Family-friendly workplace policies and personal-professional balance in UK enterprises

HARMONIZING PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL BALANCE: STUDY OF EMPLOYERS' FAMILY FRIENDLY POLICIES IN THE U.K.

This study seeks to show that there are several different family friendly policies being utilized by employers in the U.K. And that these have been necessary for some time. The three main policies are: part-time work, flex-time (flexible start and finish times) and teleworking. All three of these policies are important for working mums and others that would like to have time with their families or for other pursuits. However, not all employers are interested in offering these kinds of arrangements, and many prefer to stick with the traditional work schedule where individuals all come in at a certain time and all leave at a certain time. There is increasing evidence, though, that this does not work well for many people in the U.K. And this is the reason for studying this issue and determining what would be the best choice for everyone.

Through a solid introduction to the issue and a thorough review of the literature that is involved with it, the study will show how very important much of these family friendly policies are and how they are often overlooked by employers who do not want to break with tradition. However, many working mums could utilize these if only their employers were willing to allow them, and if more mums and employers knew about the possibilities for these family friendly ideas. Many of these policies have not been studied a great deal, and it is therefore necessary that studies such as this be conducted, so that more can be learned and discovered about this issue and more people in the U.K. can benefit from it.

INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION

The world is constantly changing. From the times of post world war two to the emergence of the neo-liberal agenda in 1975, economists are now speaking about free markets and the decline of bureaucratic capitalism. We are witnessing a continuous and dramatic shift as we are moving forward into the 21st century. This change has affected organizations all over the world in a number of ways. For example, the 1980s introduced the concept of flexibility in organizational working. Flexibility was largely driven by the employers to maximize profit and productivity. However, little concern was given to the employee benefits.

The continuous tussle between the employers and the employees has given rise to the introduction of family friendly policies. This has further led to the popularity of the concept of work life balance. This dissertation aims to identify the most commonly used practices adopted by organizations when implementing family friendly policies. It also aims to understand what influence these practices have on the organization by considering the way they affect, and are affected by, employers and employees.

Changing Nature of Work

The nature of work has been changing at a fairly rapid pace since the early days of industrialization. The period immediately following World War II was marked by prosperity and rising expectations in Europe and other parts of the world. One significant event that occurred in this era was the expectation that a job should be something taken for the long-term, where there is a well ordered relationship between the worker and the company, where the employee would receive a secure livelihood and the prospect of growth in income as well as personal fulfillment. The employment relationship was described as a labor market that matched up buyers and sellers of skills and efforts, and many employers and employees operated within sets of rules and customs that governed movement from one job to another and kept levels of compensation within certain bounds.

During the mid 1960s, the workers were involved in internal labor markets. In the manufacturing firms, the unions often acted as vehicles for negotiating rules of the workplace, which would typically define the tasks to be performed, establish performance standards, set pay scales and determine procedures for filling vacancies. In the non-unionized settings, the rules were set by other mechanisms but fulfilled similar functions: to set up an internal system for allocating human resources. The employees joined the firms that were exposed to external labor market (i.e. The economic forces of the larger society). Once the employee gained entry, he or she would progress according to the particular rules and customs of the organization.

Marshall (1992) described the idea that social citizenship rights encompassed 'the whole range' from the right to a modicum of economic welfare and security to the right to share to the full in the social heritage and life of a civilized being. This idea was developed out of the experience of unemployment and poverty during the inter-war years, and was put into practice during the Second World War. It was only in the 1960s and 1970s that it was found a full expression in the post war consensus. During the post world war decade, the idea of social citizenship involved a full employment macroeconomic policy based on Keynes's argument that the recession of the 1930s was because of the lack of effective demand and a reorganization of education allowing more general access.

This principle also required that the unemployed not be pressed into employment on any terms. The credibility of the contributory principle, its effectiveness as a tool for job search and the need to protect the labor market status of the individuals suffering from involuntary job loss required rules to prevent the undue harassment of benefit recipients. As the full employment policy guaranteed the right to work and earned income, the role of the social welfare was to provide an income replacement safety net against temporary unemployment, old age and sickness.

A school of economics was inspired by the theoretical contributions of John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), who was an English economist. Keynes argued that government spending and investment function as means of disbursing purchasing power into the economy affect the demand for consumer goods in the same way as private investment. He suggested increasing government expenditures during deflationary periods and decreasing it during inflationary periods as a means of manipulating aggregate spending and income. By prescribing governmental intervention to maintain adequate levels of employment, Keynesianism paved they way for the growth of the welfare state in the wake of the Great Depression.

