Work

WORK! WORK! WORK! The one thing we all do Monday thru Friday. Living in a fast pace city like Atlanta, Georgia much time is spent in the heavy traffic commuting from home to work and work to home. Time that could have been spent productively at work is usually spent getting there. Time that could be spent with the family is spent getting back home. There is an obvious work-life imbalance and it’s about time that organizations took a closer look at the wonderful benefits of flexible working. While many businesses like to claim that their employees (core workforce) are their “most important assets”, it would come as no surprise if these ‘assets’ felt otherwise. No matter what businesses proclaim, most of them are very customer-focused and driven by emphasis on maximizing their profitability even at the expense of their workforce.

The term “flexible workforce” refers to creating an accommodating work environment with respect to time. (www.yourbusinessmagazine.com)

Many organizations are now benefiting from having a flexible workforce in place. Common options of flexible working include the following:

• part-time: working less than the normal hours, perhaps by working fewer days per week

• flexi-time: choosing when to work (there's usually a core period during which you have to work)

• compressed hours: working your agreed hours over fewer days

shift swapping: swapping shifts amongst other employees provided all required shifts are covered

• job sharing: sharing a job designed for one person with someone else

home-working: working from home

• temporary workers

• independent contractors

The term” core workforce refers to a regular full-time and part-time employee of an organization that makes up the majority of that organization workforce. How can an organization effectively manage a flexible workforce that will make all employee (core and flexible) happy, and see the organization bottom line grow?

This paper...