impact of flexible working on employers

Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Wright JA, The majority of studies involved homogenous samples interms of sex and ethnicity. A range of physical and mental health outcomes, as well as worklife balance, were measured using validated instruments including the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ12, Goldberg 1972) and the Standard Shiftwork Index (Barton 1992). About 40 percent of this overall effect is attributed to attracting more productive workers. [3] Some of the work-family conflicts associated with contingent work jobs that workers do not expect to last can be alleviated by the benefits of work schedule flexibility. Flexible work arrangements, a benefit to all - ILO report Brandt PA, 108 professional$ help$ with housework.mp. Working flexibly is now the new normal for employees: Poll Physiological measures (that is, non selfreported measures) were used to examine health related outcomes (change in blood pressure, heart rate and biomarkers of cardiovascular disease) and validated instruments were used to measure general healthrelated outcomes (sleepiness using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Johns 1991) and secondary outcomes (physical activity using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire). Ropponen T. Occupational stress questionnaire: user's instructions, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Reviews 19, Helsinki, A scoring system for subjective health complaints. Viitasalo 2008). It is acknowledged that there are limitations associated with the subjective nature of measurements of worklife balance. 0000003049 00000 n Careers, Unable to load your collection due to an error. In addition, given the small number of intervention studies on the health effects of flexitime (only one study on flexitime was retrieved that fulfilled our inclusion criteria) we call for studies to address this specific deficit. The consequences of flexible work for health: are we looking at the right place? Assessing risk of bias in included studies. Kossek EE, Hammer LB, Thompson RJ, Burke LB. In addition, the equity implications of flexible working conditions are largely unknown. Liukkonen V, Flexible working is any work pattern that differs significantly from the traditional, office-based, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. standard. Podnos YD, The studies were based in various occupational settings: healthcare organisations (n = 2); the police force (n = 1); a utilities organisation (office workers) (n = 1); airline company (line maintenance workers) (n = 1); and the general working population/various companies or organisations (n = 5). More than 48 million people are working remotely - about 35% of the workforce, compared to just 6% of the American workforce in 2019. 195 ((job$ or employment) adj2 (place$ or site$ or location$ or setting$)).ti,ab. Selecting studies and collecting data. More sectors in the global economy are moving toward operating on a round-the-clock service or continuous production. Since lockdown, employees have adopted new work habits, but many execs want a return to the old normal. Worklife balance is conceptualised here in terms of the impacts of the interventions on social and domestic life, for example time spent with family or sufficient time for social life (Bambra 2008b). Further, it should be noted that although searches were conducted of relevant internet sites these were limited to English language only. Location flexibility, measured as working at home at least once a week. WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Stansfeld SA. The inclusion criteria were: (i) randomised controlled trial, interrupted time series or controlled before and after study; (ii) physical, mental or general health/ill health measured using a validated instrument; and (iii) length of follow up six months or greater. For example, where employers dictate conditions in terms of contracts, work hours, salary forms or work places, uncertainty leading to possible job insecurity and reduced autonomy may be introduced intoemployees everyday lives (Artazcoz 2005; Benach 2002; MacEachen 2008; Prnnen 2007). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions Version 5.0.2 [updated September 2009]. Various workplaces (45 companies), Netherlands. For employers and organizations, work flexibility contributes to their ability to attract and retain workers, and affects their workers engagement and productivity. No significant benefits to health were found when comparing the experimental and control groups over time, although nonsignificant trends were noted for somatic symptoms and vitality. Airline company (line maintenance), Finland, Physical health experimental measures: blood pressure, heart rate, total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, fasting plasma glucose, glycosylated haemoglobin, C reactive protein, Mean systolic BP decreased from 142 to 136 mm Hg (P = 0.049) and heart rate decreased from 66 to 60 beats/minute (P = 0.06) in the experimental group when compared to the other groups ( rapid forward rotation BP increased by 2.5 mmHg, control group no change in BP), Health and Retirement Study, USA (a nationally representative biennial survey of older Americans and their spouses), 49.4% male, No significant changes in depression for either the partial or abrupt retirement groups between T1 and T2, Inadequate