Where as neo-liberalism was a variation on the classical liberalism of the 19th century when British and other imperialisms used the ideology of competition and 'free trade' to justify their own colonialisms, worker revolt in the 1930s and the anti-colonial struggles ended classical liberalism but was contained by Keynesianism:government management of the wage, the welfare state and 'development'. An international cycle of worker, student, peasant, woman, and pro-ecology revolt in the 1960s ended. Keynesianism was then actually replaced by neoliberalism.

Strength of neo-liberalism

The main ideology behind neo-liberalism was the worship of the 'market' and subordination of all other economic actors to its demands, including government and individuals. The strategy of neo-liberal economics was characterized by privatization, reduced social expenditures, lower wages, higher profits, free trade, free capital mobility and the accelerated commodification of nature. With the emergence of neo-liberalism, things changed dramatically since post World War II, the economists talked about free markets and there was decline of bureaucratic capitalism. Neo-liberal agendas were a response to inflexibility and fordism and Keynesian said that they needed to free up the market.

Emergence of neo-liberalism was characterized by free circulation of capital and freedom of investment. In contrast to the orthodoxy that prevailed in the 1950s and 1960s, the neo-liberal economists of the late 1970s and 1980s argued that inflation results from increases in the money supply induced mainly by the expansionary macroeconomic policy. According to Brendan Buchell et al. (2002), the economic progress was fostered by an increase in the flexibility in the labour market. The essence of the argument was that the rights won during the aftermath of the Second World War had impeded the effective working of the economy and it was time to insist on a different set of rights, policy, applications of which would reflect the ideology, not of 'social citizenship', but of 'individual economic freedom.'

But the rejection of social citizenship came at a price, and it was a price paid by the weakest members of the society, as the adoption of neo-liberal perspective shifted responsibility for unemployment and poverty away from the government and on to the jobless and the poor. This occurred despite the shift in the terminology away from 'free market 'to 'third way' should one underestimate the continuing strength of the neo-liberal philosophy. Over the past two decades this philosophy has served as the basis for an opportunistic alliance between vote-seeking political parties offering tax cuts and opportunities for profits created by deregulation. It was a very powerful alliance.

During the 1980s, organizations faced a tremendous pressure of change. Some of the factors responsible for this were market stagnation, job loss, uncertainty, technological changes etc. As a result the firms found themselves under pressure to find more flexible ways of manning which would take into account these new market realities. Also the employers at the same time have recognized that given the current state of the labor market, with high unemployment, few shortages of labor and emergence of trade unions, they have to be strong and solid to handle the pressures to achieve a more flexible workforce.

The 1980s and 1990s exposed many employers to an increase in 'market pressure'. The employers during this period faced competition because of the increase in privatization, concentration and globalization. The customers now began to exercise choice more aggressively. Shareholders became increasingly impatient for their quick and profitable return on their investments. Now the focus of the organizations shifted towards ensuring the flexible delivery of goods and services onto the shoulders of their workforce.

The question was what kind of flexibility were these organizations demanding from their workforce? Since the 1980s there has been a lot of talk about flexibility. What does the term flexibility actually mean? It is an immensely complex and highly-debated topic. The term is used in a variety of overlapping senses. There are a number of classifications available for flexible work arrangements. The various types of flexible work arrangements are functional flexibility, numerical flexibility, temporal flexibility, locational flexibility, and financial flexibility. The table below classifies the various forms of flexibilities and explains the aims for each with examples.

Table 1.1

Type

Definition/Aims

Examples

Functional allows firms to allocate labor across traditional functional boundaries multi-skilling, cross-functional working, task flexibility

Numerical allows variation in the number of employees or workers used temporary, seasonal, casual, agency, fixed-term workers, outsourcing

Temporal

Represents variability of working hours, either in a regular or irregular pattern.

Part time, annual hours, shift, overtime, voluntary reduced hours, flextime, zero hours arrangements

Locational involves using employees outside the normal workplace including transfer of work to back offices

Home, mobile, tele/outworkers

Financial

Allows pay bill to rise and fall in line with corporate performance

Gain sharing, profit sharing, variable executive pay schemes, wage cutting deals

Functional flexibility is sought so that employees can be redeployed quickly and smoothly between activities and tasks. This might mean that deployment of multi-skilled craftsmen moving between mechanical and electrical and pneumatic jobs; it might mean moving workers between indirect and direct production of jobs; it might mean completely changing the form of the career. Functional flexibility means that as the products and the production methods change, functional flexibility implies that the same labour force changes with them, in both the short and medium term.

