Flexible Work Options

By :
Archit Khare(11)
Arjun Bahl(12)
Arjun Kachru(13)
Avantika Madhavan(14)
Babitha Kutty(15)
Chandni Sharma(16)
Chinmaya Dash(17)
Deepakraj Patil(18)
Divya Guleria(19)
Harsha Vardhan(20)

FLEXIBLE WORK
Flexible work means different
work styles and employment
practices.
It encompasses all types of
employment practices other
than conventional 9am to 5pm
jobs.
It enables employees to strike a
right balance between their
professional and personal lives.

Types Of Flexible Working

Options
Flexible Location
Flexible Time
Flexibility in Contracts

Flexible Location
It means working at a location which is most suitable or
favourable.

Types Of Location Flexibility

Working on the move Advancements in IT made this

possible. Devices used are laptops, notebooks, palmtops
and desktop replacement PCs and other portable devices.
Tele centres Common offices in which the facilities are
shared by the employees of several companies or different
departments of the same company.
Satellite offices Offices set up far from the main offices
of the company and are connected through satellite to the
main office. It was created basically after the separation of
the front end and back end jobs

Flexible Time
It is the most oldest and most widely used
FWO.
Types Of FlexiTime
Variable hours
Restructured Hours
Reduced Working Hours
Leave

Variable Hours
It has the option of varying the
number of working hours

Types Of Variable Hours

Flexitime
work for core hours during any part of the day.

Annualized Hours
Agreement to work for total working hours per

annum.
Zero Hours
on call arrangement. As per the arrangement,

employee was called for work only when required.

Time Accounts
Employees could take compensatory leave

anytime against the extra time time credits put

in by them.

Restructured Hours
It comprises of compressed work week
option
4/10 schedule Employee works for 10
hours for 4 days a week and can take the
5th day off.
9/80 schedule It means 80 hours to be
completed in 9 days. It is also called as
nine day fortnight in UK.

Reduced Work Hour Options

Part-time: requires employee to work for a few hours per

day or every week.

Job share: It is a form of part time employment shared

between 2 employees. Distribution of work may be equal
or unequal.

Term time working: This is for the parents of school

going children. In addition to the 4-6 weeks of annual paid
leave, an additional 7-9 weeks of unpaid leave was
granted to employees with school going children.

Phased retirement: Option offered to the employees a

few years before retirement, where they could for lesser
number of hours per day and postpone the retirement day.
This was an unpopular option since reduced hours meant
reduced pay.

Leave Options

Maternity/Parental leave

Sabbatical leave It is meant for up gradation of ones

skills- technical or academic. In many countries it is given
even for a period of more than a year for people who want
to pursue further studies and also to write a book and so on

Career breaks It is an unpaid leave granted for a period

of one year or more in which the contract of employment is
suspended. In addition to that the break is not considered
during the calculation of benefits like pension entitlements
etc

Other leaves - Other leave options are like bereavement

leave which is granted to an employee at the time of a
family members death. Also, marriage leaves are provided
in some companies over and above the annual leave.

Flexible Contracts
It refers to the various flexible contracts that
employer and employee enters into.
Fixed term contracts
Outsourcing
Using agency labour contract

Individual enters into a contract with an

employment agency that finds him work on

contractual basis.

Company first contracts

individual has to work for a fixed number of

hours for a company that called him first for his

services. When company does not want his
services he is free to do other jobs.

 HP India was ranked 3 best employer in India by Best

Examples
of Companies
Employers in India Survey.
It was distinguished based on the flexible work options provided
applying
flexible
work options
by the company
to its employees.
rd

It allowed part time work or flexible work especially for young

mothers.
It also allowed telecommuting where in half a day people worked
in office and the rest of the day they could work from home.
Employee could shift or change from one flexibility option to
another easily.

P&G ranked the second in 2002 survey introduced FWO in

1999.
It offered flexi time option, tele commuting and sabbatical

leaves.

ICICI which was the 4th best employer at that time offered
flexible work options for women keeping in mind their domestic

responsibilities.

Flexibility Work Options In India

In India HP India was the most flexible workplace.
Employees to start work within two hours from 8 am on

regular 8-hr working day

Allowed job sharing whereby any two employees could
work for 20-40 hours per week
Work half a day in office and other half from any location
Provided reduced hours employment and various leave
options
Apart from any statutory leave, HP offered marriage
leave for 10 days, study leave for competitive exams for
10 days, 8 weeks for legal adoption of child and 5 days
for paternity and for bereavement
HP India treated both flexi-time options employees and
regular employees equally.

