How Flexible Working Practices Strengthen Employee Commitment

This article discusses the benefits of flexible working practices in strengthening employee commitment, using Unilever as a case study. It also explores the changes that HR will experience due to demographic and technological advances.

Questions

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Critical explanation of the way in which flexible working practices can help to strengthen
employee commitment.................................................................................................................1
Changes that HR will see as a result of demographic and technological advances.....................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
Human resource could be defined as the staff members who are working within the
organisation for the purpose of carrying out operational activities in systematic manner. In order
to meet all the long term objectives, it is very important to manage them properly (Al-Sada, Al-
Esmael and Faisal, 2017). For this purpose, HR is responsible to be focused with establishing
employee’s relations and positive working practices. Present discussion is based upon Unilever
which is one of the largest enterprises of UK. This discussion will cover various topics such as
benefits of working practices and the changes that will be experienced by HR as the result of
demographic and technological advances.
MAIN BODY
Critical explanation of the way in which flexible working practices can help to strengthen
employee commitment
Flexible working practices could be defined as the leniency which is provided by the
companies to the staff members to work flexibly. With the help of it the businesses can improve
the engagement level of employees. In Unilever it is focused by the managers for the purpose of
strengthening the commitment of staff members towards their work. The description of it is as
follows:
Flexible working could be described as the non-traditional working arrangements which
can help the entities to enhance the engagement level of staff members in work. Apart from this,
it can also increase their commitment towards their work. In Unilever the mangers working in
human resource department make sure that they provide flexible working practices to the
employees so that they can work productively. For this purpose, they allow them to work in
flexible hours so that they can complete their work productively (Cesário and Chambel, 2017).
There are various types of flexible workings which includes job sharing, working from
home, part time working, annualised hours, flexitime, compressed hours, staggered hours,
phased retirement etc. All of them are the options available to the managers to provide their staff
members as flexible working practices. The cost of all of them is very low because it enhances
employee commitment that result in higher profits of the business. In Unilever these are also
focused by the managers as it is resulting in positive impacts such as higher employee
engagement, higher employee retention rate, increased profitability etc.
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By paying attention towards flexible working practices Unilever have attained various
benefits. By providing employees the leniency in working hours the entity was able to improve
their work quality as well as engagement level in their work. Apart from this, it has also resulted
in improved employee commitment towards their work which has increased the profitability of
the enterprise. The cost of adopting flexible working hours is nil because it only results in higher
profits.
Flexible working hours and other practices allow the employees to work conveniently
according to their wish which is one of the effective ways to improve the way in which all of
them perform the allocated jobs. Apart from this, when managers in Unilever adopted the
working practices then it resulted in higher employee commitment which has improved and
strengthen employee commitment towards their work. When the employees will be highly
focused with their jobs then it can facilitate the enterprise to enhance level of competitive
advantage (Meyer, Morin and Wasti, 2018).
Changes that HR will see as a result of demographic and technological advances
Demographics and technological changes with time and for an entity like Unilever which
is operating business at international level it is very important to be aware of all of them. It can
help to find ways to carry out all the operational activities in systematic manner. Apart from this,
the changes that HR will see after advancement in technology and demographic factors will
include changes in taste and preferences of customers, improved standard of living, new
technologies etc. If all of them will be focused by the HR, then it will help to formulate effective
decisions so that the desired goals and objectives could be accomplished. Additionally, the HR
can also analyse the changes in employee behaviour as their way of performing jobs will also get
changed with advancement in demographics (Taba, 2018).
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it has been analysed that for all the businesses it is very
important to be focused with employee commitment and advancements that are being introduced
in the industry. With the help of it HR will be able to improve the commitment of staff members
and assure the attainment of business goals and objectives.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals:
Al-Sada, M., Al-Esmael, B. and Faisal, M. N., 2017. Influence of organizational culture and
leadership style on employee satisfaction, commitment and motivation in the
educational sector in Qatar. EuroMed Journal of Business.
Cesário, F. and Chambel, M. J., 2017. Linking organizational commitment and work engagement
to employee performance. Knowledge and Process Management. 24(2), pp.152-158.
Meyer, J. P., Morin, A. J. and Wasti, S. A., 2018. Employee commitment before and after an
economic crisis: A stringent test of profile similarity. Human Relations. 71(9). pp.1204-
1233.
Taba, M. I., 2018. Mediating effect of work performance and organizational commitment in the
relationship between reward system and employees’ work satisfaction. Journal of
Management Development.
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