Background
Fife Council embraced the move towards more flexible working as part of the wider work-life balance agenda. The motivation for encouraging flexibility comes from changes in demographics and the work environment. As baby boomers approach retirement, there are fewer people entering the workforce to replace them. The initiative to promote flexible working followed on from a range of Family Friendly policies designed to attract mothers by to work to help make up the shortfall.
In Fife, the flexible working project occurred within a context where the New City Halls building, specifically designed to make optimum use of office space and to encourage flexibility, would allow people to rethink traditional ways of working. At the same time, the Council's Green Policy would support working from different locations.
Key Outcomes
All of the pilot projects demonstrated measurable improvements in performance and reduction in costs. Some key results were:
- Reduced short-term absence - between 25 and 70% down
- Reduced recruitment costs - 75% down
- Reduced turnover - 10% down
Results were monitored by keeping in touch with the teams, and in some instances visiting to help them talk through any difficulties. In each case we checked how the teams are performing against their stated qualitative and quantitative measures, and asked about any other changes that have been noticed in the way the teams work together.
Qualitative Measures
In many cases, teams adopted a measure of their perception of their work-life balance, and when we came to ask them about their qualitative measure, they described their findings in terms of the following benefits:
- Feeling more in control of the workload;
- Improved continuity and consistency of contact with clients and relatives of clients in residential settings;
- The team are much happier;
- Between us, being able to spend more time with the children which has also reduced child care costs;
- Knowing we've got time off keeps us motivated and our spirits high, making the job more manageable, even though we're running with a lot of vacant posts;
- Being able to deal with work requiring quiet concentration outside normal office hours, so I'm not disturbed all the time by phone calls;
- Staff are generally less tired, so when they come to work they are refreshed and work more effectively;
- Morale is higher and there's a buzz about the place;
- Staff are communicating more effectively;
- People are nicer to each other and work more co-operatively.
From our experience in other organisations, when staff have more control over the way in which they work and they perceive that there is a benefit to them, they become more adept at problem solving. Initially, the problem-solving focuses on working out how best to achieve the team's preferred working patterns within the framework of service delivery, however it gradually becomes a part of the way the team functions, thus freeing up managers to concentrate on value-added tasks.
Quantitative measures
We asked the pilot teams to identify quantitative measures that would be relevant specifically to their team and the demands of their jobs. It is often difficult to get people to commit to measures of this nature, however we emphasised that it was important to have some way of assessing the effects of changed working patterns.
Managers were able to report the following:
- Reduced backlog of paperwork;
- Cases allocated increased over the summer months, which would not normally be expected during the holiday season;
- Increased available time for supervision;
- Reduction in the use of relief staff of between 10 and 20 hours per week;
- Decline in the number of simple administrative errors;
- Offering an extended service between 8am and 6pm;
- Reduced short-term absence.
All of these findings represent value in terms of quality and cost to the service and it is clear that in some cases there have been financial benefits from the changes in working pattern. Perhaps most noticeable has been the reduction in short-term absence, which has been seen even among pilots where it was not identified as a primary quantitative measure of the success of the new working patterns.
Managers' Reactions
Initially, managers typically voiced the concern that it would be more difficult to manage a team working flexibly. Specifically, how would they manage time off, as they would anticipate people wanting Fridays and Mondays off? In reality, they have found that people have not always wanted Fridays and Mondays, but where they have, staff have worked out a rota system that is fair to the team and supports service delivery requirements.
Changes in working patterns have required team members to communicate more fully with each other to ensure that agreed service levels are maintained, and sometimes teams have needed to adapt working practices to be able to work more flexibly: for example, in one team where previously the duty system required one person on duty, this has now changed to two to ensure adequate coverage, since fewer people are in the office at any given time.
The general comment is that, in practice, managing flexibility is not as difficult as anticipated, as team members are cooperating with each other to manage service requirements and individual working preferences.
One manager says: "As a manager I had a lot of misgivings regarding cover for the service, reduced workloads and my ability to manage staff time, holidays etc. However, the whole experience has been extremely positive. I have also requested to work this system, however instead of working a nine-day fortnight I can now have two flexi days per month, which means that I am more flexible with days off in order to cover the service with my colleagues."
"The team are much happier, as they can fit in their working days with their home lives. They are also responsible for ensuring that there is cover before they ask for their flexi days, and they have been very flexible over the summer holiday period. Productivity has increased and people are working extended hours. The days that some people are off, the others are working longer days to make up their hours. Contrary to my initial feelings, this has proved to be a very positive experience and I would not now like to see a return to the previous working practice."
Summary
As well as the cost savings involved, the reduction in absence has lessened stress on individuals. As a result of the success of the pilot in one residential home, the Unit Manager is thinking of introducing flexible working to other houses in his care.
"Flexible working has been an unmitigated success for us. We have a core team working flexibly in such a way that they work two weekends on and four off. We have people working extended hours, four days per week etc. They come back to work refreshed, relaxed and more able to do their work."