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Formal Report: Introduction and Objectives
In business you will write mostly short reports, but at times, you may be required to write a longer, more formal report. Therefore, it is important that you are prepared to tackle such a task. We will approach the longer, more formal report as a logic problem. You will learn how to approach a more complex problem in a logical, organized manner by defining the problem, gathering data, organizing data, summarizing the data, drawing conclusions, and offering recommendations. You will gather data for the assignment, and you will write the results of your research formatted as a formal report in the indirect order. Therefore, at the completion of this assignment, you will be able to plan an organized, logic procedure for approaching a problem-solving situation, gather data, draw conclusions and recommendation, and write a formal report.
Assignment Overview
Your assignment is to write an individual (not a group report) formal report based on a case you will be given. You will be given some data in the case, and you must gather additional data. While you will write an individual report, you will be working with your group in developing the research plan. In addition, you and your group will work together to collect (and share) secondary data, but DO NOT SHARE YOUR FINISHED WORDING.
Answer:
Title: Formal Report
MEMO OF TRANSMITTAL
You asked me to undertake a research on the topic of flexible work hours following a request by some employees regarding the ability to work from their homes. This request was promptly followed by the survey by the Human Resources Department on how best the workweek should be structured (See Appendix 1). I have done exactly as you asked, and the report is attached.
In this report, I put into consideration the primary that was obtained in the survey, which was targeted at 350 employees. Apart from the primary data on the employees’ preferences regarding the flexible workweek, I also researched on secondary sources before compiling the final report. In these sources I sought information on the benefits of flextime, its drawbacks, and how companies go about implementing it.
It is my sincere hope that this formal report will be of great help to you and to HealthTech Solutions.
Title page
Table of contents
Benefits of flextime work to Employees at HealthTech Solutions. 9
Impact of adopting flextime work on company’s operations. 13
Drawbacks of current mode of work scheduling. 17
Current position of the company: Contribution of the existing schedule to profitability. 19
Appendix 1: Formal Report Case. 28
Appendix 2: Types of workplace flexibility used by Job category (Lutz, 2012) 30
List of illustrations
Figure 1: Preference for 4-day or 5-day work week:
Figure 2: Employees’ interest in working from home
Figure 3: Employees’ preference for different work hours (in %)
Table 1: Work hours preferred in the case of 8-hour days
Table 2: Work hours preferred in the case of 10-hour days
Executive summary
This formal report is based on primary and secondary research on the adoption of flextime work schedules. The primary data was obtained in a survey carried out by the Human Resources Department at HealthTech Solutions, an outsourcing company where employees have suggested for the introduction of a flextime program.
The primary data shows that an overwhelming majority of the employees prefer in a flexible working schedule. The problem addressed is on determining whether HealthTech Solutions should change from the current mode of work scheduling to flextime work and whether it stands to benefit from adoption of flextime work. The scope extends to the examination of the benefits and drawbacks of the company’s existing work schedule. In this regard, the factors addressed include benefits of flextime to HealthTech Solutions employees, impact of flextime on the company’s operations, drawbacks of the current mode of work scheduling, and contributions of flextime on productivity. On the basis of an in-depth analysis of both primary and secondary data, conclusions and recommendations are provided.
Overview
Company productivity and profitability is closely tied to customer satisfaction as well as employee satisfaction. Traditionally, it is believed that adequate compensation of employees, as well as working conditions set by management, contribute significantly to employee satisfaction. In the later years of the twentieth century, it was discovered that an additional factor contributed to productivity and profitability. The discovery of variable working hours for employees significantly impacted and revolutionized the manner of doing business.
The concept of variable working hours, or flextime as it came to be known caused a rethink by business managers everywhere. In both public and private sectors, the concept has gained steady ground weaving itself into corporate culture and practice. The use of flextime in a business setting has profound benefits for both the employer and employee. For instance, employees would benefit from better balances in their social and professional lives as well as reduced exhaustion due to hectic work schedules. Employers would benefit from a better motivated employee base and attraction as well retention of qualified personnel who find the policy appealing (McKay, 2012).
