A Report on Flexible Working in HR with Tesco and Sainsbury's Examples

This report delves into the concept of flexible working within Human Resources, exploring its definition, scope, nature, and limitations. It examines the advantages, such as improved work-life balance and increased productivity, and the disadvantages, including potential employee isolation and challenges in team cohesion. The report then provides detailed case studies of Tesco and Sainsbury, two major UK supermarket chains, analyzing their approaches to flexible working. It highlights the specific initiatives each company undertakes to support employee well-being and promote flexible work arrangements. The analysis includes an assessment of the resources and programs offered, such as work-life balance programs, health and wellness initiatives, and employee assistance programs. The report concludes with a comparative analysis of the two companies' practices, suggesting areas for improvement and offering insights into the future of flexible working in the HR landscape. The report emphasizes the importance of adapting HR practices to meet the evolving needs of the workforce and the role of flexible working in attracting and retaining talent.

MANAGING HUMAN
RESOURCES

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Flexible Working.........................................................................................................................3
Flexible Working of Tesco..........................................................................................................6
Flexible Working of Sainsbury....................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Managing Human Resources mainly deals in managing the functions performed by the
manager which relates to the employees of the Human Resource Department. Managing can be
done by several processes like plan and allocate resources, provide direction, develop a suitable
environment, offer opportunities and many more (Chandola and et.al.,2019). Tesco and
Sainsbury, both the renowned Supermarket Business Enterprises in UK performs worldwide
operations in numerous products like food, clothing etc. They are tough competitors of each
other always trying to stand on top.
The report will give a brief introduction of the Flexible Working along with discussing its scope,
nature and limits as well. The research will be followed by taking two examples of organizations
which attempts flexible working at their places and worldwide. A brief conclusion drawn from
both the examples will be described at the end of the report.
MAIN BODY
Flexible Working
Definition
It is also referred to as Flexitime which involves certain arrangements, may be non-
traditional, mainly focusses on the personal needs of individual (Chung, 2018). It can be in the
form of work from home, part-time work, compression in hours, on-call working and many
more. In UK, certain groups like parents having disabled children or below 6 years etc. are
legally allowed to request for flexible working.
Figure 1: Flexible Working
Source: The Timewise Definition of Flexible Working, 2020
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Nature
All the organizations, whether big or small, have some employees exercising flexible
working. It can be both advantageous and disadvantageous to the employees and the
organizations.
Advantages:
 It proves to be good as it allows the employees a better balance of Work-Life. Some
employees become able to look after their children easily and some of them undertake extra
trainings and participate in many activities along with a particular job (Wheatley, 2017).
 It is better for employees as well as the workplace as having better life balance makes the
employees more comfortable which helps them to work efficiently thereby increasing the
productivity which results in enhancing overall progress and job-commitment.
 Flexible working leads to less staff turnover as it feels comfortable in working flexibly and
knowing that they will not get such a pattern at other places (Teasdale, 2020). It can be
advantageous to attract better people as the employer needs the employees to work certain
hours.
 It proves to be beneficial as the shift effect of flexible working, which means some
employees starting the work earlier and some later, can lead to sequential work for a certain
project over a period which is much longer than when all the employees work together at the
same time.
 Working from home also leads to less dead-time by facilitating the agile working away from
the office.
Disadvantages:
 It was observed that it is bad for the employees working more from home as it causes
isolation and lack of cohesion of team. They become less-friendly and even unaware of their
colleagues.
 It can lead to dissatisfaction of the workplace as the employees who are not working flexibly
can be greatly affected because they have to compensate the due works of the employees
working from home (Cook and et.al., 2020). Sometimes, they need to work from more
working hours to complete to extra workload.
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 If more people starts working from places other than offices, it increases the cost and the
resources to build the similar setup along with licenses, software etc. at their desired place.
Scope
The flexible working has lot many scopes related to employees and the organization.
Majority of the workplaces observed the current situation and stated that in the coming 5 years
the flexible working will increase rapidly in which part-time working will be easiest to
accommodate. A few of the people think that this will not increase much rapidly.
The factors noted by the employees working more flexibly are as follows:
 Change in the workforce demographics which means the majority of the employees will be
young having families to take care of.
 Increase in the working part-time due to retirement. It can even allow the retired employees
to work while taking the pension.
 The number of working women increases as it allows to work from home and return after
taking care of their children.
 Developments in the IT sector because working from places instead of offices need suitable
setup, software etc.
 It can also save the costs because of the less space needed for the office.
 It will help to attract more number of skilled employees having high calibre and staff
becomes more aware of the rules and rights to request for flexible working.
Limits
Being more advantageous, Flexible Working has various limits which are as follows:
 It becomes difficult for the employers to deal with the emerging requests of employees to
work flexibly.
 Employers have to take the decision to provide flexible working to employees
indiscriminately. It does not be limited to the personal reasons of the employees instead make
value judgements with complete justice.
 It can cause a feeling of resentment among the employees whose request for working flexibly
is denied and the request of other employees gets accepted.
 Flexible Working can also cause lack of control and awareness to work.
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 Working from home can create communication gap and less cohesiveness among colleagues
which results in difficulty in projects which needs co-ordination of more than 2 team
members. This results in decreasing the productivity as well as deteriorating the overall
progress of the organization.
 Legal Perspective: There is a provision of suggestion and information of flexible working for
