Communiqué, issue 6, 2004
Special Foundation Forum 2004
- Time to re-think work-life balance: Second Foundation Forum debates key issues
- Do we need to work longer hours?
- Time and flexibility
- Investing in work-life balance – a win-win situation?
- Work and care - payback for the elderly or investment in a new generation?
- Keynote round-up
- An economy or a society: where do we live and work?
Articles
- Focusing firmly on the year ahead
- Foundation forges closer ties with the EP
- Disability and social exclusion: Reversing the trend
- Europe ‘not losing jobs’ due to outsourcing of ICT services
Previous issues of Communiqué
Employees, employers and society as a whole can benefit from greater flexibility in working hours, this workshop concluded. Higher productivity and increased job satisfaction, for example, are two of the advantages of increased flexibility, the workshop participants agreed.
According to evidence presented at the meeting, companies save up to €16 for every euro they invest in flexitime, parental leave schemes and other employee assistance programmes. Further research, outlined at the workshop, revealed that such initiatives not only increased productivity and staff retention rates, but also led to lower levels of absenteeism and work-related illnesses. In the UK alone, for example, stress-related sick leave is estimated to cost businesses over £ 7 million a week.
It was also outlined how several major corporations have already generated significant savings by giving staff greater freedom to decide when they work. In the UK, for example, British Telecom reports that its ‘flexi-work’ philosophy has encouraged 98% of women to return to work after maternity leave, thus reducing its recruitment and induction costs by £3 million a year.
In addition to the benefits to employers, greater flexibility in working hours can also benefit employees, the workshop concluded. Studies indicate that it leads to higher job satisfaction, greater opportunities for staff to develop their professional skills and careers, and less stress and ‘burn-out’.
‘The high-performing organisations of the future will be those that are flexible enough to meet the demands of a competitive global market while accommodating the needs of a changing workforce,’ commented one of the workshop participants.
However, it was pointed out that the need for a more enlightened approach was still largely unmet. According to a recent study by the Irish Forum on the Workplace of the Future, nearly one-in-five staff return home too exhausted to do anything else.
‘You have to wonder how effective these individuals are at work the next day,’ observed one workshop participant.
One of the difficulties, the workshop noted, is that SMEs, which constitute the bulk of businesses in Europe, are usually reluctant to introduce ‘work-life-balance’ schemes as these types of initiatives are perceived to be too costly and complicated to implement in small businesses.
However, as one participant commented:
‘There are lots of ways to increase flexibility; you don’t always need sophisticated solutions. Simply allowing a parent to arrive 10 minutes late for work, for example, could encourage that member of staff to stay with the business. Think “smart and simple”.’
Workshop 3 key issues
- 18% of employees return home from work too exhausted to do anything else.
- Stress-related illnesses cost UK businesses over £7 million a year in lost productivity and other expenses.
- Staff who can no longer cope and leave companies cost businesses millions of pounds a year. Typically it costs 50-100% of an employee’s annual salary to replace them.
- Research has shown that companies that implement ‘work-life-balance’ schemes save €16 for every euro invested. In the UK, Xerox claims to have saved £1million over the last five years by introducing flexible working time and parental leave initiatives.