Development of flextime schedules is a process that involves consultation between the human resource departments and employees of companies. An appropriate system has to be developed to ensure a delicate balance between efficiency, effectiveness and comfort of the employees.
The problem of this report is to establish whether HealthTech Solutions should change from the current mode of work scheduling to flextime work and whether it stands to benefit from adoption of flextime work.
The scope of this study encompasses the factors which examine the current position of the company with the existing schedule. These factors include the profitability of the company today as well as performance of previous years, the conditions and amenities relevant for work to be carried out effectively, and the sensitive and confidential nature of the work undertaken by the company and the existing threats under current conditions. The factors, which would be caused by the adoption of the flextime work schedule, will also be considered. These are the initial system change over effects that the company will experience. The degree of security available for data worked on by offsite employees. The general desire of the personnel to adopt the flextime work schedule derived from the survey conducted. The possibility of employee satisfaction and motivation and the impacts it may have on innovation, productivity and profitability.
The prevailing legislation on flextime practices will not be included in the scope of the study because the results only affect HealthTech solutions. In addition, the report is only meant for departmental review and not public publishing.
The primary sources and methods of information gathering for the report are the human resources department survey of the 350 employees of the company which was designed to determine how best to structure the work week. Past performance records of the company shall also be reviewed to establish a trend.
The secondary sources and methods of information will be by the review of literature on flextime work scheduling as well as merits and demerits of the practice derived from books and internet sources. A survey will be conducted on the performance of companies that have adopted the system and their performance both before and after adoption. Literature, both from books and the internet, on data security will be used to draw conclusions on possible threats to data security of the company under flextime work scheduling.
This report entails the discussion of the aforementioned factors as well as summary and conclusions of derived from the analyzed information. The report also contains recommendations of the author on the possibility and plausibility of adoption of the flextime scheduling. Finally, references of the literature used to compile the report and the appendices will conclude the report.
Discussion of factors
Benefits of flextime work to Employees at HealthTech Solutions
One of the most important factors determining the appropriateness of flextime work at HealthTech Solutions is the views of employees. It is good that HealthTech Solutions has managed to build a reputation as an ‘employee-friendly’ working environment. This is clearly demonstrated in the fact that employee turnover remains low. Moreover, it is clear that after being in business for 11 years, HealthTech Solutions is in a position to offer solutions to clients in a manner that creates satisfaction to both the employer and the employees.
However, like in all working environments, it is normal for employees to make suggestions on how the work environment can be improved even more. In the case of HealthTech Solutions, employees want to be able to work from home, owing to the nature of the work that they do. For others, the request is on being able to work for more flexible hours. Before such suggestions can be assented to, it is prudent that the management weighs the benefits to be derived by employees against the impact it is likely to have on quality of work. In this case, it is necessary to analyze the nature of work at HealthTech Solutions in greater detail.
Before such an analysis is carried out, it is imperative to first highlight the responses of the 350 employees that were targeted by the Human Resources Department in the survey. In this survey, the Department sought to know how best the workweek can be structured. The survey had a rather impressive return rate of 83%.
In the preference for a 4- or 5-day workweek, 69% of the employees opted for four 10-hour days, while 19% preferred five 8-hour days. Twelve percent of the employees did not have a preference. Almost two-thirds (63%) of the employees preferred to work from home, 27% preferred to work at the company’s premises, while 10% were undecided, claiming that they needed more information. this information is presented graphically in the two pie charts below.
Figure 1: Preference for 4-day or 5-day work week:
Figure 2: Employees’ interest in working from home
For the human resource department, an important issue is on whether the flextime work strategy can end up enhancing customer satisfaction and motivation. Similarly, the question of the impact of flextime work on productivity, innovation, and profitability needs answering. According to Huff (2005), some employers have found out that part-time work arrangements lead to retention of talented workers, improved recruitment, and greater productivity, despite the fact that employees work shorter hours. Nevertheless, Huff (2005) points out that there are many organizations where ambivalence reigns with regard to flextime work.
