Are Flexible Schedules Stretching Work Hours?
Flexible work schedules are becoming relatively common in the U.S., helping employees balance work and family. But even as schedules are becoming more pliable, they may also be stretching out the work hours in the U.S., suggests one analysis.
Flexible schedules have become fairly mainstream in recent years. Well over half (58%) of surveyed U.S. companies say they use flextime, up from 46% in 1997, according to the Society for Human Resource Management's "2001 Benefits Survey." It's hard to say just how many people use flextime because so many arrangements are informal. We do know, however, that back in 1997 27% of workers responding to a U.S. government survey said that flexible work hours allowed them to "vary or make changes in the time [they] begin or end work." The government data also shows that the concept of the nine-to-five workday has changed into a day that often begins much earlier and continues much later. About 28% of employees start their workday at 7:30 a.m. or earlier, and 40% work past 5:00 p.m. on a daily basis.
The advantages of flexible schedules are pretty straightforward. They appeal to workers trying to balance work and personal responsibilities and so help companies become employers of choice. The great majority of employers (96%) responding to HRI's "The Changing Workforce" survey acknowledge that workers are seeking greater flexibility in their work arrangements. Even as companies face downsizing decisions once again, the retention of critical staff becomes paramount to survival, and flexibility plays an important role in the retention of core players. A survey by Ceridian Employer Services found that 52% of respondents considered flexible work plans to be highly successful recruitment strategies and 64% said they are highly successful retention strategies.
But there may also be an unexpected consequence of flexible schedules. In a recent Monthly Labor Review article, Prof. Lonnie Golden of Pennsylvania State University writes, "Many workers are experiencing a tradeoff wherein they work long usual weekly hours in full-time positions while gaining greater access to flexibility in their work schedules, because working in excess of 50 hours per week heightens the chances of obtaining a flexible work schedule. Given that fewer workers are reporting they work exactly 40 hours and more workers are indicating they work 49 or more hours, more workers may be willing to endure the longer workweeks in order to get a more flexible schedule."
Golden concedes that there are other possible interpretations of the data, but if it's true that Americans are working longer in return for greater flexibility, it may help explain the findings of a new report from the International Labor Organization (ILO). It states that Americans added nearly a full week to their work year during the 1990s, with work time climbing to an average of 1,978 hours in 2000, up 36 hours from 1990. U.S. employees have surpassed their Japanese counterparts for the dubious honor of working longer hours than anyone else in the industrialized nations. While not all this is attributable to flexible work practices (the thriving 1990s economy played an obvious role), there are some intriguing correlations among rising per-worker productivity, increasing flexibility and longer work hours. For employers, of course, the danger is worker burnout.
One way of controlling potential burnout problems is to introduce a formal program of flexible hours that meets the needs of both the organization and the workers. Ernst and Young, one of the early pioneers in flexible work options, credits planning software for its successful implementation of a flextime initiative. It was named as one of "The Best 100 Companies to Work For" by both Working Mother and Fortune magazines. And Hewlett-Packard has actually been able to decrease overtime in one of its customer service departments by adjusting work schedules through a combination of voluntary compressed workdays and half days. An HP manager stated, "We had the proper staff. We just didn't utilize it properly because we had had the traditional 8-to-5 mentality."
====================================================
To read more on Prof. Golden's analysis, please see
http://www.i4cp.com/blZGhx.
For more on the ILO study on global work hours, see
http://www.i4cp.com/IQQgY5
Other benefit statistics are available from the Society for Human Resource Management's "2001 Benefits Survey" to SHRM members at
http://www.i4cp.com/KFm53U
For a look at the highlights of a Center for Work & Family report called "Measuring the Impact of Workplace Flexibility," please see
http://www.i4cp.com/phlDyR
Flexible schedules have become fairly mainstream in recent years. Well over half (58%) of surveyed U.S. companies say they use flextime, up from 46% in 1997, according to the Society for Human Resource Management's "2001 Benefits Survey." It's hard to say just how many people use flextime because so many arrangements are informal. We do know, however, that back in 1997 27% of workers responding to a U.S. government survey said that flexible work hours allowed them to "vary or make changes in the time [they] begin or end work." The government data also shows that the concept of the nine-to-five workday has changed into a day that often begins much earlier and continues much later. About 28% of employees start their workday at 7:30 a.m. or earlier, and 40% work past 5:00 p.m. on a daily basis.
The advantages of flexible schedules are pretty straightforward. They appeal to workers trying to balance work and personal responsibilities and so help companies become employers of choice. The great majority of employers (96%) responding to HRI's "The Changing Workforce" survey acknowledge that workers are seeking greater flexibility in their work arrangements. Even as companies face downsizing decisions once again, the retention of critical staff becomes paramount to survival, and flexibility plays an important role in the retention of core players. A survey by Ceridian Employer Services found that 52% of respondents considered flexible work plans to be highly successful recruitment strategies and 64% said they are highly successful retention strategies.
But there may also be an unexpected consequence of flexible schedules. In a recent Monthly Labor Review article, Prof. Lonnie Golden of Pennsylvania State University writes, "Many workers are experiencing a tradeoff wherein they work long usual weekly hours in full-time positions while gaining greater access to flexibility in their work schedules, because working in excess of 50 hours per week heightens the chances of obtaining a flexible work schedule. Given that fewer workers are reporting they work exactly 40 hours and more workers are indicating they work 49 or more hours, more workers may be willing to endure the longer workweeks in order to get a more flexible schedule."
Golden concedes that there are other possible interpretations of the data, but if it's true that Americans are working longer in return for greater flexibility, it may help explain the findings of a new report from the International Labor Organization (ILO). It states that Americans added nearly a full week to their work year during the 1990s, with work time climbing to an average of 1,978 hours in 2000, up 36 hours from 1990. U.S. employees have surpassed their Japanese counterparts for the dubious honor of working longer hours than anyone else in the industrialized nations. While not all this is attributable to flexible work practices (the thriving 1990s economy played an obvious role), there are some intriguing correlations among rising per-worker productivity, increasing flexibility and longer work hours. For employers, of course, the danger is worker burnout.
One way of controlling potential burnout problems is to introduce a formal program of flexible hours that meets the needs of both the organization and the workers. Ernst and Young, one of the early pioneers in flexible work options, credits planning software for its successful implementation of a flextime initiative. It was named as one of "The Best 100 Companies to Work For" by both Working Mother and Fortune magazines. And Hewlett-Packard has actually been able to decrease overtime in one of its customer service departments by adjusting work schedules through a combination of voluntary compressed workdays and half days. An HP manager stated, "We had the proper staff. We just didn't utilize it properly because we had had the traditional 8-to-5 mentality."
====================================================
To read more on Prof. Golden's analysis, please see
http://www.i4cp.com/blZGhx.
For more on the ILO study on global work hours, see
http://www.i4cp.com/IQQgY5
Other benefit statistics are available from the Society for Human Resource Management's "2001 Benefits Survey" to SHRM members at
http://www.i4cp.com/KFm53U
For a look at the highlights of a Center for Work & Family report called "Measuring the Impact of Workplace Flexibility," please see
http://www.i4cp.com/phlDyR