers who seek to implement flexible working are faced with increased challenges to re-arrange work roles based on the high labor costs and issues of minimum wages (Jordan et al., 2014). There is increased complexity in scheduling working hours and time based on the different industries as well as work duties of employees. Again, employees who do not qualify or cannot access flexible working may be resentful leading to reduced motivation, performance, and productivity. Such issues can be a source of discrimination especially when management is under pressure to ensure they reach economies of scale or work effectively without bias. In addition, companies that lack the basic organizational culture may experience increased difficulties in terms of communication and team work. Flexible working can only work among team players based on the nature of working that call for increased team work and communication. Away from employers, employees are also finding it hard towards flexible working. This is because they risk damaging their careers based on the high demand for experienced professional in today’s business world (Kelliher & Anderson, 2009). Moreover, during economic slowdowns, employees may be forced to bear with withdrawn privileges or perks that cannot be afforded in such times. Flexible workers cannot access benefits such as overtime based on their work arrangement. This means that they stand to lose at some point based on their overall situations or goals. Most companies are also reluctant to offer varied or a range of flexible working arrangements or policies despite having legal regulations. According to Gatrell et al., (2014), 90% of businesses in the UK indicate that they have some type of flexible working policy. However, for the basic employee, it would be hard or impossible to understand the available flexible working options and the criteria required to apply for the same. These issues are important in both promoting and reducing discrimination for all staff in the workplace. Both employers and employees must develop strategic measures and policies that open up dialogue and engagement to address pertinent issues when it comes to flexible working. In conclusion, Businesses that successfully manage equality and diversity reap multiple benefits in terms of performance and productivity. One of the main issues in managing equality and diversity is eliminating discrimination. Flexible working is a common and significant approach used to eliminate discrimination and thus promoting equality and diversity. Flexible working enables employees undertake or implement a choice related to personal situations and work requirements, but which is well-matched with the attainment of business goals and objectives. The aspect of flexible working has been cited and recommended as a possible solution of eliminating or reducing discrimination. Moreover, the current legal framework on equality and diversity in the UK and other countries offers employees the right to seek flexible working arrangements. Therefore, it would be hard for an employer to treat their employees unfavorably based on personal characteristics such as being elderly, disabled, or a parent. When it comes to reducing discrimination, flexible working is among the best practices in the business world. Flexible working offers increased benefits and rights to employees that ensure they are not treated unfairly based on their personal characteristics. Nonetheless, flexible working can promote and reduce discrimination in the workplace. Issues of sex discrimination are rampant for males who request for flexible working based on traditional beliefs of females being the primarily care givers. Yet, flexible working is not as simple as it may seem. This is based on the need to leverage the objectives of flexible working with the business goals and objectives. Nevertheless, flexible working is a powerful tool for reducing discrimination by ensuring that all employees are offered a choice to make their work flexible. Tweets Question 12: Why is bullying and harassment a diversity issue? @CVLibrary 23 Sep 2015 #Workplace bullying and harassment rife as one in two UK women experience sexual harassment in the office http://www.cityam.com/224884/workplace-bullying-and-harassment-rife-one-two-uk-women-experience-sexual-harassment-office … via @CityAM Question 9: Discrimination and Lookism @EmploymentLS 8 Jul 2013 Former #BBCApprentice Katie Hopkins: 'Would I employ you if you were obese? No I would not." http://dailym.ai/12Q8o2E  #ukemplaw #lookism Question 7: Trade Unions play a marginal role in delivering equality for all workers in the workplace. @GillHitchcock Feb 11 Trade unions are the best force for equality in the workplace & why the Tories are attacking them. @jeremycorbyn http://bit.ly/1Q9bmbw References Acas, (2012). 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