Interest in flextime work continues to increase, both among business executives and employees, owing largely to the mobility of the modern-day office, shifting demographics, and a legal environment that demonstrates sympathy with the work-life concerns of employees. However, for flextime to work out effectively, managers have to think creatively about alternative ways of organizing work and the elements that lead to job success.
One notable case of changing demographics entails the increased number of women who have to take up regular, white-collar jobs that require a full, five-day commitment every week. This situation raises family-life concerns, which companies can only ignore at their own peril. Some companies launched flexible work options a long time, and an excellent example is Ernst & Young, which introduced the program in the mid-1990s (Huff, 2005). The company woke up to the reality of family-life concerns after the attrition rate started rising, particularly among women who were approaching the mid-career stage (Huff, 2005).
The example of Ernst & Young regarding women attrition mirrors a growing trend, particularly among graduate women who have already devoted two, three, or four years to their careers. Even at a company like HealthTech Solutions, one would expect women of such category to feel constrained by the conventional 24-hour day. Such women may consider either opting for flextime work or dropping out of the full-time job for a stretch of time in order to plan a family and to have a child.
The benefits of flextime to both employees and employers are also echoed in an online journal article titled: Flextime Benefits Make for Healthier Offices (IOMA, 2009). The assertion made in this article is that other than just making staff happy and increasing the level of staff retention, flextime also makes the staff members healthier. This is mainly through reduction of the stress levels of employees, thereby leading to reduced instances of absenteeism. The article further points to the association between flextime and less mental and physical morbidity (IOMA, 2009).
In light of these scholarly views, it is not surprising that most of employees at HealthTech Solutions are in favor of flextime work arrangements. The other important issue worth discussing from a scholarly perspective is the impact of flextime work on productivity, innovation, and profitability. This issue is discussed in the next section.
Impact of adopting flextime work on company’s operations
Now that it is clear that flextime work leads to increased employee satisfaction and motivation, the next key issue is on the potential for this satisfaction to inspire innovation, productivity, and profitability. In these undertakings, it is obviously the case that there are both challenges and benefits. After determining whether the benefits outweigh the challenges of flextime work, it can become clear whether this strategy is worth adopting at HealthTech Solutions.
From the primary data gathered by the Human Resources Department, it is evident that about two-thirds of the company’s employees prefer to have the highest level of flexibility with regard to both the 8-hour days and the 10-hour days. For instance, in the case of 8-hour days, 67% preferred a situation where everyone reported to work between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., with flexibility being stretched for the other four hours. In the case of 10-hour days, 66% of the employees were in support of working together between 9a.m and 4p.m with individuals being given the power to work the remaining hours in a flexible manner. The table below best illustrates the employees’ flextime preferences.
| Work hours preferred in the case of 8-hour days | Percentage of employees |
| 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. | 4% |
| 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. | 16% |
| 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. | 5% |
| All work 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., flexible hours for other 4 hours | 67% |
| No Preference | 8% |
Table 1: Work hours preferred in the case of 8-hour days
| Work hours preferred in the case of 10-hour days | Percentage of employees |
| 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. | 1% |
| 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. | 14% |
| 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. | 9% |
| All work 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., flexible hours for other 4 hours | 66% |
| No Preference | 10% |
Table 2: Work hours preferred in the case of 10-hour days
According to Downes & Koekemoer (2011) the goal of helping employees to balance between work and family constitutes a business imperative. However, the downside of this undertaking is that it is also problematic (Downes & Koekemoer, 2011). From the analysis of their study data, Downes & Koekemoer (2011) identified four key themes: general challenges, individual challenges, aspects required to exist in organizations before flextime can be implemented, and the benefits of implementing it. The main benefits include employee loyalty, work-life balance, and employee commitment. The main challenges identified revolve around maintaining productivity, a poor understanding of flextime, and a shortage of a company’s critical resources. The main practical implications of this finding have to do with the identification of requirements that should be attended to by the Human Resource Department in order for the flextime to be used effectively. Otherwise, poor implementation may lead to a situation where HealthTech Solutions suffers from a shortage of critical human resources.
