Impact of Flexible Work Arrangements on Worklife Balance &Employee Intention to Stay.

Introduction

Famous economist John Maynard Keynes had written an essay titled "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren" in 1930, in which he predicted a 15-hour workweek by 2030. Now that we're less than nine years away, it appears that his prediction was off however, we're working much less than we were when it was written. Flexible working arrangements can be traced back to the 1930s when the W. K. Kellogg Company was willing to deviate from the standard schedule of eight hours a day, five days a week. The cereal company went from three eight-hour shifts to four six-hour shifts. Its experiment came to an end when President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered companies to operate at full capacity to meet wartime demands.

Flexible work arrangements (FWA) are generally defined as a work practice where the employer allows employees freedom of choice up to a level within which the employee can decide how and where to work (Business Dictionary, 2019). "Flexible work arrangements include those that involve where work is done, commonly known as telecommuting, and those that involve when work is done, commonly known as flexi-time" (Rau, 2003). Telecommuting entails the ability to work from home. Flextime arrangements typically include a set of "core hours" during which employees are expected to be at work, but also give employees discretion over when they leave and return to work, as long as the total daily or weekly number of hours is met (Katz & Kruger, 2019; Azar, Khan & Van Eerde, 2018).

As technology advanced, the ability to work from home and eventually, from anywhere became more common, emerging as a solution to issues ranging from urban commutes and traffic to massive labor shortages. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of flexible work arrangements, particularly remote work. With many states issuing stay-at-home orders and only allowing essential businesses to remain open, unprepared employers were forced to implement flexible work options on the fly. The different arrangements revolve around giving employees scheduling options. Although the hours of the day are predetermined under flexible working, employees can choose when to start and stop working. These arrangements help balance an employee's life.

Flexible Work Arrangements

Alternative schedules or arrangements that are flexible or adaptable from conventional working patterns are referred to as flexible work arrangements.

Flexibility at work mostly refers to flexibility in the hours working schedule, flexibility in the number of hours worked, and flexibility in the workplace. Employees can have different work schedules from the usual workday and week with flexible work arrangements. These arrangements allow employees to decide their work location, time, and amount (Azar, Khan &Van Eerde, 2018). Alternative work arrangements are benefits given by employers that let employees have some flexibility over their work location and time outside the usual hours. Older and more educated workers are more likely to have alternative work, and these groups have increased in the workforce over time (Katz & Kruger, 2019)

Flexi-time Schedule

A system that allows employees some discretion over the precise times they perform their contracted hours is known as flexible working hours. Such a strategy can be effective at attracting and keeping employees because it gives them the chance to schedule their workdays around other obligations (e.g., child care). One of the most well-liked rewards among people of all ages is flex time. Flexplace and flex time are types of FWA that let employees work at different locations or times according to their personal needs. These policies can be combined and have various benefits for both workers and employers (Kossek & Michel, 2011). For example, they can help employees balance their responsibilities in different areas of life, enable collaboration among people in different places, and protect the well-being of workers and their society (Allen et al., 2013; Kelly & Moen, 2007).

Compressed Work-week (CWW)

Workers with traditional work schedules have trouble dealing with their regular personal tasks such as going to the bank, dentist, to school meetings, or to car service. To solve these problems, some organizations use CWW schedules (Griffin & Moorhead, 2013). This is the schedule that full-time employees work their weekly hours in less than five days. CWW schedule has the same work hours as the traditional one, but the hours worked in a day are longer. In his article, this is a working week which consists of less than the standard five days, but requires that employees work increased work hours during each workday while achieving same or better performance (Baltes, Briggs, Huff, Wright & Neuman, 1999). By working the same number of hours, these compressed workweeks give the employee more time for personal pursuits and fewer commutes. Compressed workweeks will not only enable the employee to spend more time at home, but they will also save operational costs for the agency or government.

Telecommuting

The term "telecommuting" is credited to Jack Nilles, who described it as "the substitution of telecommunications and/or computers for commuting work" in 1973. (Nilles, 1994). The focus is on shortening or doing away with the daily travel to and from work. The word "telecommuting" is used to describe a wider range of virtual work possibilities than just working from home, including working from satellite offices, hotels, and other places (Siha & Monroe, 2006). Gomez-Mejia et al. (2012) mention that the common use of laptops, cell phones and Wi-Fi hot spots in many public places have created a new work environment, one where employees can work from various locations.

Job sharing

Job sharing is a type of part-time work where two part-time employees share the duties and responsibilities of one full-time job. They have the same chances as a fulltime worker because they cooperate to finish the whole task. Griffin and Moorhead (2013) suggest that companies use job sharing as a strategy to attract more workers to the organization. The job can be split in various ways depending on the job and the workers. Often, the partners work 50% of the full-time hours each. They can do this by working mornings or afternoons, every other day, three days/ two days, or two and a half days each. Job sharing might make a hard-to-fill job more appealing to people. Therefore, fulltime pay and benefits are split among the sharers based on the time they worked.

Work-life Balance

Work-life Balance (WLB) is a broad term that covers a healthy balance between one's job and aspirations and their leisure, family, and vacation time. Work from home often blurs the lines between work and personal life, which can lead to work overload and increase stress and anxiety, as well as affect their job satisfaction (Liu & Lo, 2018). The make up of the work and family life spheres has altered dramatically throughout time. Both men and women who work today deal with a variety of daily obstacles that occasionally cause an imbalance between their work and personal/family lives. When playing one role interferes with playing the other, the phenomenon known as "work-family conflicts" results (Lobel, 1991). So, a working person's performance at work and in their home lives is impacted by a lack of work-life balance. Working from home support helps to prevent the possible negative effects of feeling lonely and reduces the conflict between work and family or personal life (Contreras et al., 2020). A worker who has a better work-life balance can make a bigger contribution to the success and growth of the firm. By using the phrase "work satisfaction," Hoppock popularized the concept of work-life balance. According to Hoppock (1935), a person's ability to genuinely state, "I am satisfied with my job," depends on a number of psychological, physiological, and environmental factors.

Employee Intention to Stay

The operational definition of intention to stay is an employee's desire to continue working for the same company (Chew & Chan, 2008). HR practices like rewards, and employee engagement also play an important role in employee intention to stay. The term "intention to depart" refers to a person's subjective assessment of his/her likelihood of leaving a company soon (Mowday et al., 1982). The final step in the withdrawal cognition process, intention to depart is seen as a conscious and purposeful decision to leave a company in the...