Flexibility is the key to a loyal workforce

28 February 2010 - 02:00 By Claire Keeton
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Wasting time in a gridlock during rush hour in Johannesburg isn't good for your blood pressure. But choosing what hours you work is, and also seems to benefit mental health and sleep patterns.

This may sound like common sense, yet South African employers lag far behind the developed world in allowing flexitime - which has health benefits for employees and seems to improve their productivity and retention.

"Flexible working interventions that increase worker control and choice (such as self-scheduling and gradual/partial retirement) are likely to have a positive effect on health outcomes," says a major new study.

Dr Clare Bambra of the Wolfson Research Institute at Durham University in the UK, said the Cochrane Systemic Review she led included 10 studies involving 16600 people.

The risk factors for ill health include a high workload and time pressures, limited control and limited contact with co-workers and managers, Bambra reported.

"Conversely, jobs with high demands but high control (autonomy) are not damaging to health," she said.

Research in South Africa indicates that generation X-ers and Y-ers - ranging from about 19 years old to the early 30s - and women rate flexible working conditions highly on a list of what they want from a job.

A survey of more than 15000 students aged between 21 and 24 found that female students ranked "flexible working" second (after international career opportunities) and male students ranked it fourth (money came out top), said Professor Anton Schlechter of UCT's School of Management Studies.

Women now account for about half of the workforce in South Africa, and dual-income families are common.

Schlechter said that a recent study found 51% of the SA workforce was female in 2008 against about 38% in 1995.

American researchers say in a report released last month: "A mismatch between the 21st-century workforce and a workplace designed for the 1960s (when only 20% of mothers worked) is at the heart of work-family conflict (in the US)."

The authors, Joan Williams and Heather Boushey, said that incomes, working hours and patterns of family care had changed substantially over the past few decades, resulting in widespread conflicts between the demands of work and family care.

Schlechter said the impact of HIV/Aids had "hugely increased care responsibilities" in South Africa.

Nick Keene, the country manager for Citrix Systems - a technology company that facilitates remote working - said South African employers, with few exceptions, were years behind in adopting flexitime.

"This is related to the management style of organisations and the lack of infrastructure," he said. "(Flexibility) has business benefits: employees feel empowered and reduced stress, and this spins into increased productivity.

"They are concerned with objectives and performance, not stressed about time and attendance management."

Keene said "fishbowl-style" managers wanted employees to be at the office. "You get 'present-absenteeism' where a person is at his desk but surfing the Net," he said.

Keene said Citrix's view was that "work is something you do, not somewhere you should be".

The prevailing mind-set in South Africa is still that "face time" at the desk is what counts.

The furthest most South African companies go at the moment is in allowing flexibility around core hours, for example, around 9am to 3pm, or to staff who travel a lot.

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