In the case of the preferences of employees at HealthTech Solutions, it is clear that most employees prefer to have the official working hours start late (at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m.) and end early (at 3 p.m. or 4 p.m.). The appropriateness of such a flextime work arrangement would definitely depend on such job-related factors as deadlines and backlog of work. In other words, the benefits of flextime work notwithstanding, the Human Resource Department has to put into consideration the impact that such an arrangement would have on the day-to-day running of the company.
In this regard, it is imperative to consider the sort of outsourcing services offered by HealthTech Solutions. These services include payroll, accounts receivable, collections, as well as document planning and design. Since most of the work is carried out on computers, it should be easy for employees to put undertake flexible work arrangements, for instance working at home. All they would need to do is make arrangements to have access to computers at home. One option may entail supplying laptops and network connection to the employees by the company. However, the downside of this option is that the company may incur a very huge cost. To reduce this cost, the company may require those employees interested in flextime work to buy their own computers and then have the company facilitate network connectivity.
However, managers of the company may express the concern that the flextime work may make HealthTech Solution lose its hard-earned reputation as an ‘employee-friendly’ work environment. Since flextime work is a new development at HealthTech Solutions, the human resources department is certainly yet to establish the capacity to handle flextime work. Some major teething problems may arise, thereby making the employees feel uncomfortable with the flextime work arrangements.
All of a sudden, managers at the company may start finding it difficult to nurture team synergies and to get used to the absence of informal learning situations (Kurland, 1999). For example, managers may no longer have the benefit of informal learning during tea and lunch breaks as well as along hallways. Moreover, with most employees telecommuting, communication becomes difficult (Kurland, 1999). In situations where all employees have been brought together in a formal office setting, there is no overreliance on memos, meetings, and press releases. Instead, the organizational culture facilitates the use of informal language in most situations. Employees at HealthTech Solutions need to decide whether they are willing to forego the benefits of informal communication in office settings.
The same case applies to the issue of amenities. The employees may soon find out that some of the office amenities that they have always taken for granted really matter after all. Some benefits of working at the office that they may have overlooked may make them regret making the decision to work from home.
The issue of sensitive information and confidentiality of work can also not be overlooked. The nature of the outsourced work that HealthTech Solutions handles dictates that utmost care is needed when various day-to-day work-related tasks are being carried out. Some sensitive information may need to be kept confidential, for example payroll, collections, and accounts receivable. Upon making this consideration, the Human Resource Manager at HealthTech Solutions may decide against allowing employees to handle outsourced work from their homes in the evening or early in the morning. The data may fall into the wrong hands; worse still, employees living in insecure neighborhoods may lose crucial data, thereby threatening the hitherto seamless operations of the outsourcing-related activities.
Drawbacks of current mode of work scheduling
The primary data obtained in the survey of 350 employees of HealthTech Solutions clearly shows that the current mode of work scheduling has some drawbacks for them. The data shows that the employees are not very comfortable with the sort of arrangement where they have to report to work early every morning only to spend the whole day sitting in front of a computer. As Cascio (2000) points out, whereas some jobs are best done in an 8a.m-to-4p.m setting, others are best done in virtual workplaces.
The main drawback of the conventional full-time work arrangement is that there is a tendency to focus on time instead of results. Moreover, many managers are required to manage employees in order to ensure that they at the right place at the right time, doing the right thing. This calls for supervisory skills among all managers who are responsible for the operations of various departments in the company.
It appears like this is the case as far as HealthTech Solutions is concerned. The impression created is that of a company that is reluctant to establish virtual workplaces. This may be because the higher management is concerned that maintenance costs may rise, cultural clashes may become frequent, some employees may become isolated, and that the level of trust may reduce dramatically. The introduction of flextime work also means that fewer managers will be required to run all the company’s operations. The only crucial requirement for these managers is that they should have supervisory skills for the management of virtual working environments. Such managers should know how not to appear to be interfering with the autonomy that the employees may have been seeking in the first place through their quest for permission to work from home. They should also understand that while the employees want the provision for working from home, they still value the psychological sense of belonging that comes with reporting to work every morning. This is clearly demonstrated in the employees’ preference for positioning of regular office hours during daytime. This is clearly illustrated in the pie chart below (in the case of 8-hour days).
