WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Employers must respond to changing demographics
Employees want a shift in working practices to better reflect their changing working lives, according to a new report by the Work Foundation.
Employees demand fewer hours . . .
More than half of respondents to the research study are dissatisfied with their current working hours, with the majority preferring to work fewer hours. But, as the labour market changes, surprising trends are emerging about which companies are better at responding to changing expectations and people's desires for career structures to change.
Contrary to expectation, those working in small companies were more likely to say they could work flexibly than those working in mid-size organisations. This is despite smaller firms being less likely to have an HR function.
However, whilst small firms might be good at informal flexibility, it does mean that a person's access to flexibility depends far more on his/her relationship with his/her manager than on a policy setting out clear rules -- meaning there could be scope for unfairness.
. . . and greater flexibility
Not only do people want to work fewer hours, they want greater flexibility. In particular, the growing number of dual income households -- meaning someone still has to care for children -- and the growing realisation that we are going to have to work until later in life to fund retirement may lie behind a greater desire for time outside work.
Over two-thirds of respondents believe that career structures need to allow for time out without damage to career prospects and that organisations need to change the long hours culture.
A final word
"As the population changes, the government and employers need to respond to the repercussions these changes create for the labour market. When designing products, companies understand that at different times in their lives, different people need and want different things. It is not such a giant leap to apply this to the labour market: to start talking not just about working hours, but about working lives, which helps encompass the way that each person can and wants to work may change over the lifetime." -- Laura Williams, co-author of the report, Work Foundation.
"Our survey respondents have demonstrated that they are looking to their employers and the government to provide a working climate that enables them to make changes without impacting on their career success or their earnings potential. With the labour market becoming more female, older and more diverse, these are growing demands that the government is already starting to respond to -- and that all employers need to sit up and listen to. The UK's demographics are already changing: the workplace cannot afford not to." -- Alexandra Jones, co-author of the report and senior researcher at the Work Foundation.
Want to know more?
Title: Changing Demographics, by Laura Williams and Alexandra Jones, Work Foundation.
Methodology: The report is based on a telephone survey of a representative sample of 1,000 adults aged 16+ in September 2004.
Availability: Copies of the 40-page report are available, free of charge in PDF format, from the Work Foundation at www.theworkfoundation.com/research/publications.jsp
The Work Foundation exists to "inspire and deliver improvements to performance through improving the quality of working life". It believes that productive, high performance organisations are those committed to making work more fulfilling, fun, inspirational and effective, and through engaging their workforce succeed in integrating the many aims crucial to organisational success. To find out more visit www.theworkfoundation.com
Posted 21 January 2005