Flexibility benefits are needed because of the ever changing nature of business and the competitive advantage that companies may have which potentially can draw custom away from your product or service. It is also as a consequence of downsizing that flexible working has been introduced (, 2005). The introduction of lean organisations and the use of lean production methods mean that there should be minimal waste, i.e. cost, and therefore flexi-workers can provide this.
There are a couple of ways in which different types of flexibility can also be beneficial to a company. For example, numerical flexibility aids to better cope with peaks in demand and functional flexibility aids efficiency (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2005). These types of flexibility can be achieved through the arrangement of contracts. Internal and external recruitment are beneficial to numerical and functional flexibility. Internal recruitment ensures staff retention/skills retention and thus higher staff motivation and low labour turnover, while external recruitment brings new skills and better workers (if recruitment and selection processes are competent). Core workers are seen as essential to the long term success of a business. These people can provide functional flexibility, high commitment, high skill levels and low labour turnover (hence skills retention). Annualised hours can be of great advantage to companies as they still receive all the benefits of core workers but have the flexibility of peripheral workers (M.Rodriguez, 2003). An example of how annualised hours work is of a flight attendant being employed by an airline waiting, on-call, to see if he/she is working. The airline can decide, according to demand, how many hours the attendant works in a week up to the maximum of the agreed hours. However the worker can be asked to work more hours without additional “overtime” being paid.
Contracts to employees ensure how they are flexible. There are many different types of contract a few being part time, annualised hours, tele-working, flexitime and job-sharing. Part time workers/peripheral workers, if harnessed correctly, are seen as an advantage by many also however, “Employers may experience greater productivity as employees working part time experience less fatigue and exert greater effort” (Lewis 1990). “Companies see the advantages from contingent workers. They are easier to hire and fire. Those who work from home don’t have all the expensive overheads. Students, foreigners…may be less litigious and less aware of their rights and stifling, work-place legislation. Many are the minimal wage earner with minimal job satisfaction and possibly minimal motivation”, (Furnahm, A, 2005) we can see that flexible workers provide advantages for companies whether it is on moral or immoral grounds to which they can generate extra profits. Flexi-working gives improved motivation for staff, lower stress and higher commitment, resulting in lower absenteeism and higher profits. Tele-working has less fixed costs for employers and the ability to employ specialists but the benefit for employees is that they have a greater work life balance and less emphasis on time constraints which can result in higher concentration levels and higher productivity (Stredwick & Ellis, 1998). Outsourcing to sub-contractors is also a popular occurrence because then the contractor will be under stricter performance measures and if they fail to produce the recommended standard they can just be replaced with a different contractor.
Company structure, hierarchy and culture can also give better flexibility. For example, few layers of control within an organisation means that information can be more fluid and go through the organisation quicker. The culture of the business all depends on how it is managed (John Storey, 2001) and what sort of workers there are, for example theory X and theory Y employees (McGregor) therefore if there is a balance between these two variables it is a good foundation for a HRP strategy to be successful.
For a flexible organisation to fully experience its potential HRM benefits, outcomes must be linked to strategy for clarity of goal/objective and direction from a company. “The direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves competitive advantage for the organisation through its configuration of its resources within a changing environment and to fulfil stakeholder expectations” (Johnson and Scholes, 2002), from this quote we see that HRP is just a small part to success as there are so many variables which need to be managed on top of it. Using the Harvard model to explain why HRP feels the need to be flexible we can see that HR policies are drawn from stakeholder’s interests and situational factors. Forward from this, reward systems and work systems are created which gives the company’s culture and if this is done effectively there should be cost savings, higher commitment and congruence in the understanding of strategy from employees. However employees need to be involved with strategy and long-term goals for HRP to be truly effective. A situational factor that would be outside of the firms control would be the discrimination acts. Companies are no longer allowed to discriminate against an employee for his/her situational factor, for example a pregnant female worker or a person near the age of retirement.
To conclude, HRP offer employees benefits for being flexible with the various contracts that can be offered, for example flexi-hours and tele-working, which gives them work-life balance and less stress. HRP see a number of benefits by offering such working practices such as high staff retention, high employee involvement and motivation and higher overall productivity. Through linking company strategy to HRP strategies the whole organisation should benefit from being more competitive, by being leaner and having a strong brand image which should result in the repeat sales and the ability to survive against international and domestic market threats along with the fluctuating demands of the consumer.
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