Figure 3: Employees’ preference for different work hours (in %)
When an overwhelming majority of employees say they want the fixed, office-based working hours to be between 10am and 3pm, this creates the impression that they value autonomy very much. The specifics of an undertaking to reschedule the working hours may vary from one organization to another. In the case of HealthTech Solutions, indications are that this undertaking is a possible one. Other than the availability of the necessary managerial skills in the light of these rescheduling, the human resource department should ensure that the rescheduling of work hours does not work to the detriment of the economic, technical, and administrative needs of the company.
According to (Narayanan, 2008), 12 percent of all non-governmental organizations in the US, which constitute 6% of the country’s total labor force, work on flextime basis. In this case, the employees are given the freedom to determine the time when they will be starting and finishing their work. In such an environment, worker discontent and absenteeism are reduced, productivity is increased, and the employees are given more freedom, leading to greater work-life balance.
Moreover, a study conducted by the American Business Collaboration showed that 64% of the American workers have used some alternative type of working arrangement in their jobs at least occasionally (Lutz, 2012). For a list of the various alternative types of working arrangements considered in the study and the survey results for each type, see Appendix 2.
When employees focus on time instead of results because of fixed working hours, productivity is bound to be affected negatively. Workers tend to be less productive; after all, the one thing that matters most for an employee working the normal schedule starting 8am to 4pm is that he was present at his place of work at the right time. The issue of results then takes a back stage.
Current position of the company: Contribution of the existing schedule to profitability
The main question for a company like HealthTech Solutions is that although the employees may love working at home, it may not be immediately clear what this means for the company’s productivity. Before the higher management can approve the request, they need to be sure that productivity will go down. Ralston (1995) sought to find out the effect of flextime on productivity in his study, which entailed comparing the productivity of computer programmers and data entry operators working under different time schedules for a period of two years. The first group worked with flextime while the second one worked without flextime. The findings showed that flextime impacts positively on productivity in situations where limited physical resources need to be shared by the work group. In the study, the limited resource was the computer; the same case applies in the case of HealthTech Solutions. For this reason, the management should feel free to implement the suggestions on flextime work. This is bound to increase the company’s productivity.
One may expect that as the issue of telecommuting continues to generate immense interest, more and more scholars are going to dwell much on the question of productivity. The literature that is already available on this issue focuses on both public and private businesses and organizations. When employees telecommute, they are seen to derive more satisfaction. One of the issues that go hand in hand with that of organizational productivity is the satisfaction of the telecommuter. In the case of HealthTech Solutions, this should not be much of a challenge since the employees are the ones making suggestions for the flextime work arrangement.
On the part of the company, there is a great deal of work to be done with regard to emotional and technical support, largely from the supervisor in change of the telecommuting arrangement. There is also the problem of family disruptions, which most employees may have not foreseen. The Human Resource Department should raise awareness about this problem and suggest the best ways through which the employees can overcome it.
If one is to see conventional office-work arrangements as a career barrier and an impediment to productivity, there is need to reflect on the possible gains that can be accrued with the introduction of flextime work. This shift of focus should be viewed against the backdrop of many factors, including power relations, organizational culture, and career progression. In many companies, a large number of employees go through the problem that Simpson (2000) refers to as ‘presenteeism’. Presenteeism is the tendency by employees to stay at their places of work beyond the time required for them to perform effectively on the job. Employees tend to do this for fear of redundancy as well uncertainty with regard to promotion opportunities. This uncertainty makes them demonstrate their visible commitment all the time, sometimes past the company’s official working hours.
The bigger picture is that flextime comes with not just a shift in the way employees undertake their daily activities but also organizational change. The changes in working hours and the distribution of workloads bring the inevitable consequence of organizational change. Nevertheless, it is possible for the management of the company to kill two birds with one stone by introducing flextime work. On the one hand, the management may end up making employees happy while increasing the level of productivity; on the other hand, the management may successfully deal with the problem of presenteeism. Regarding presenteeism, the outcome may particularly be extremely desirable to those employees who have families, who may want to maintain extended presence in the search of promotion opportunities but are not able to do so because of family commitments.
