Workplace Policy and Procedures (2)

A report on Flexible work arrangement in AKC Architectural Company

Prepared by

17th May 2019

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

AKC Architectural Company is experiencing various HR problems that require the immediate attention of the management of the company. Chronic absenteeism due to various family-related issues is one of the major problems that the company faces. Introduction of a flexible working system will help in tackling this issue. The company should introduce a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy to facilitate the efficient implementation of a flexible working environment. BYOD will reduce the cost of implementing the new work policy. AKC should implement the new working policy in a systematic manner to increase its chances of being successful.

Introduction

Organizations are changing their approaches to human resource management in their quest to attract and retain good employees. Organizations are developing innovative means of attracting and retaining highly skills employees who are valuable to the company. Constant changes in the corporate world necessitate organizations to have flexibility in their working environment. Otherwise, they would be exposed to a high risk of failure. Domestic and international pressures have necessitated organization to search for increased flexibility and productivity. Therefore, it is vital for an organization to develop a workplace flexibility strategy that should be a critical component of the workplace policy and procedures. If the flexibility strategy were effective, it would lead to a significant increase in productivity, job satisfaction, and employee well-being. It will ultimately help in improving the competitiveness of a company since it would attract and retain highly skilled employees.

Flexible Work Environment

AKC Architectural Firm is facing various HR issues. Despite the fact that the company has a good organizational culture and the moral of the staff is high, there has been an increase in the level of absenteeism in the workplace due to staff staying at home to take care of their sick children or attend to school-related activities. This has affected the productivity of the employees and the company in general. The company should formulate a strategy that would help in improving the productivity of the employees without having a negative impact on employee morale. As such, the company should formulate a workplace flexibility strategy. It should allow the employees to work from home, which would improve their morale (Stone & Arthurs, 2013).

Nevertheless, before changing the workplace policy and procedures to allow employees to work remotely, the organization should consider various factors. For instance, it should consider whether it has the appropriate software that would enable employees to work effectively from home. Various software vendors can provide AKC with the software it requires to enable employees to have the capability of working from home. Security is one of the main issues that the company should consider when purchasing the software. The security features of the software should prevent unauthorized access. In addition, the company should develop a security policy that would ensure employees do not engage in activities that compromise the security. For instance, it should require the employees to log in again after 5 minutes of inactivity. In addition, it should issue employees with secure passwords that should be changed periodically.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policy

Apart from software to support remote workstations, AKC does not have the purchase any additional resource. The company does not have to purchase laptops for the employees. Introduction of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policy would prevent the company from purchasing laptops or other electronic devices. BYOD policy will allow the employees of the company to use their personal electronic devices such as laptops, tablets, and personal smartphones for work-related activities. This policy will help in setting up the company for success. It will save the company money since it would not have to purchase laptops or other electronic devices for each employee. In addition, the employees would take better care of their electronic devices since it actually belongs to them. Employees usually know if they lose or damage a company phone, the company will provide an additional one. However, if they lose or damage their own phone the repercussion would be much higher. BYOD will also enable the employees to stick to using only one laptop or other electronic devices instead of having to use multiple devices for their personal activities and work-related activities (Souppaya & Scarfone, 2016).

BYOD will also ensure the employees use the electronic devices they prefer. For instance, if an employee likes using a certain smartphone or laptop, they would continue using their preferred devices to perform work-related activities. In addition, if the company pays to install a certain software such as Photoshop, AutoCAD, or Microsoft Office, the employee would be glad to use the software to undertake personal activities in addition to the work-related activities.

BYOD policy would also increase the efficiency of the company since the employees would not have any learning curve for the new electronic device since they already know how to use their own electronic devices. They would simply start using the electronic device to perform work-related activities. Therefore, there would be immediate productivity. Updating equipment is usually an expensive undertaking. However, use of BYOD would reduce the costs the AKC may incur to update equipment since employees are usually more motivated to update their personal electronic devices (Keyes, 2016).

Benefits of a Flexible Work Environment

Having a flexible working environment will enable the employees to come with their own electronic devices to the workplace and complete anything they did not finish in the office at home. This would increase the productivity of the employees. The flexible working hours will improve work-life balance since it would enable the employees to work and meet their personal commitments. This will improve the quality and effectiveness of the work and personal lives of the employees.

