Student ID 21201314

Flexible Working Hours in Organization

In an organization, flexible working is simply a working pattern designed to suit the needs of an individual rendering employees the flexibility on how long, where and when an individual work. Instead of working hours being monotonous, variable hours throughout the day, week or year is provided (Ronen, 2005).

Various forms concerning flexible working hours are enumerated here. 
Numerical flexibility enables an organization to bend itself according to the changing level of demand by increasing or decreasing the worked hours. This approach is adopted by Marks & Spencer where it alters the working hours according to the rise or fall in demand of work. It provides its workforce flexibility in working conditions according to the necessity of work; this approach offers the company to attain employee satisfaction as workforce can easily manage their work according to flexibility (Marks & Spencer, 2012).

Functional flexibility is concerned with breaking down the traditional occupational boundaries (Lake, 2013). With a huge workforce, Vodafone takes care of its employees by providing them functional flexibility in working and has helped in to transform the fortune of company. Vodafone offers its workforce flexibility in working and has been able to cut the operating costs by making better utilization of physical resources and minimizing the carbon footprint in 2010/11 (Quinn, 2012).

Temporal Flexibility approach which provides temporary flexibility in working hours according to the requirement of work. For instance, Barclays Bank offers temporal flexibility in working hours of employees depending on the need of work. The organization trusted its employees and provided them work flexibility benefit and is now able to meet the needs of both employees and company conveniently (BARCLAYS, 2013).

 Locational Flexibility giving an opportunity to the workforce to change the work location according to the suitability of employees (Stredwick and Ellis, 2007). UK operational GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) follows this approach, through this approach the organization is able to attract and motivate more skilled workforce. Locational flexibility provides in a calm approach among employees with an increased level of performance (GlaxoSmithKline, 2012).

Financial Flexibility refers to a company’s ability to take benefit of unforeseen opportunities of their capability to deal with unanticipated events depending on the company’s financial policies and structure. British Air-ways is having a diversified workforce and in order to meet their expectations this approach is followed. This flexibility has provided an increased feeling of personal control over schedule and working environment and reduced attrition rate of company (British Airways, 2013).

References

BARCLAYS. 2013. [Online] Available at: <http://group.barclays.com/home>. [Accessed 5^th February 2013].

British Airways. 2013. [Online] Available at: <>http://www.britishairways.com/travel/globalgateway.jsp/global/public/en_. [Accessed 5^th February 2013].

GlaxoSmithKline. 2012. The Economic Times, [Online] Available at: <http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/GlaxoSmithKline>. [Accessed 5^th February 2013].

Lake, A. 2013. Smart Flexibility: Moving Smart and Flexible Working from Theory to Practice. Gower Publishing Ltd.

Marks & Spencer. 2012. The Guardian, [Online] Available at: < http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/marksspencer>. [Accessed 5^th February 2013].

Quinn, J., 2012. Vodafone: A difficult call to make. The Telegraph, [Online] Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/9669039/Vodafone-A-difficult-call-to-make.html>. [Accessed 5^th February 2013].

Ronen, S., 2005. Flexible working hours: an innovation in the quality of work life. McGraw-Hill.

Stredwick, J., and Ellis, S., 2007. Flexible Working. 2^nd ed. CIPD Publishing.