FLEXIBLE working arrangements, such as those that cropped up during the pandemic, could promote work-life balance for employees and benefit business productivity, according to the International Labour Organization.

The report of the United Nations’ ILO took a close look at working hours and the different work arrangements and the benefits they bring. These include the set ups that many resorted to when the COVID-19 crisis struck and forced many to work from home or to rearrange their schedules.

The ILO said the teleworking arrangements, as well as the “great resignation” phenomenon, showed that providing workers with greater flexibility in deciding when, where, and how they work makes them more productive and leads to positive business outcomes.

Conversely, restricting this results in substantial costs, including increased turnover, it said.

“There is a substantial amount of evidence that work–life balance policies provide significant benefits to enterprises, supporting the argument that such policies are a ‘win-win’ for both employers and employees,” it said. 

Pandemic lessons

Jon Messenger, the lead author of the report, said the lessons from the pandemic could be used to create a better working environment for both employer and employee. 

“This report shows that if we apply some of the lessons of the COVID-19 crisis and look very carefully at the way working hours are structured, as well as their overall length, we can create a win-win, improving both business performance and work-life balance,” he said in a statement.  

Benefits

The report took a look at the different working time arrangements and how these contribute to work-life balance.

Standard work week– The report said the standard work week, or fixed hours for a fixed number of days, offers stability that allows workers to organize their personal life around their commitments. However, this could be inflexible especially for caregivers, who tend to be women. 

Shift work– This can allow workers to work during atypical hours. It can offer greater schedule flexibility for family and childcare needs. 

It can also give night-shift workers more free time during the day. However, this could come at the cost of sleep and could affect workers’ health. 

Part-time work- A smaller number of work hours typically improves work-life balance, the report said. But this could depend on the work schedule or on whether the part-time work is voluntary or not. 

Flexitime- This allows workers to choose when to start and finish work based on their individual needs and preferences, within specified limits.

The ILO noted that flextime leads to better work-life balance because workers can arrange their time to accommodate non-work commitments. It also benefits the mental health of workers and contributes to lower levels of stress. 

Flextime can also be good for employers. It leads to lower employee turnover, lower recruitment costs, and increased productivity, it said. 

Compressed workweek- This involves scheduling the same number of work hours over fewer days in a week. This is also considered to be good for work-life balance because it gives workers an extra day, according to the ILO.

This also benefits employers as they are able to reduce operating and maintenance costs. 

Working hours 

The ILO report found that there is an uneven distribution of working hours worldwide. It said substantial portions of the global workforce have either long or short work hours.

A little over one-third of the global work force work more than 48 hours per week, while one-fifth have short working hours or less than 35 hours per week, it said. 

Workers in the informal economy workers are more likely to have long or short hours. 

It said longer hours of work are generally associated with lower unit labor productivity. 

On the other hand, the implementation of reduced working hours during the pandemic helped keep many workers employed. 

Mismatches

The ILO report also looked into working time mismatches, or the incongruence between the workers’ actual hours of work and their preferred hours of work.  

The highest overall mismatch rates were found in the Philippines, Mexico, Chile, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The mismatch in the Philippines is due to the high level of underemployment. 

The ILO said working-time mismatches are associated with greater work-life conflict.

COVID-19 adjustments

When the pandemic struck, employers resorted to different methods to retain their workers and continue operations, and to keep them safe. 

These include the reduction of work hours, job sharing measures, working-time flexibility measures, and home-based telework. 

The ILO said short time work or work-sharing measures maintained employment on a large scale. 

It also said the pandemic showed the feasibility of the adoption of telework. 

The large-scale implementation of telework nearly everywhere in the world makes it possible to do so, it said. It changed not only teleworking but also the nature of employment, most likely for the foreseeable future, it added.

However, it also noted that telework has its downsides, including encroaching on workers’ free time and affecting a company’s ability to innovate. 

Precautions should be taken to mitigate these adverse effects, and one possible measure is the “right to disconnect,” it said.  

ILO recommendations 

Given the findings that a substantial portion of the population works long hours, the ILO said a public policy response is needed to help promote a reduction of work hours in many countries. 

“Indeed, such reductions have often been adopted in part to increase labour productivity, which is essential for raising standards of living in the long term,” it said. 

For those who work short hours and are underemployed, it said they should be given equal treatment as full-time workers in comparable jobs, must be guaranteed minimum work hours, and must be given equal access to career development and skills trainings opportunities to become full-time workers, among other recommendations. 

The ILO also said properly structured working-time arrangements could improve working conditions and make enterprises more sustainable by decreasing absenteeism and improving recruitment of new employees. 

How would workers and employers know if working-time arrangements are good? The ILO said these should:

• Promote health and safety
• Be family-friendly and improve workers’ work-life balance
• Promote gender equality
• Increase the productivity and sustainability of enterprises
• Offer workers a degree of choice and influence over their hours of work

“By developing and implementing progressive policies and practices in line with the principles of decent working time, both workers and employers can reap the benefits of a healthy work-life balance,” it said. 

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