According to Dalton (1990), flexible scheduling of work has a far-reaching impact on turnover and employee, but by and large, this impacts positively on productivity and profitability. To arrive at this conclusion, Dalton carried out a 6-year assessment test on the impact of flexible scheduling of work on turnover and absenteeism. A comparable control group was then assessed, and it was clear that the program greatly reduced absenteeism and attrition while boosting productivity. However, Dalton concedes that there are many problems to be encountered in efforts to introduce flexible-scheduling programs in a large organization. Ideally, these problems relate to organizational change. With more than 350 employees, HealthTech should also be considered a large-scale organization, and therefore the managers of the company should be prepared to encounter problems relating to organizational change.
In a different study, Shepard (2008) echoed Dalton’s findings regarding the positive impact of flexible work hours on productivity, absenteeism, and turnover. In Dalton’s study, evidence was sought from the pharmaceutical industry. Other areas where flextime work has a positive impact include work-related stress, job attitudes, and organizational attachment (Shepard 2008). On productivity, Shepard (2008) even gives the estimated improvement to be 10 percent.
All in all, there is plenty of literature that indicates that to succeed in flexible-schedule programs, many companies are focusing starting to focus on results and not on time (Evans, 2000). They are also embarking on the goal of organizational change, where employees are prepared for a cognitive shift in the way they carry out their daily workplace activities. Most importantly, these companies simply have to trust their employees and to focus only on results.
Summary & Conclusions
In summary, it is imperative that HealthTech Solutions managers introduce the flextime program. This program is going to not only increase the satisfaction of employees but also increase productivity and profitability. From the perspective of employees, many benefits are going to accrue to them as a result of allowing employees to work in flexible schedules. This is going to create satisfaction as long as the managers start focusing more on results and less on time. Moreover, there is a relationship between satisfaction on the job and increased productivity, innovation, and profitability.
However, just like the current working program that is in place at HealthTech Solutions, the flexible-schedule program is going to have its share of challenges. Although in the current situation employees are not happy about having to report to work early every morning only to spend the whole day sitting in front of a computer, it is not clear whether they are ready to make the necessary investments in order to succeed in their work through telecommuting. This may entail having to purchase personal computers for in their work while they are away from their offices.
One major challenge for the human resource department is to actualize the new program and to properly understand what it means for productivity at HealthTech Solutions. From the literature analyzed, it means that customers are going to be more satisfied, the turnover rate will go down, and most importantly, productivity is going to go up. However, for this to happen there is need for a wide-reaching organizational change, considering that this is a fairly large company. The fact that there are some limited resources to be shared means that employees will be finding a good enough reason to dedicate the larger part of their working day in working groups. This is bound to enhance cohesion and oneness of purpose in the company. The bottom line, however, is that most companies that are operating on the flextime schedule have had to start focusing on results instead of time. They have also had to engineer a cognitive shift among their employees in way that enables them to carry out their daily workplace activities in their own homes with minimum supervision. Other than these measures, the human resource department needs to train the employees on how to handle sensitive, confidential information in the course of handling the outsourced work.
Recommendations
- Organizational change is necessary for flexible work arrangements to succeed. Everyone in the company should be made aware of what the changes in the work schedule mean in terms of productivity, organizational success, satisfaction of customers, and the critical resources needed.
- The Human Resource Department heads need to ensure that the flextime work arrangement is put in place in such a way that issues relating to deadlines and backlogs are sufficiently addressed.
- HealthTech Solutions handles outsourced data and information, and therefore its confidentiality and security is an important consideration. Proper mechanisms need to be put in place to reduce the risk of data loss or violation of rules of confidentiality once employees start working from their homes.
- Level of informality: flextime work means less informal communication, since employees will be interacting within the company’s premises less often. Employees need to be enlightened on the inevitability of complete reliance on formal communication once the flextime program is in place. They should be informed that they need to be prepared to receive memos, press releases and requests to attend meetings more often once the flexible working arrangement is in place.
