Flexibility

Three different companies that offer flexible working are: Tesco, Marks and Spencer’s and McDonald’s

Tesco

Tesco support flexible working, offering part-time roles and encouraging job-sharing opportunities and shift-swapping where possible. (Tesco.com, 2009)

By offering these types of flexible working tesco tries to be able to make it easier for staff to get work done. 

Part time roles

employees are able to work fewer days and hours, this would be very good for people who have others commitments and are not able to work everyday of the week for example parents and young people in university or school would be able to work two to three days a week and not have to work the same hours as full time employees. The advantage of part time workers for tesco would be that they would not have to employee a lot of full time workers and part time workers could be hired for seasonal work.  A challenge for the line manager would be that part time workers would need training to carry out some jobs due to lack of experience and there could be clashes between part time and full time staff.

Encouragement of job sharing

This means that people are encouraged by tesco to work together to get jobs done , more than one person can have the same job role this would be for an advantage for employees as it would allow employees to get tasks done more quickly or if an employee is away then the job would still be completed. The advantage of job sharing for the employer would be that tasks that need to be         completed such as stocking shelves could be done quickly and effectively and this could also be team building as employees would have to work together to get jobs done.  Challenges line managers in tesco could face are that employees may not be suited to jobs they are assigned to or they many object to doing the tasks assigned. 

Shift swapping

This means that employees are able to swap shifts with other employees if they are unable to do their shifts.  The advantage of shift swapping for employees would be that , employees would be able to swap shifts with each other in advance and not have to reschedule anything hey may want to do out of work.  For example an employee working in the morning that may be busy in the morning could swap shifts with an employee working in the evening.  A challenge that the line manager may face is that if employees do not notify the line manger in advance problems could be caused as an experienced employee may be needed any would not be available due to changing shifts with another employee.

Marks and Spencer’s

Marks and Spencer’s offer a range of options for flexible working, be it part-time work, job sharing or term-time working. We also offer support for staff wishing to study or to take a complete break with our career break scheme of up to nine months’ unpaid leave. (Marks and Spencer.com, 2012)

Term- time working

This is aimed at students and other people in education who are only able to work between school terms and holidays.  The advantage of term time working for employees would be that they would be able to work in between half terms and holidays such as Easter and Christmas holidays. This would also be an advantage for the line manager and the organisation as they would not have to give full time contracts to the employees as they would be part time workers.  Especially in holiday’s businesses such as marks and Spencer’s are busy, by having employees for the term time work they would be able to lower the work load and have enough employees to deal with customers. Challenges faced by the line manager would be that the line manager may not be notified about who would be working in which term and this could cause problems for employees and the employer.

Job sharing

The advantage is that employees are able to share the same job and they are able to get more work done together instead of one person doing the job. This means that two employees share the same job, for example security guards are an example of job sharing as they work together in order to keep the shop floor secure.

McDonald's

Part time roles and employment of relatives.

McDonald's offers part time roles to students and other people that are only able to work small amount of hours, the have also introduced a new programme that means that they can employ a maximum of 4 people from the same family, the advantage of this is that if a employee is unable to work their shift then another member of the persons family will be able to cover or swap shifts. This would be good as McDonalds hires a large number of employees as they need to be able to serve customers with a quick service to customers. Employees with the organisation are trained so that they have necessary skills to be able to do all different types of jobs with McDonalds, the working environment is flexible as for example an employee is able to operate tills and also help prepare food when busy.

Tesco-careers.com (2012) why join tesco [online] Available from: http://www.tesco-careers.com/home/working/why-join-tesco  [Accessed 23 April 2012]

Marks and Spencers.com (2012) flexible working at marks and Spencer’s [online] Available from: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/mscareers/rewards_benefits/lifestyle_options/flexible_working Accessed 20 April 2012]

Mcdonlads .co.uk (2012) join the team [online] Available from: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/People/Join-the-team.html  [Accessed 19 April 20