employment (or underemployment) included involuntary parttime contracts and those on a poverty wage, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), USA, 56.9% male, Psychological functioning, measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CESD), Becoming inadequately employed was associated with increased depression when compared with remaining adequately employed and after adjusting for depression at baseline and contextual factors (b = 0.67, Beta = 0.04, t = 2.80, P < 0.05). Baltes BB, Is the baseline response greater than 60%? In a study of a compressed working week intervention with flexible start and finish times (temporal flexibility), Smith 1998 measured worklife balance using the interference with social and family life item from the Standard Shiftwork Index (Barton 1995). <>stream Bosma H, Whitehead M, full paper, conference proceeding, unpublished report), Is the study a prospective cohort with control? Have the authors adjusted for nonresponse and dropout? Find the answers to the most frequently asked questions here. The Future Forum puts it another way, advising executives to embrace flexibility, reward inclusion, and build connection through transparencyin other words, pay attention to what staff want and give it to them. (Pdf) Impact of Flexible Working Arrangements on Employee Satisfaction This will prevent your employees from losing time and feeling overwhelmed because of the surplus of different systems. In total, 214 publications (185 from the electronic databases and 29 from additional searches) relating to flexible working were retrieved for full paper analysis (see Figure 1). 0000002283 00000 n None of the studies provided information on whether or not worker representative organisations were involved in the development and/or delivery of the interventions. Flexible working hours can advance economies and businesses while helping employees and families achieve a better work-life balance, according to a new report launched by the International Labour Organization (ILO) on Friday. 109 professional$ help$ with household work$.mp. When employees work from home more frequently, the office is of course used much less. Where it was difficult to make a selection decision on the basis of the title and abstract alone, we retrieved the full article for screening. Two control groups (i) rigid starts with 4 12hour shifts, then 4 days off and (ii) 8hour shift rota, Physical health: physical health questionnaire (, Controlled before and after study, 7 to 8 months follow up, Airline company (line maintenance), Finland, maintenance workers. Why would a policy that employees seem to be so excited about end up making them feel worse? Further, it is important that future studies make explicit information regarding the background to and the motivation for the intervention as well as details on how the intervention was delivered and the extent to which workers and managers supported the arrangements. Based on the demandcontrolsupport model, it is suggested that interventions of this nature which increase levels of worker control are likely to have positive effects on health outcomes, particularly psychological health. Bjorner JB, Hume K, Kandolin 1996 reported on a multiple intervention study which included changes to the direction and speed of shifts as well as the introduction of selfscheduling. 52 (stress or burnout or depression or depressed).ti,ab. Muller M, The prevalence of changing ones schedule was 55% in 2014, the last year for which data on this indicator was available; and the prevalence of taking time off was 74% in 2018. GL, There are several reasons for this: Flexible workers generally have more time and better control over how to plan it. Echoing calls made elsewhere (Bambra 2009b; Mackenbach 2003; Tugwell 2004), we would urge future studies to undertake analyses by different subgroups to assess any possible effects on health inequalities. Four studies considered contract flexibility interventions (Calvo 2009; de Vaus 2007; Dooley 2000; Rodriguez 2002). Smith L, Why fintech products are the future of benefits and compensation, Reskilling Revolution: Preparing 1 billion people for tomorrows economy, Why workforce flourishing is critical to upskilling in the future of work. The Beatles, the Civil Rights Movement, the Space Race the sixties proved to be very eventful! 0000006098 00000 n This means they can apportion their day as they see fit setting time aside to deal with things such as the school run, completing necessary errands, etc. 101 non standard$ employ$ contract$.ti,ab. Hybrid working may hold back women's careers, say managers You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. This indirectly implies that these workers had considered the challenges of working at home before making that choice. Viitasalo 2008 found statistically significant decreases in systolic blood pressure and heart rate for workers with flexible scheduling compared with those in the control group. Our study found that working at home increased both the likelihood of job stress and job satisfaction, and as we mentioned in the blog this could be partially explained by the blurring of the division between work and non-work domains. 