A flexible working system also helps in improving job satisfaction. It will make the employees become more confident and motivated to perform at their highest capacity since they know that the company does not just regard them as inputs of production but also cares about their personal well-being. Therefore, they would be more flexible to meet their duties and are motivated to work harder and more creatively. It also increases employee loyalty since it shows that the company strives to meet the needs of the employees. The employees would trust and respect their employer (Stone & Arthurs, 2013).

A flexible working system will also reduce absenteeism and employee turnover. It will reduce the level of stress among the employees since they can meet their job and family commitments. Flexibility would enable the employees to develop a higher sense of well-being and make them look forward towards going to work daily.

Nevertheless, certain employees may be blinded by the perceived benefits of working from home. Therefore, AKC should train them on the benefits of using a home office in relation to taxation. It should train them on how they can improve their productivity or meet deadlines when they are working at home. This is because working from home would expose the employees to various distractions that may limit their productivity. As such, AKC should ensure the employees only work from home when need be. They should not work from home when they do not have any issue that would prevent them from coming to the office. Based on a standard 38-hour working week, employees should be allowed to work from home for a maximum of 10 hours every week. This will limit the number of days that the employees would not be in the office. It would also prevent the employees from abusing the flexible working system.

How to Implement a Flexible Work Environment

Prior to the implementation of the flexible working system, AKC should plan the flexible working schedule. The company should identify employees who would have access to work flexibility. For instance, certain employees such as the administrative staff should not access work flexibility. The organization should also identify the work flexibility that the employees should have and the metrics for tracking the productivity of the employees. AKC can create a system that shows that an employee is “live” working even when they are working from home. This will limit them from claiming they are working from home when they are not.

Communication should be a priority in a flexible working system. Without efficient communication, the flexible working system would be doomed to fail. Therefore, it is vital for AKC to identify means of ensuring there is communication and collaboration among employees even when the employees are scattered in different locations or working in different schedules (Stone & Arthurs, 2013). Some of the communication and collaboration tools that the AKC can use include join.me and Yammer.

AKC should also train the managers on how to manage flexible employees. This is because managing flexible employees is very different from managing conventional employees. The company should train managers on how to ask questions and challenge their team. In addition, managers should be available for communication through various means. Some of the methods that the managers can use to communicate with the remote employees include instant messaging, phone, email, and phone. The managers should schedule regular phone meetings or face-to-face meetings with the employees whenever possible. The managers should use different means of communication to ensure no employee is left out.

Prior to the launch of the flexible work system, AKC should create a trial run. This will help in the identification of potential issues that the company would face. The trial run should be undertaken using a small group of employees from different departments. The duration for the trial run should be approximately one month. This would be enough for the company to identify potential issues of the working system and collect data. After the end of the trial run, the company should assess the outcomes of the working system and make adjustments to handle the issues identified. AKC should thereafter roll out the working system throughout the entire organization (Stone & Arthurs, 2013).

Conclusion

The implementation of a flexible working system would greatly benefit AKC. It would help the company overcome some of the problems the company is facing, which include absenteeism. It would help in improving staff morale since it would be an indication that the company cares about the well-being of its employees. However, the company would be exposed to certain risks. For instance, the implementation of a flexible working system would require complex IT support. In addition, it would expose the company to security risks. For instance, the employee’s family, friends, and other people can have access to information on the employee’s electronic device. In addition, when the employee leaves the company they would have to remove any confidential information from their personal devices. Working remotely also leads to potential loss of privacy of confidential company information.

Recommendations

AKC should implement a flexible work environment to solve the HR problems it is currently experiencing. The introduction of BYOD policy would be first step towards the implementation of a flexible work environment. The country should introduce the flexible work introduction in a systematic manner. This will help it foresee and overcome the problems associated with the introduction of the policy.

References

Keyes, J. (2016). Bring your own devices (BYOD) survival guide. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Souppaya, M., & Scarfone, K. (2016). Guide to enterprise telework, remote access, and bring your own device (BYOD) security (No. NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-46 Rev. 2 (Draft)). National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Stone, K. V., & Arthurs, H. (2013). Rethinking workplace regulation: Beyond the standard contract of employment. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.