Numerical flexibility is sought so that the headcount can be easily increased or decreased in line with even short-term changes in the demand for labour. Implementation of the higher and fire policies becomes much easier and allows variation in the number of employees and workers used.

Temporal flexibility represents variability of working hours, either in a regular or irregular pattern and includes part-time, annual hours, shift, overtime, voluntary reduced hours, flextime, and zero hours arrangements.

Locational flexibility involves using employees outside the normal workplace including transfer of work to back offices.

Financial flexibility is sought to for two reasons. First, so that pay and other employment costs reflect the state of supply and demand in the external labour market. Its significance lies in the relativities and differentials between groups of worker than in an across-the-board push to reduce wages. Its implications include a continued shift to plant level bargaining and widening differentials between skilled and unskilled worker. Secondly pay flexibility means a shift to new pay and remuneration systems that facilitate either numerical or functional flexibility, such as assessment-based pay systems in place of rate -for-the-job systems.

The Flexible Firm

This is a model of organization that was developed by the former Institute of Manpower Studies in the U.K during the 1980s. It represents an organizational structure which many in the U.K are trying to introduce. The new structure involved the break-up of the labour force into increasingly peripheral and therefore numerically flexible groups of workers, clustered about a numerically stable core group which will conduct the organization's key, firm specific activities. Hence the workforce composed of 'Core' and 'Peripheral' workforces. Core workers were the full time permanent career employees having full range of benefits and job security, taking care of the organization's key functions. 'Peripheral workers' on the other hand were split into three categories a) Regular employees engaged in relatively low-skill, routine work (example: back office administration in banking). Fairly low pay and insecure - the next wave of technology can eliminate the need for these people.

A b) Contingent employees working on high-skill tasks, perhaps on short-term contracts or projects. High pay, no job security but this is compensated for by the freedom to pick and choose projects.

A c) Low-skill, low pay contract workers often provided by an agency for cleaning, routine security, catering, etc.

At the core the emphasis is on functional flexibility, shifting to the periphery, numerical flexibility becomes more important. As the market grows the periphery expands to take up the slack; as growth slows, the periphery contracts. At the core only the tasks and responsibilities change; workers here are insulated from medium term fluctuations of the market, where as those in the periphery are, more exposed to them. What is driving the demand for a flexible labour market? The changing business environment and changing social environment as well as the changing government policy environment is driving the demand for a flexible labor market.

Flexible working refers to work patterns and arrangements based on the need to optimize the organizational output and customer satisfaction and staff expertise and effectiveness. It is basically an employer driven agenda. According to the trends among the employers to provide family oriented benefits and policies, over the last few years it has been suggested that a good name for the 1990s could be the family friendly decade. Over the past decade, there has been an increasing interest shown by the firms to adopt family friendly employment and achieve work-life balance, and hence large number of organizations has taken action to develop policies which offer their employees more flexibility at work.

The policies typically offer some support to the employees at times of stress or pressure in combining employment with parental or caring responsibilities.My dissertation about specific kinds of flexibility, those which can be described as 'family friendly '. It is hence the family friendly working practices which is the main focus of this dissertation.

REVIEW OF BACKGROUND LITERATURE

Simkin and Hillage (1992, pp. 13) defined family-friendly policies as 'a formal or informal set of terms and conditions which are designed to enable an employee to combine family responsibilities with employment'.

Forth et al. (1997) extended this definition, making the point that it is possible to distinguish between a 'focused' and 'unfocussed' form of provision. A focused provision is directed towards helping the particular group of parents with young children while an unfocused provision could benefit a wider range of employees with different needs, including the fulfillment of care for elderly relatives (Forth et al., 1997, pp. 4-5). An abstract definition of family-friendly working offered by Hacker suggested that 'Family-friendly policies are about balance, synergy and equity for the employee' (Harker, 1996, p.47).

The conception of balance, synergy and equity is thought to be important (Donaldson, 1996). The terminology used to describe family-friendly working is now the subject of debate (Lewis and Lewis, 1996). According to Moss (1996), the term 'reconciliation' is more useful than 'family-friendly' as it encompasses the conflict of interests between the employer and the worker. To some extent, the terms family-friendly workplace and "family-friendly employer" refer to a workplace that acknowledges and responds to the work and personal/family responsibilities assumed by employees.