36 ((GP or hospital or doctor or gps) adj2 (consultation$1 or appointment$1)).ti,ab. Offering flexibility for your employees in the how, where, and when is whatever keeps employers minds occupied. The digital workspace will make or break your flexible workplace. The evidence in this review suggests that interventions which increase employee control by offering workerorientated flexibility (specifically selfscheduling and partial/gradual retirement) are likely to be associated with health improvements including improvements in physical health (reduced systolic blood pressure and heart rate), mental health (e.g. This form of working has an impact on both employees and employers. A participatory approach underpinned how the selfscheduling system was conceived, designed, implemented and evaluated and the motivation for the intervention was transparent: to improve levels of health, wellbeing, job satisfaction and worklife balance of nursing staff. However, change doesnt necessarily mean crisis. Numerous studies have been carried out concerning the impact of flexible working, such as the 2017 ACAS research paper, which highlights the fact that adopting a flexible working pattern has a positive effect on employees - boosting productivity and efficiency levels. In several studies managers/supervisors were pooled with general workers and analysed as a homogenous group (e.g. Across work arrangements (independent contractors, on-call workers, temporary help agency workers, workers working for a contractor, and workers in standard arrangements): Independent contractors reported the highest percentages for all flexibility indicators. GomezMejia LR, For men after undertaking overtime work the odds of becoming a need for recovery case were 1.31 (95% CI 0.87 to 1.98) and the odds of men becoming a psychological distress case were 1.16 (95% CI 0.83 to 1.64). To avoid introducing bias into the narrative synthesis, we reported the results of each study judiciously and made efforts to avoid inappropriate emphasis on the findings of any one particular study or author (Deeks 2008). Our findings correspond with those published in an earlier systematic review on changes in shift work (Bambra 2008a) which reported that selfscheduling of shifts was beneficial to health and worklife balance. In contrast, the effects of employerorientated forms of flexibility, such as casual employment and labour hire, are likely to play out differently with the worker lacking job security, protection and choice and control (Benach 2007). Boxtel MPJ, Comments listed below are posted by individuals not associated with CDC, unless otherwise stated. 245 0 obj None of the studies conducted separate subgroup analyses by different types of worker, for example managerial or supervisory staff versus manual worker. That's because they don'tand that's especially true when it comes to flexible working. Its findings can serve as a baseline as future studies examine work flexibility during the pandemic and beyond. Viitasalo 2008 considered the effects of flexibility of shift scheduling in a study conducted in a line maintenance unit of a Finnish airline company. Adding such a term could potentially have illuminated what you suggest. &6E'dtU7()euFVfvGWgw8HXhx9IYiy*:JZjz ' ? For example, the blurring of work and non-work life boundaries due to working at home can negatively affect workers and their families and globalization has spread job tasks across time zones. The short followup periods (12 months or less) employed in five of the studies reviewed (Dunham 1987; Kandolin 1996; Smith 1998; Rodriguez 2002; Viitasalo 2008) may not be sufficient to detect clinical changes, for example changes in biomarkers of cardiovascular disease or accumulated fatigue and stress. Benavides FG. The Nordic Cochrane Centre. Proximity bias drives inequity and tanks diversity. The agency-level data extracted from Office of Personnel Management's congressional reports and central personnel data files were . While bosses wrestle with how to manage hybrid workers, about a third of Americans whose jobs allow them to work from home still choose to do so all the time, according to a Pew Research Center . In addition, two of the reviewed studies (Dooley 2000; Kandolin 1996) reported on multiple interventions, making it difficult to separate out the effects of flexible working from other organisational changes. Employee and employer thoughts on remote working. Booth ML, This is excellent news for employers. Flexible Working Practices & Productivity: Impact on Employees Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses. A control group was simply instructed to reflect on how they would feel when working during this time, without an explicit mindset prompt. Workers seek flexibility to address their personal and family needs, including childcare, eldercare, schooling, and healthcare. Indeed, this executive-employee disconnect is a problem beyond mutual frustration, as it's one of the drivers behind the so-called Great Resignation, which saw 4 million Americans quit their jobs in April alone, a 20-year high. Ghislieri C, Molino M, Cortese CG. Most people now want a mix of remote and office-based working, a new report says. In contrast, interventions that were motivated or dictated by organisational interests, such as fixedterm contract and involuntary parttime employment, found equivocal or negative health effects. KailaKangas L, The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. We used the quality appraisal criteria for descriptive purposes and to highlight variations between studies and we calculated no quality score. Clearly more research is needed