Flexibility

Flexibility in the workforce (also known as alternative work arrangements or nonstandard work arrangements) is comprised of flexibility in working time, flexibility in work location/space, flexibility in the number of workers within a firm's workforce, and flexibility in employee skills and abilities. Such arrangements enable firms to more closely match their labor force needs with the demand for labor, and thus have become more desirable in recent times when just-intime production, globalization of the workforce, and changing customer preferences and demands have required companies to alter how they allocate human capital. Flexibility has been associated with “work-life balance” (also called “family-friendly benefits” or “arrangements”), where employees negotiate or utilize policies for shifting work hours and location to accommodate personal commitments along with their work priorities.

The use of flexibility in work allocation has been in use for years, but this notion has been particularly [Page 683]prominent during the last 25 years. During and for a period after the Industrial Revolution, as work and working hours became standardized, the “nine-to-five” workday and the “40-hour” workweek became commonly expected. This was also congruent with the more typical family life, where the (male) head of household was likely to be the wage earner. However, as shifts in consumer preferences, family arrangements, globalization, new technologies, and other recent issues have impacted the dynamics of the firm and the labor force, the focus on working hours and location for employees has changed to meet these challenges. In addition, employees have had to become flexible and many have had to expand their skill bases to meet firm demands for particular competencies. Larger firms tend to develop and implement policies that enable workers to take advantage of flexible work arrangements and to allow managers to utilize discretion in their allocation. Smaller firms usually use much more informal agreements, with individuals negotiating with employers for individualized deals with respect to flexibility in work.

Work flexibility manifests itself in a variety of formats. Historically, shift work, though often entailing consistent work hours, has been considered to be an alternative work arrangement, since this can often require employees to work during the nighttime hours. The most common types of flexibility for the internal workforce involve variability of work hours. This can include the compressed work week, where workers condense a full week's worth of work hours into fewer days; and flextime, where employees can shift their work hours to any hours of the day, as long as they are present and/or available in the firm for a set of core hours each day (for example, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.). Part-time work can also fall into this category, with some companies utilizing job-sharing arrangements for jobs that lend themselves well to this. Job sharing can allow two parttime employees to share one position, and often there is one day of “overlap” where one partner can hand off the week's work to the other job-share partner.

Workplace location can contribute to work flexibility: Many organizations have utilized telecommuting as a way to accommodate individuals who need flexibility in their work hours or work space. Telecommuting can involve working from employees' own homes, or from satellite offices. When employees need to be in a variety of offices, employees can sometimes engage in hotelling, where employees set up a temporary office for a day in a vacant cubicle or office at a firm or client site. Contingent/contract work also falls under work flexibility, particularly in terms of using external labor. This type of precarious work (also called temporary work) often entails fixed-term contracts for workers who are contracted to the firm, but are not employed as permanent employees. In this case, employees have the ability to work at multiple firms for short periods—but companies often do not have to pay these workers healthcare and other benefits, making them a less expensive and highly flexible source of labor. A different form of flexibility, called functional flexibility, relates to employee flexibility in terms of skills (also called multiskilling).

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