Strachan and Burgess (1998) note, 'family friendly workplace' is one which develops and implements policies that allow employees to simultaneously fulfill work and family responsibilities." (p. 251). The concept of a family-friendly workplace is mostly conceptualized as a continuum, rather than a dichotomous variable. Fletcher and Rapport (1996) prefer the term 'work-life initiative' derived from the American literature. The term 'family-friendly' is used throughout this paper. There is in the literature, therefore, a recognition that not all flexible-working arrangements will be genuinely friendly to families and that the introduction of flexible policies has been for a variety of motives.

Kingston (1990) states that the concept of family friendly arrangements, generally refers to 'two main types of personnel policy. He says on one hand they include additions to fringe benefits like child care arrangements or parental leave and on the other hand they include modifications in typical work schedules such as flexi time, part time work or job sharing.

According to Laura Den Duck, Anneke and Joop Schippers, (1999), Family friendly policies are defined as 'Facilities that intentionally as well as unintentionally, support the combination of paid work and family responsibilities'. There are four types of arrangements which are distinguished. First are the flexible working patterns like part time work, flexible working hours and job sharing. Secondly, leave arrangements like the parental leave, maternity leave, and paternity leave. Thirdly care provisions, including provisions like childcare and care for the elderly and lastly supportive arrangements like distribution of information or management training which could increase the awareness of work and family issues within the organization.

Work family arrangements

FLEXIBLE WORKING PATTERNS

LEAVES

Part time work

Maternity leave

Flexi time

Paternity leave

Term time work

Parental leave

Flexi place

Career break schemes

Term time working

Job sharing Adoption leave

Banking hours

CARE PROVISIONS

SUPPORTIVE ARRANGEMENTS

Work place nursery

After school care

Work family management training

Holiday play scheme

Employee counseling/Assistance

Children resource and referral

Financial assistance programmes

Vouchers

Supply of information

Elderly care resource and referral

Organizations can provide a variety of family friendly or work/life balance opportunities for employees. I will briefly discuss a few family friendly work arrangements below. Family friendly work arrangements related to the hours of work include part time work, flexible or personalized hours, annualized hours and compressed work week.

Part time work

Part time work is an arrangement in which the employees work less than 30 hours a week. A part time worker is entitled to employment benefits such as annual and sick leave on a prorata basis. It is usually undertaken by those that do not need large amount of money but wish to do something with their time. It is also often undertaken by students that need extra money and have limited time, and by mums that want to get out and work when their children are in school.

Part time work is one of the most common and most popular types of family friendly work arrangements because it does not require an individual to be away from home for long periods of time every working day like full time work does.

Flexible or Personalized Hours

There is a range of options for enabling the employees to adjust or personalize their working hours in a manner that suits both the employee as well as the employer. A number of most commonly operated arrangements include:

Annualized hours

This is an arrangement in which the employee works the same number of hours over a full year as a full or part time employee but the hours are arranged to suit both the employer and the employee. The weekly hours contract is replaced by one that covers the working hours for the whole year. The Working time is calculated on an annual or (in some organizations as a monthly rather than a weekly basis and the hours must be worked within a defined period of time. For example, instead of working 38 hours a week, employees may work 152 hours over a four-week period or 1,976 hours for the year (Fisher H, 1996)

Compressed Work Week

This is an arrangement in which an employee works his/her full time hours (such as forty hours) in fewer than 5 days per week. It an arrangement where by a standard work week is compressed into fewer than five days by extending the length of the workdays. For example 38 hours could be worked on the basis of four days work at the rate of 9.5 hours per day or 36 hours on the basis of three days of 12-hour shifts. There are a lot of common patterns used by the companies.One of common patterns is the four ten hour days.

Also three twelve hour days, with usually a holiday in the second week. Anne Coughlan defined this as 'any system of fixed working hours more than eight hours in length which results in a work week of less than five full days of work a week' (Coughlan, 1999).She explains that the main idea behind this arrangement is to work for a long concentrated period of time, balanced by longer than normal rest periods.

Temporary work

This is a short-term employment which can be informal (as in on or off seasonal or casual work) or formal involving signed short-term employment contracts (Clark,2000). Temporary workers are not usually entitled to many of the employment benefits, even though they work the full, ordinary hours of employment.These workers are usually paid on hourly basis and their services can be terminated at a short notice. This kind of arrangement is more suitable for short-term projects or as a relief when the employees go on a long leave.