- HealthTech Solutions should start put in place mechanisms of providing more technical and emotional support to employees once the new program is in place in order for high productivity to be sustained.
- Lastly, there is a need for the human resources department to start focusing more on results and less on time in order to increase productivity. This is indeed the same thing that other companies with flexible-schedule programs in place are doing to coordinate work in the new working environments.
References
Cascio, W. (2000) Managing a Virtual Workplace, The Academy of Management Executive, 14(3), 81-90.
Dalton, D. (1990) The Impact of Flexible Scheduling on Employee Attendance and Turnover, Administrative Science Quarterly, 35(2), 370-387.
Downes, C. & Koekemoer, E. (2011) Work-life balance policies: Challenges and benefits associated with implementing flextime, Journal of Human Resource Management, 9(1), 230-242.
Evans, M. (2000) Notes on the impact of Flextime in a large insurance company, Occupational Psychology, 47,237-240.
Huff, C. (2005) With flextime, less can be more, Workforce Management, 84(5), 1-19.
IOMA (2009) Flextime Benefits Make for Healthier Offices, Compensation and Benefits for Law Offices, 9(1), 1-15.
Kurland, N. (1999) Telework: The Advantages and Challenges of Working Here, There, Anywhere, and Anytime, Organizational Dynamics, 9(2), 53-67.
Lutz, J. (2012) Alternative Work Arrangements: An Examination of Job Sharing, Compressed Workweeks, and Flextime, A Senior Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation in the Honors Program, Liberty University, Spring 2012.
Narayanan, V. (2008) Hierarchical level and the impact of flextime, Industrial Relations, 21(2), 216-230.
Ralston, D. (1995) Employees may love flextime, but what does it do to the organization’s productivity? Journal of Applied Psychology, 70(2), 272-279.
Shepard, E. (2008) Flexible Work Hours and Productivity: Some Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry, 35(1), 123–139.
Simpson, R. (2000) Presenteeism, Power and Organizational Change: Long Hours as a Career Barrier and the Impact on the Working Lives of Women Managers, British Journal of Management, 9(1), 37–50.
Appendix
Appendix 1: Formal Report Case
Your company, HealthTech Solutions, is an outsourcing company that provides services to other medical companies such as: accounts receivable, payroll, collections, and document planning and design. Most of the work is performed on computers and the majority of the employees are computer savvy. The business has a reputation as a “good place to work” and “employee friendly”. There is little turnover in employees. This company has been in business for 11 years and has the reputation for innovation in providing solutions for clients. Several of the employees have been asking for the ability to work from home. Others are asking for more flexible work hours. Upper management has heard the suggestions.
The Human Resources Department surveyed the company’s 350 employees to determine how best to structure the workweek. The return rate on the survey was 83%. A suggestion was made about implementing flextime with employees. The results of the survey are below.
Your supervisor, Richard Chamberlain,is not really knowledgeable about flextime work and has asked you to research the topic. He is not willing to consider this option without knowing more information about flextime and its benefits and drawbacks. He also wants to know how other companies are implementing this policy and the impact the policy has on employees.
You are to research the topic for your supervisor taking in the considerations above. You must incorporate your own research data into the report and provide Mr. Chamberlain with recommendations that will best suit HealthTech Solutions.
Results of employee survey are the following:
- Preference for 4-day or 5-day work week:
Percentage of Respondents
Four 10 hour days 69%
Five 8-hour days 19%
No Preference 12%
- Would you be interested in working from home?
Yes 63%
No 27%
Not sure, need more information 10%
- Work hours preferred if 8-hour days:
7 a.m. to 4 p.m. 4%
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 16%
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. 5%
All work 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., flexible hours for other 4 67%
No Preference 8%
- Work hours preferred if 10-hour days:
6 a.m. to 4 p.m. 1%
7 a.m. to 5 p.m. 14%
8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 9%
All work 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., flexible hours for other 4 66%
No Preference 10%
Appendix 2: Types of workplace flexibility used by Job category (Lutz, 2012)