to explore this possibility further. Leveraging workplace flexibility: Fostering engagement and productivity. Flexitime was shown not to have significant effects on selfreported physiological and psychological health outcomes. the contents by NLM or the National Institutes of Health. The .gov means its official. Stansfeld SA, Maudsley Monograph No. People that do this right will not only attract more talent, they'll attract more diverse talent, Elliott says. In relation to the studies on selfscheduling there were no shared outcomes measured using validated instruments that could be pooled (see Table 1). Within industry sectors, the highest percentage of workers who reported working at home was in agriculture, forestry, and fishing, followed by services; taking time off was highest in construction followed by services; and changing their schedule was highest in construction and agriculture, forestry and fishing. et al. Flexible contracts increase productivity by up to 50 percent. In relation to secondary outcomes, only four of the included studies examined any of the following secondary outcomes: sickness absence, health service usage, health/lifestyle behavioural effects, worklife balance, health and wellbeing of children, family members and coworkers. Parmelee PA. Defining and conceptualizing workplace flexibility. Leave flexibility, measured as the ability to take time off for family needs being not too hard or not at all hard. 26 (musculo adj2 skeletal adj2 disorder$).mp. Tomasson K, Cohen PD, Given the partial and methodologically limited evidence base these findings should be interpreted with caution. concurrent interventions, not all intervention group exposed)? random samples, adequately justified purposive sampling, or 100% samples)? The premise of the effortreward imbalance model is that psychosocial stress results from a mismatch between the efforts made by workers and the rewards they receive from their employer in terms of pay, esteem, job security and career opportunities (Siegrist 1996). One study of overtime working (temporal flexibility) by De Raeve 2007 did report results differentially by gender but found no significant effect of overtime working on need for recovery or psychological distress in either males or females. random samples, adequately justified purposive sampling, or 100% samples), 2. Ogilvie D, The biggest advantage is an improved work/life-balance. <> Folkard S. Does individual choice determine shift system acceptability? We recorded the reason for exclusion of studies which appeared to fulfil the eligibility criteria systematically (see Characteristics of excluded studies). Garde AH, Jansen NWH, But can flexible working really benefit employers as much as employees? Thank you for your comments. In a study of gradual/partial retirement, de Vaus 2007 used life satisfaction as a quality of life outcome measured using a scale validated by Campbell 1976. So, if youre thinking of letting employees make the move to flexible working, should you be concerned? Siegrist J, Working Families surveyed 26 employers in September 2020, finding employees flexing their hours increased from around half to 85%. These countries are putting it to the test, Closing gender gaps in the private sector benefits over 728,000 women, is affecting economies, industries and global issues, with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale. 5. The survey showed that fewer than half of employees believe their bosses are being transparent about future plans. As a library, NLM provides access to scientific literature. Were the arrangements likely to benefit the employer or the worker? For example, Artazcoz 2005 draws attention to lacunae in the evidence base relating to how flexible working practices impact on the health of different groups across the socioeconomic strata and by occupational group, ethnicity or gender (Artazcoz 2005). With this in mind we used a number of different measures to capture data on the orientation and favourability of flexible working arrangements. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan was published on 30 June 2023. BP = blood pressure; Con = control; CWW = compressed working week; ESS = Epworth Sleepiness Scale; GHQ = General Health Questionnaire; HDL = highdensity lipoprotein; Int = intervention; LDL = lowdensity lipoprotein; SD = standard deviation. Adapted from Bambra 2007; Bambra 2008a; Bambra 2008b; CRD 2001; Deeks 2003; Egan 2007. A review of how to extend the right to flexible working to parents of older children, Report for the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Available from: http://nds.coi.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=397807&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=True or http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/employment/workandfamilies/flexibleworking/. Leppnen A, Davis KD, Kleban MH, Changes in communication, scheduling, collaboration, productivity You name it! Petticrew M, Flexibility is a boon to the modern workplace but it shouldnt have to come at the cost of intrinsic motivation. This has been evident during the ongoing pandemic. Searches ofEMBASE, CINAHL ASSIA, IBSS, Sociological Abstracts, ABI/Inform, EPPI Centre, Evidence Library of Reviews and the Cochrane Public Health Group Specialised Register did not yield any hits that satisfied our specific inclusion criteria.
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