Voluntary Reduced Work Time (V-Time)

According the Fisher, 1999, this arrangement enables the employee to trade compensation for time-off. Employees are generally given the option of reducing their full time working hours by between five and fifty percent for a specified period with the right to return to full time work. Hence it is different from part time work. The time off can be taken by reducing the working day or week or by taking off a block of time during the year.

Flexi time

In this type of family friendly arrangement, the employee works on a full-time basis but the company provides flexibility with starting and finishing times (Fisher, 1999).There are core times when all the employees must be present, apart from authorized absence. The flexible times are those periods during which the employee's starting and finishing times may be varied depending on the demands of the job. The hours that are worked by the employee during these periods are credited to the employee's total working hours. This kind of a flexible working policy enables the employees to plan caring responsibilities, travel arrangements and other aspects of their life around their work hours.

Job sharing

This is a work arrangement in which two or more employees share the same job, but work at different times, although there may be time overlap to maintain continuity. Employees may each work a part of the day, week, or alternate weeks. There are three forms of job sharing classified by the work life unit.First being the shared responsibility in which two employees jointly share the responsibilities of one full time job.They perform the full range of tasks associated with the single position they fill. They are interchangeable in their areas of work. Second form of job sharing is divided responsibility in which one full time position is shared among two employees who share equal responsibilities for doing tasks.

The two employees perform separate tasks and provide back up for each other when required. The third form of job sharing is unrelated responsibilities, in which two employees perform completely different tasks.But for headcount purposes; they are counted as one position. These employees generally work in the same department. The success of the job-sharing arrangement depends mainly on the job sharers' ability to build close and effective working relationships. They should be able to maintain a high level of communication, with clear systems for passing on messages regularly so that no aspect of the job is overlooked. This may require agreeing a period of overlap time to ensure that both parties are fully briefed in relation to work in progress.

Employment and career breaks

The institute of personnel and development adopted the term 'employment break' rather than 'career break', which it says is associated with professionally qualified women and their child care needs.Employment breaks may be taken by an employee for a number of reasons including voluntary work, travel, leisure, care of children or family members.

Employment or career break is a period of unpaid leave which is granted by an employer for a specific duration, usually for a period between one and five years. There are a number of versions for this aspect of flexible working arrangement.Some of the common ones are maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leaves.

The purpose of the maternity leave is to allow mothers to take time off work, following the birth of a child. In a lot of organizations, the employees are entitled to 17 weeks of unpaid leave.Paternity leave on the other hand, enables a father to take some time off from work and look after his child and the mother. Paternity leave in some cases is granted to the employees where it is predecided that the father will stay at home rather than the mother to take care of the child.

Sometimes employers grant caring leaves to the employees when a close relative has a life threatening illness or accident on the understanding that the employee will return after the recovery or death of the person concerned.There is also the sabbatical leave, which is granted to the employees for a number of purposes like travel, study and research.

Term time working

Term time working is an arrangement whereby employees are allowed to take unpaid leave of absence during their child's school holidays. Clare Brennan (2002).Term time working is a flexible work arrangement for the employees who have children in particular.This is because according to Clare Brennan, the arrangement is related to school patterns. Instead of having only four or six weeks of annual holidays, the employees have an extra seven to nine weeks of unpaid leave.This arrangement not only gives the employees a chance to work during term time but to spend the holiday with their school-age children. Term time work is not the same as seasonal work as the employees have a permanent contract that continues throughout the school holidays and during periods of unpaid leave.

Tele Commuting/Teleworking

Ministry of manpower and ministry of community development and sports, 2001 defines telecommuting as 'an arrangement that allows employees to carry out their work at a location away from the conventional office, either in the employee's home, satellite offices or neighborhood work centers.'

NACT (national advisory council on teleworking) defines teleworking as 'a way of working using information and communication technologies in which work is carried out independent of location'. According to Fisher 2002, there are 4 main ways in which people can telework. Firstly the employees can work from home, liaising with the office by using phone, email or fax.

The second way could be when the employees split the time between home and office. Thirdly there are certain types of employees for example the sales people, journalists etc. who carry out their work while they are on the move. Fourthly, there is an arrangement called the tele-cottage, which provides neighborhood centers with shared computers and communications resources for the office workers.

Why Use Family Friendly Policies?

The question arises who uses family friendly working practices and why? What sort of practices do they favour? And do these policies bring any business benefits? This was one of the questions that was examined in a new study published by Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Nature and Pattern of Family Friendly Policies in Britain.The results form a compelling analysis of developments so far in the availability and uptake of family-friendly working practices-but also some intriguing areas where the answers raise further questions.

