Attractive workplace for all - Towards a balanced flexibility
The Kok report [512Kb pdf] points to the need to promote flexibility as well as security in the labour market. The demands of employers for a flexible workforce need to be reconciled with the legitimate requirement of workers to have secure employment prospects. In addition, there needs to be a recognition that workers increasingly are opting for more flexible forms of work for a variety of reasons, including family commitments, personal development or general work–life balance considerations.
Under Orientation 5: Towards a balanced flexibility, two central aspects of flexibility is considered:
- good practices in terms of working time flexibility
- good practices with regard to non-standard employment contracts.
Case studies include examples of company time savings accounts and other flexible scheduling arrangements. Special attention is also given to training and other entitlements (health benefits, priority recruitment for permanent posts that become available, etc) addressing the specific needs of, for example, temporary agency workers or those on fixed-term contracts.
Key findings of the research are the following:
- Successful initiatives of balanced flexibility concern both flexible working time models and policies aimed at improving employment conditions of non-permanent employees.
- Work organisation plays a crucial role both for guaranteeing functional services and production processes for the companies and working time sovereignty for the employees when introducing flexible working time systems.
- Although flexible working time arrangements are often regarded negatively by employees, the case examples show that balanced flexibility result in improved working conditions and better work–life balance.
- A typical feature is a win-win situation in the implemented practices on flexible working time arrangements, often as outcome of well developed social dialogue.