Other example - P&G India, they started offering FWOs

in 1999.

The MNCs in India (HP India & P&G India) offered FWOs
to all the employees wherein Indian companies focussed
more on their women employees.

ICICI was one of the few Indian companies which offered

flexi-time as well as the work from home option to their
employees.
In 2001, 8% of ICICI employees availed these options.
Sales department of ICICI Preudential shifted its
timings from 9am - 6 pm to 11 am 8pm.

FWOs are also popular in IT, Finance and Retail

industries in India.

FWOs Advantages
FWOs best time for employees to devote

time for their families

FWOs enabled employers to become
employers of choice by adopting familyfriendly policies
Cost-effective in boosting the morale of
their employees
Act as effective employee retention
strategy
Many women can take up the jobs

Introduction to the Characters Involved:

Ms. Jessica Vice President of sales and customer support at ClarityBase.

The decision maker
Ms. Jana Rowe Account Manager in the sales support department
Married woman (No children)
Mr. Davis Bennett Account Manager in the sales support department
Un-married (No children)
Ms. Megan Flood Account Manager in the sales support department
Married (two-children)
Had three years of work experience with at Dawson Software (Main
competitor to the ClarityBase)
Good technical skills
No other person was available during the recruitment who had the
same skills as Ms. Megan Flood.

HBR Case Study: Mommy-Track

Backlash

Author: Alden M. Hayashi

Mr. Bill Welensky HR Manager

Mentor to Ms. Jessica

Summary Of Case

Ms. Jessica while hiring has accepted the demands of Ms. Megan Flood for the flexi

work timings (freedom to come late and leave early, Friday off ,no travel for
business purpose, No to afterhours meetings etc)
Now that other employees have learned about the same, they also wanted to avail

the same privileges

Ms. Jana Rowe
wanted to avail flexi-time facilities and was even ready for 20% pay cut
she was ready to take the pay cut
she was hesitant to give reason for the flexi-work time option (stating the
reason as personal)
raises questions about parental and non-parental discrimination
Mr. Davis Bennett
He wanted flexi-work time option for the preparation of the Ironman Triathlon

world championship
Wanted to leave work at 3 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays (during winter)
Wanted to work for 4 days (during fall)
Willing to come to office at 6am to cover up for the time lapsed due to early
leaving from the office
Shows positive attitude
When asked about whether he will be able to keep up with the needs of the
customers with the new schedule, Mr. Bennett was not confident.
Was handling the most critical account which involved more hard work

Problem
How to resolve the grievances/issues
regarding flexible working hours and at the
same time to ensure that the company
sales targets are achieved?
Also, ensure equal treatment to parental,
non-parental and single employees in terms
of the perks and other benefits.

SHORT TERM SOLUTIONS

Usage of technological advances such as teleconferencing,

wireless technology basically to facilitate remote working from
home
Ensuring the availability of the employee even during the
off hours on phone or through internet to counter critical issues
of the customer
Rotation policy in the organization (wherever possible) so that
each employee can avail the facility of flexible work timing
To balance the pay and the perks of the parental and non parental
employees.
Transparency in terms of the policies regarding work options
Each of the manager under Jessica should always have one
person from their team available as a backup for all kinds of
meetings or to handle client issues.
Any person willing to cover up the work for another person by
working extra hours will be provided with rewards with immediate
effect.
Employees will have an option to choose flexible working hours
but the total working hours per week will be fixed.

LONG TERM SOLUTIONS

To have clear cut policies regarding the flexible
working hours, this must be communicated to the
employees at the time of joining.
To have variable component in their compensation
structure based on the number of working hours.
Recruit or promote a person as a backup who
needs to be trained for specific role.
For a win-win situation, foster good relations within
the team and encourage a discussion within a
team emphasizing the importance of each persons
role and to support and work as a team.

Jessicas action plan

Allow Jana and Davis to avail flexi-time after

two weeks provided they

submit their schedule

They should be ready to take a pay cut if required

total number of hours are not met

Prior intimation of leave requests so as to
eliminate overlap of leaves and planning hassles.
Both of them are open to negotiations regarding
the work timings

Review the contract signed by Megan and make

proper amendments so as to remove disparity.
Will provide less pay for people like Megan who
are availing the flexi time and working lesser
number of hours.

References
ICFAI case study Volume IV
Flexible Work Option Case Study

HBR Case Study Mommy Track Backlash

Thank You !!