Researchers have found that family friendly policies were more likely to be found in public sector large organizations, where there was lower degree of competition, where was highly educated workforce.The work employees relations survey conducted in 1998 also found that family friendly policies in general were associated with improvements in productivity and performance.But the 'business case' was of marginal improvements or atleast an argument against the view that costs of family friendly policies outweigh the benefits.The analysis of the policies based on the survey questioned both the employer and the employees as to measure the uptake of the policies. The terms 'family friendly' and 'work life balance' mean different things.

Flexible working may well be family friendly, whether its part of a formal family friendly or work life balance set o policies or not. It is argued that employers could benefit more than the employee with introduction to flexibility and hence if a firm introduces family friendly working practices, it doesn't necessary mean an indication of family friendliness in the company. Some of the working practices referred are more family friendly such as provision of child care and term time working. Others like flexitime or home-based working are driven by factors such as reducing costs, extending opening hours and reducing overtime costs.

EXPLORATION OF THE THREE MOST POPULAR POLICIES

In this section, the three most popular policies will be explored and compared. These three will be Teleworking, part time work, and term time work. Teleworking will be discussed first, because it is the most significant of the three. Part time work needs little discussion because it is very common, and term time work has not been widely studied, so the amount of information available about it is rather scant. However, enough can be found to discuss it here.

Teleworking

Teleworking can be defined as "performing job related work at a site away from the office, then electronically transferring the results to the office or another location." (Cross and Raizman 1986:3f).

During the 1970s and 1980s, telework in Europe was often termed as 'Electronic Homework' and was either based on full time contract or on a freelance relationship with the employer (Jackson 1998). Huws et al. (1993), suggested that an adequate definition of teleworking should include 3 variables: the location of work, the use of electronic equipment and the existence of a communications link to the employer or contractor. It is work which relies primarily or to a large extent on the use of electronic equipment, the results of which work are communicated remotely to the employer or contractor. The remote communications link need not be a direct telecommunications link but could include the use of mail or courier services. (Huws et al.1990:10).

The word 'Teleworking' together with various pseudonyms such as telecommuting, networking, flexi place or the electronic cottage, has been used to describe various types of work. Jackson (1998) divided the term teleworking into 3 sub-categories in order to specify the many different modes of telework which can be found today. The three sub-categories included Electronic Homework, Telecommuting and Flexi Place.

Electronic Homework

This can be defined as working at home and delivering the work directly to an external customer using some of Telecommunication. Telecommuting is working away from the work place. (i.e could be from home, or on travel, and communicating with the employer with the assistance of computers and some mode of telecommunication). The Internet these days is a common mode of communication used for this purpose. Flexi place involves no defined location of work. A person on flexi place uses his computer and telecommunication device while working on the move. (See table 1.2)

Table: 1.2

Subcategories of telework. (Jackson 1998).

Category

Definition

Electronic homework

Work at home delivered through telecommunications to an external customer

Telecommuting

Work for an employer performed at distance using computers and telecommunications.

Flexi place

Work performed 'everywhere' (at the office, at home, in travel) using computers and telecommunications

Teleworking is increasingly attracting the attention of large companies. Research suggests that between 10%-15% of the companies have some employees who telework, with indications that this number will double within the next few years. (Skyerm, 1999). According to another recent survey conducted in 2003 by the Economist Intelligence Unit for AT&T found that more than 80% of the companies are expected to have employees who would telework by 2005, up from 54% today (IEE,2003).

Telework is a specific example of flexible work in general, and this flexible work arrangement offers significant benefits to the employers. The concept of teleworking is gaining acceptance from the employers point-of-view according to the recent survey released in 2000 by the international Telework Association and Council, (ITAC). The survey suggested that teleworking saved the employers money, and provided their employees more flexibility and improved productivity. This further has a corresponding effect on costs and reduction of absenteeism. The survey also found that the employers saved up to 63% of the cost of previous absenteeism per teleworking employee.

This was based on the average salary reported by teleworkers combined with the average number of days absent on which teleworkers were still able to work from home. This also indicated that teleworkers were able to work from home for an average of half a day after completing their personal, child and adult related tasks, which gave them an advantage over those that had to take full days off to accomplish these tasks.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Teleworking to Employers and Employees

With theThe principle potential advantages of teleworking to the employers include productivity gains, reduction of the overhead costs, retention of the rare skills, increased workforce diversity, expanded labor pool productivity, fewer employee sick days and enhancement of the public image of the company (Stanworth 1991),(the 'employer of the choice'). Notice that this list includes reduction in absenteeism (fewer sick days).

