Gender and Work-life Balance
Flexible scheduling refers to a workplace scheduling structure that involves a company allowing its employees to report to work early or late based on family responsibilities. In most cases, the company usually establishes core hours at midday when all employees are expected to work to give room for both collaboration and communication. The main reason for companies preferring the use of flexible scheduling is to attract veteran talents and promote employees motivation. However, flexible schedule possesses an array of advantages and disadvantages.
Tracy & Sarah (2000) asserts that Flexible scheduling is very vital to the development of Fig Technologies because it leads to increased levels of productivity and better quality of work. Employees with the ability to schedule their working hours around other obligations not only set themselves free but also gets the ability to put in their full mental and emotional attention on the work. The focus realized from this technique helps improve the employees’ ability to concentrate on the job and commit himself or herself to the objectives of the situation. Williams & Boushey (2010) adds that flexible scheduling leads to preventions of absenteeism and turnover. When employees fail to face their choices between works, personal or their family responsibilities, they can have no or fewer reasons as to why they missed reporting to work, and they are less likely to burn out from demands of their job in the workplace. Missed working days tend to put the company behind, and high costs accompany employees’ turnover. Using flexible scheduling helps the company to minimize the adverse effects of both absences and turnover, improving the production levels and increasing the company’s efficiency (Tracy and Sarah, 2000).
According to Williams & Boushey (2010), the majority of companies using flexible scheduling often use the core hours to encourage their employees on impressing teamwork. Employees who have inconsistent schedules in their work cannot spend more time in collaboration with the core workers as the employees who work at the same rate. Employees have a likelihood of having a few hours in a day to conduct the cooperation. In some companies, communication in the work team usually occurs in the ongoing and impulsive fashion, which is difficult to limit to a few hours. Flexible scheduling reduces the pace for teamwork production because of the restrictions imposed on collaboration (Tracy and Sarah (2000).
In competition towards recruiting and retaining the best employees, the organizations offering the employer-sponsored elder care and child for their employees tend to have a proven edge. Based on the research, 95% of the employees that got the opportunity to access the Bright Horizons Elder Care and Child Benefits suggests for the recommendation of their employer to other employees (Tracy and Sarah, 2000). The employees with both children and the elderly get an opportunity to spend some days out of work while providing care to them. This privilege sets, however, offered when the work productivity and attendance expected to increase. When an employee has a peace of mind that his or her child or elder is receiving proper care, they do not worry but becomes confident and continue carrying out their duties effectively without strict supervision. This act is of considerable significance to the company as it leads to increased productivity.
Williams & Boushey (2010) asserts that Work-life balance is vital to many companies and organizations. This balance places the organizations in better positions for performance. Organizations that lack the work-life balance have their employees recording high cases of divorce in their families. Such situations result in employees becoming stressed at their job leading to the deterioration of their work performance. Additionally, such evidence may affect the organization efficiency leading to a negative impact on the organization in a variety of ways and later on causing inefficiency. Most organizations need to decide taking good care of their employees’ work-life balance. As a result, organizations will record cases of growth and efficiency and preventions of employee conflicts that may arise.
References
Tracy, Sarah (2000). Becoming a Character for Commerce. Management Communication Quarterly
Williams, J. & Boushey, H, (2010). The three faces of
work-family conflict the poor, the professionals, and the missing middle
centre; Center for American Progress, Hastings College of the Law