Flexible work arrangements are alternate work arrangements away from the normal working schedule and are designed to provide comfort and convenience both to the employee as well as the end-user.

An employee can enjoy the benefits of his home and family life while availing these work arrangements while a customer has an easy access to the better supply chain system through adoption of flexible work arrangement. Keeping in mind the requirements of the business, a flexible work arrangement is designed which is agreed upon formally or informally both by the employer and the employee. A flexible work arrangement may include –

· Reduced working hours (rather than the usual working hours of 8/day and 40/week).

· Compressed work week which enables an employee to extend his normal working hours to few more to avail a weekly off. This would require an employee to work for more than 8hours/day.

· Job-sharing where the two employees share their duties and responsibilities on pre-set terms and conditions.

· Annualized work hours where the employees can choose the working hours and days for a fixed period of time to be availed on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis.

· Gradual retirement whereby an employee rather than retiring from the company has the option of reducing his workhours.

· Telepresence or Video-conferencing technology, where the employer can connect with the remote access employee on video.

· Flextime where an employee has an option of choosing the start time and the finish time without affecting the peak working hours which lies in between the start and the finish time.

· Flexplace or better known as Telecommuting which allows an employee to work from virtual office. The employee should have an access to the computer and telephone facility at home or any other place from where he chooses to work.

How Effective? Let’s Evaluate—

Most of the surveys being conducted at high-technology companies have revealed that this kind of flexible work arrangement is primarily introduced to retain the best brains rather than to offer the end-user convenience. Employers who are in the retailing business may take up the cause of customer convenience, for example, the chemist shop which is open 24 hours, or the shell shops at petrol filling stations which supply the necessary items, edible and non-edible at the ease of the customer. The BPOs again, may have one of the flexible options like compressed work hours for their employees, and would have this option in order to increase their business prospects and growth by attending to a customer’s needs. Let us evaluate each of the above mentioned flexible work arrangements one by one.

Reduced working hours: Although it offers employees’ the much sought-after comfort of working on part-time basis, but the employees may be deprived of pension plans, loans sanction etc.

Compressed work week: This is good both from the employer’s and employee’s viewpoint. More hours may be required by the organizations to increase the productivity and efficiency on a daily basis.

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