Enhanced productivity was the most commonly cited benefit of teleworking for the employers according to Stanworth (1991). There have been startling claims made about the productivity gains of telework particularly the home-based variety. These claims range from 30% to as high as 100%. In cases where a teleworker is not paid by results, but is on salary, there is still an emphasis on output, to a greater extent, than with onsite-staff. This is the essence inevitable with a remote staff form of work supervision compared to the 'traditional over the shoulder method'. (Gibson, 2002) And this may lead to an over-emphasis on the quantifiable aspects of the work carried out by the teleworkers.

In some telework schemes, improvements in productivity formed a part of the case for introducing home-based working, which turned out to be over optimistic because of unforeseen consequences of the new working pattern. Research by the International Telework Association and Council (ITAC) reported average productivity gains of 22% (Gibson et al., 2002). Other surveys show a range of 10 to 20% (Kunkle, 2000). Of the company specific studies, AT&T reported a 10% increase (AT&T, 2002), Cisco a figure of 20% (Verespej, 2001), IBM 10-15% (IBM, 2002), Travellers Insurance Company 22%, and Los Angeles County 37% (Gibson et al., 2002).

Employer's traditional reasons for using home workers or outworkers include reduction in the overhead costs for the company. These usually include costs of heating, lighting and repair which are usually transferred to the individual worker. Recent research by Allenby and Roitz, (2001) shows that there is significant net cost reduction to employers, in most teleworking cases. Costs and Benefits of telework to employers, can be discussed with primary attention to the two major quantifiable impacts - office space and productivity changes.

It should be noted, however, that many companies now view telework in strategic, not just tactical or pragmatic terms. That is, companies that have actively pursued telework see the nature of work changing in the 21st Century and believe that telework can be an integral part of enhancing the global competitiveness of the firm. As an AT&T whitepaper describes it, "the structure of the company in the information economy will change from a facilities-based asset driven organization to a knowledge network" (Allenby and Roitz, 2001).

Knowledge assets are becoming a larger part of not only high-tech companies, but also service and manufacturing companies as well. Seen in this context; telework becomes much more than a cost-cutting measure to reduce office space, or a way to improve productivity by removing the distractions of the traditional office environment. Rather, companies who make telework available to its employees view the work day as neither constrained by time (the 8-hour day) or space (the traditional office).

This helps the company both locally and globally, because workers that are happy and enjoy their jobs work much harder and do more for the company than workers who are dissatisfied.

Telework is not just a benefit for private companies. Local, state and federal governments and public agencies employ nearly 30% of the workforce, and since there are so many workers in the government sector, it is advantageous for them to use teleworking (Roitz, 2001).

For employers, in addition to reduced office costs and increased productivity, organizations that have telework programs cite a number of other benefits that warrant attention. Work satisfaction criteria that many organizations take very seriously given the increased importance of human resources in today's knowledge-driven economy shows dramatic increases. Surveys taken by many companies, Boeing (1999) included, show increases in work satisfaction of 20% or more among those that are allowed to utilize telework.

Work quality also improves with lower error rates among teleworkers. Positive impacts are also demonstrated in the form of lower turnover and decreased absenteeism. A Pacific Bell study found that teleworkers were absent 25% fewer days than their traditional colleagues (National Environmental Policy Institute, 1999). All of these factors reinforce one another and lead to improved productivity figures.

Teleworking benefits employers in other ways as well. Organizations can use these methods to tap new labour pools (Stanworth 1991) for example, disabled workers, people who don't want to relocate or commute long distances, a parent with a newborn child who otherwise would opt to not work. Telework also allows an organization considerable flexibility in staffing temporary jobs by outsourcing work to virtual workers.

At the same time, companies report several drawbacks with telework. The principal potential disadvantages to the organization include lack of commitment to the organisational goals and culture and problems of communication and supervision. Communications is the number one concern of employees (e.g. mentioned by 32% of respondents in an IBM survey (Wiscombe, 2002).This is followed by teamwork difficulties and concerns about career advancement opportunities, which is a drawback for employees, but also affects how they feel about their job and therefore how much time and effort they put into it. Ultimately, this affects the company.

The issue of supervising can be addressed through training programs and the gradual process of becoming comfortable with managing teleworkers and virtual teams. In fact, a recent study found that already "83% of all American employees work at a distance or with a colleague who does. Of this number, more than half - 51% -- are physically away from the office at least some of the time" (Wiscombe, 2002).

