Productivity is the key to continued organisational development and when it comes to business ventures this is the main criteria of building a company’s potential. The more productive an organisation, the better is its value in the market. Clients are always on the lookout for companies that can deliver value work in minimal time span. Thus, it acts as a building block for the business reputation of a company.
Now, this productivity is dependent on various factors. The foremost among them is work flexibility. Flexibility in the work is known to enhance productivity. Hence, organisations strive for this, but there’s a catch. Sometimes it backfires. It can cause potential harm to the gross productivity of the company. Today we are going to divulge this aspect of work flexibility.
Work Flexibility and its beneficial aspects.
Before we embark on the journey to shed light on the negative aspects of flexibility let’s get acquainted with the concept first. Work flexibility is an opportunity where employees have flexible working hours. Instead of the set morning to evening or morning to afternoon schedule, they have an elaborate and flexible timing for work. Such provisions ease the pressure on employees and allow them to unleash their full potential. In addition to regular employees, companies sometimes use these kinds of flexible workers to enhance their productivity. They cash in on some strange dynamic people like freshers, freelancers or home-dwellers who can use their potential under a flexible, robust schedule. The employees, on the other hand, benefits immensely as it don’t hamper their personal life and strikes a healthy work-life balance. Hence, flexible workers are often the choice of employers – be it regular employees or part-timers.
How flexibility hurts productivity?
Coming to the grey area of this co-relation between flexibility and productivity, flexibility harms productivity in the long run. Apart from “the morning bias” cases where the employers prefer regular shift workers, who start the day in the morning, there exist other problems connected to this matter.
#1 Effects the discipline of the organisation
Flexibility provides emancipation to the workers making them more dynamic, but it is a drawback in maintaining strict control within the organisation. Most often flexibility leads to irregular work schedules. Employees tend to be less disciplined and keep fluctuating their working schedule as per their convenience. While it is good if the time frame is maintained, but it usually it slips out of hand, often leading to unfinished projects and missed deadlines. Hence, it comes as a roadblock for productivity.
#2 Employees tend to be lethargic and lax
Often flexible workers are the late–comers or the procrastinators. These people tend to be a little lazy and lethargic. They keep on piling up the pending work, always resorting to working at the last hours. As a result, there is a hush-hush last minute tendency to meet the target which leads to many errors and faults. Thus, in the long run, this flexibility becomes a bane for them, and they tend to deliver error prone work, reducing the productivity of the company.
#3 Flexible working hours hampers the stipulated output.
Flexible working hours doesn’t guarantee an exact output in specified time limit. Though it has a time frame, due to its flexible nature, the output is less over a longer range of time. Whereas in fixed working hours employees know that they have to perform a particular work at that given time, giving maximum output within a short time frame. Thus, flexibility often comes in the way of overall production quality and quantity.
#4 Flexibility can lead to conflicts within the company
Many a time flexibility result in disputes between employers and employees. Often employees find it comfortable to work according to their convenience but sometimes, the managers might feel it is better to do it then and there, within the given frame of time. If the understanding between the employer and the employee is good, this kind of flexible environment can actually strengthen the employer-employee bond, but usually, this leads to conflicts. These kinds of conflicts hamper the productivity of the company.
#5 Flexibility might lead to irregularities in productivity
Another glaring aspect of flexible working hours is its irregularity. The regularity found in the fixed schedule is often missed in case of flexible schedules. Fixed working hours leads to regularity while flexible working hours leads to irregular work timings – sometimes less sometimes more according to work pressure. Hence, it is quite difficult to follow a continued patter in work cycle, which leads to whimsical and varied output. At times workers might feel demotivated and not feel the urge to deliver the huge amount of work while at others they are dampened by less amount of work. Thus a steady, regular flow of input and output isn’t there. This results in irregularities in productivity which harms in the long run.
From the above points, it is quite clear that flexibility is a bane in disguise of a boon. It appears to be beneficial at the instant but harms in the long run. Although it is a useful tool often used by employers, it can backfire if it remains unmonitored. Proper monitoring of flexible workers and their outputs are essential. This can only be achieved by a good understanding between the employer and the employee. In fact, flexible workers need more attention and recognition from their supervisors.
Thus, the way out is to take the middle path that is to strike a balance. Do not rely solely on flexible workers or regular workers rather maintain an excellent balance. Employ flexible workers as per your need and monitor them. Use these valuable employees as a bonus for your companies. Treat them well, understand them, maintain excellent communication and witness useful results. In this balancing act flexibility and regularity, both hold the key to productivity. So use them wisely. Remember that the workers are your biggest assets.
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