the employers. The government must provide the case studies of the organizations who have
got benefits after working flexibly. The slow internet speed becomes a limit mainly in rural
areas for the people working from home and also the government must make the policies of
childcare affordable.
Flexible Working of Tesco
Tesco, being the largest chain of supermarkets in UK, performing its operations worldwide
provides Flexible working to the employees for their well-being and the company as well (Alam
and Raut-Roy, 2019). The company considers this as the little steps for making the employees
feel great whether working at office or from home. Following are the things Tesco offers to the
employees:
Balance Work Life
Tesco believes that there is no limit to the opportunities like part-time, job-shares etc.
these can give the employees the best of career as well as family life (Atkinson, 2020). The
company creates partnership timely with certain programmes like Retail Pioneers Programme
which makes the workplace more flexible for retailers.
They have also developed their campus by introducing the smarter working whether working
from home or at campus. The company has all the amenities like meeting rooms, hot-desking
and breakout spaces for making the employees more flexible to work. The one thing that the
company must do is that it must provide outdoor spaces for sports and games to involve the
employees in such activities along with the job and must provide a laptop so that the flexible
working policy can be maintained.
Resources and Learning
The company believes that motivated employees results in satisfied customers. For this,
Tesco organizes a series of certain programmes with best resources and guidance. The various
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programmes include The Employee Assistance Programme which enhances mental stability of
the employees, Mindapples and Headspace to make the employees aware of the psychological
needs of the customers and SilverCloud to guide if the employees struggles in any step or
process.
The company also provides guidance to the women employees related to health issues and also
aware the employees for saving money in Tesco Bank. The one thing Tesco must focus on is the
nutrition of the customers. The company must arrange nutrition programmes to draw the
attention of the employees towards the health of the customers because the people in UK are
much health conscious and prefer organic food.
Weeks for Well-Being
Tesco provides health checks, medical services and regular counselling for the health of
all the employees. It also gives discounts and various offers for these services. It gives access to
the gyms, cycles and weight watchers to improve the health of body and mind (Lott, 2018).
Along with this, over 18 months the company focuses on the women’s health and nutrition and
describe the ways to get a sound sleep so that they can work efficiently.
The thing which Tesco must do is to advance the methods of these services and organize online
sessions on webinars, zoom etc. to connect everyone online as the employees faces a great loss
due to Covid-19. This will not only ensure the safety of the employees but will also increase the
goodwill of the company.
So, Tesco tries to take every measure for the flexible working of the employees but can attempts
for some more methods as mentioned above for making the employees more efficient to work in
the campus or from home to increase the productivity which is must for taking the company to
greater heights in terms of sales and profit margin.
Flexible Working of Sainsbury
Sainsbury, being the tough competitor of Tesco in supermarket chain, promotes the
Flexible Working in partnership with the Carers UK with caring responsibilities (Armstrong and
Taylor, 2020). Following are the measures the company adapts for Flexible Working of
employees:
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 The company offers discount card to the colleagues who works with Sainsbury for more
than 12 months in its stores or from home. The colleagues can even nominate one person
from family for the card.
 Sainsbury also plans for the future of the employees by giving them pensions. This life
covers increases according to the contributions of the employee to the company.
 The company also provides holiday allowances as per the roles of the employees (Brewster,
2017). They also offer a paid holiday to the colleagues which grows with their careers.
 The employees in this company loves the group outings and the regular activities for fun
organized by the Sainsbury’s Social Association(SSA) which makes them feel comfortable to
get back to the work with full enthusiasm.
 The employees want to work with Sainsbury as it awards the colleagues who serves for a
long-time and celebrates their journey.
 Sainsbury also allows the employees who worked for 6 months to spend time with family by
giving extra paid leaves.
Along with all the above mentioned attempts, Sainsbury must organize some Employee
Assistance Programs to provide support in the form of counselling, legal or debt advices to the
employees.
CONCLUSION
The above report discussed about the nature, scope and limitations of Flexible Working. The
discussion was followed by considering the attempts of two well-known companies Tesco and
Sainsbury towards the flexible working. The comparative study concluded that both the
companies adapt several methods for the well-being of the employees and the customers but can
improve by adapting some more methods such as Tesco can improve by rewarding the
employees for their performance whereas Sainsbury must focus more on the health benefits of
the employees along with rewarding.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alam, S. and Raut-Roy, U., 2019. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Reward Strategy at Tesco:
Evidence from Selected Stores in UK. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations. 55(1).
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2020. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Atkinson, C., 2020. 16. Flexible working for older workers. Flexible Work: Designing our
Healthier Future Lives, p.4.
Brewster, C., 2017. The integration of human resource management and corporate
strategy. Policy and practice in European human resource management, pp.22-35.
Chandola, T. and et.al., 2019. Are flexible work arrangements associated with lower levels of
chronic stress-related biomarkers? A study of 6025 employees in the UK household
longitudinal study. Sociology. 53(4). pp.779-799.
Chung, H., 2018. Gender, flexibility stigma and the perceived negative consequences of flexible
working in the UK. Social Indicators Research, pp.1-25.
Cook, R. and et.al., 2020. Fathers’ perceptions of the availability of flexible working
arrangements: evidence from the UK. Work, Employment & Society.
Lott, Y., 2018. Does flexibility help employees switch off from work? Flexible working-time
arrangements and cognitive work-to-home spillover for women and men in
Germany. Social Indicators Research, pp.1-24.
Teasdale, N., 2020. Flexible working in the UK: interrogating policy through a gendered Bacchi
lens. Feminismo/s. 35. pp.155-177.
Wheatley, D., 2017. Employee satisfaction and use of flexible working arrangements. Work,
employment and society. 31(4). pp.567-585.
Online
The Timewise Definition of Flexible Working, 2020.[ONLINE]. Available through :<
https://timewise.co.uk/article/what-is-flexible-working/>
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