Employees also benefit from Telework in a number of ways. The principle advantages of telework to the employees include autonomy, increased job satisfaction, freedom from time constraints, bridging the career gap, obtaining a better balance between work and home life and eliminating commuting costs and time (Stanworth,1991). Employees stand to benefit from telework in a number of work and non-work related ways. These time savings translate into "quality of work life benefits, quality of family life benefits, quality of social life benefits, and career development opportunities" (Gibson et al., 2002).

In respect to work related benefits, teleworkers report greater work satisfaction, higher morale, and a greater commitment to work, all of which leads to greater productivity. One recent study showed that technology workers would "give up their fast-track careers, opportunities for promotion into management and even rises if only they could have one thing: the opportunity, if only part time, to work from home" (Schettler, 2002 reported in Gibson et al., 2002).

Some of the advantages of teleworking include:

Autonomy

Increased job satisfaction

Freedom from time constraints

Bridging the career gap

Obtaining a better balance between work and home life

Eliminating commuting costs

Quality of work life benefits

Quality of family life benefits

Quality of social life benefits

Career development opportunities

Greater work satisfaction

Higher morale

Greater commitment to work

Other advantages include such unexpected issues as the reduction of pollution in the air from less vehicles on the road and the ability to expand business while still taking care of the environment and the economy (Clay, 2001).

On the negative side, telework has a lot of disadvantages for the individual. Perhaps the most frequently expressed concerns are those of feelings of isolation from one's fellow workers and being out-of-sight and out-of-mind. These two concerns are inter-related. For many, the workplace goes some way towards satisfying the higher needs of self-esteem and social acceptance and may even allow self actualisation. (Schettler, 2002).

However, a person who participates at a minimum level in the organisation is considered to be a "stunted individual" even though he may be satisfactorily fulfilling all of the needs hierarchy outside it. This perception has persisted and is not an uncommon one in the business environment. Accordingly, it is thought that such an individual, demonstrating a lack of commitment to the organisation by working in a less conventional manner such as working from home, is likely to be overlooked for important tasks and promotion and may not be taken into the confidence of his immediate supervisors and managers. This is in turn, likely to increase the feelings of isolation and the inability to fulfil social needs.

Constraints on the individual that can be related to the organisation include lack of employer support, managerial disapproval, failure to organise work to allow telecommuters to partake in a wide range of tasks and take part in attractive or special projects. Even if senior management supports the concept, it is important for the local supervisor to support the individual teleworker.

Absence from the conventional workplace can result in staff not being informed about office politics, changes in managerial priorities and opportunities (Schettler, 2002). Other disadvantages of telework include poor pay and fringe benefits, increase in conflicts between work and family life, increase in routine tasks for the employee's increase of isolation leading to career marginalization.

Quality of family life benefits and quality of social life benefits are impossible to quantify, yet anecdotal evidence suggests that the freedom to structure the 24-day is a tremendous benefit for balancing work, family and social commitments.

Despite the corporate, individual and societal advantages, telecommuting is not believed by all to be an actual employee benefit, says Judy Rapp-Guadagnoli, a Denver-based telecommuting consultant. (Ellis, 1995). "It's not a benefit like life insurance that everyone's got to have," says Rapp-Guadagnoli. "It's a work option that both the manager and the employee come to an agreement on." Hence, in the recent years, there has been an increase in the demand from the employers for flexible working arrangements such as teleworking, which helps the workers achieve a more satisfactory work life balance.

Part Time Work

Part-time work was generally thought to be very popular due to the flexibility that it had. However, much of this flexibility really belongs to the employer and still leaves the employee having difficulty meeting work demands and being at work at specified hours (Tilly, 1998). Gains in productivity usually come from employers who have part-time or flexible hours, but it must be considered whether these part-time hours are actually beneficial to the employees as well. Part-time work became very popular several decades ago when many mums had young children and needed something to do while the children were in school.

Eventually, students and others who needed something to do or just needed a little extra money began to take part-time work. Gradually, the demographics of part-time workers changed. They went from being stay home mums with young children to students and retired people as well. The amount of jobs that were available for part-time workers stayed relatively the same, but the individuals who filled these positions often started looking for full-time work when they graduated college or when their children grew up (Tilly, 1998).

Because of this, there has been increasing difficulty in finding individuals to fill many of the part-time positions that are available. These workers traditionally get paid less than they are much less likely to have employees sponsored health benefits than full-time workers. However, there are also many advantages to working part-time. It is important to show both advantages and disadvantages to develop a clear understanding of part-time work.