Different meanings of workplace flexibility on the basis of paradigms of flexibility: A systematic review of workplace flexibility

By Professor Matthijs Bal, Lincoln International Business School and Dr Michal Izak, University of Roehampton Business School

It doesn’t seem to be the case that one can discuss benefits of workplace flexibility without carefully unpicking complexities of the matter at hand, including perspective from which those benefits are claimed (employee or organisational) and type of flexibility concerned (the four mentioned above). In addition, research methodology matters – to paraphrase, if your only research tool is a hammer then chances are your findings will strangely assume the shape of metallic elongated objects.

In our new paper, recently published in the European Management Review – entitled ‘Paradigms of Flexibility: A Systematic Review of Research on Workplace Flexibility’ – we have conducted a broad bibliometric analysis of literature relevant to workplace flexibility taking each of those three factors into account (type of flexibility, perspective and methodology)

While so many more people are experiencing working from home due to the Coronavirus lockdown, it is important to note that during this Work Wise Week, we are not experiencing a true reflection of working from home.

As a mum of two young children, I, like many parents, find the space in which we live is now our office, our school, a play zone, a snack emporium and a place for relaxation.

I’m attempting to educate my children while also navigating the demands for work time and space with my husband.

Although I have worked from home for over a decade and edit a magazine dedicated to the subject, this current scenario is throwing up even more challenges. When working remotely, many people struggle with the lack of distinction between work and home life and right now, those boundaries are increasingly blurred as we are confined to our homes.

The often-heard advice about making sure you get out and work elsewhere a few days a week, or head to your coffee shop for some social interaction, is currently redundant. All this means is it’s more challenging than ever to strike that ultimate goal of achieving a better “work-life balance”.

This balance is why so many people opt to work from home or request flexible working. While it’s important, it’s a phrase I rarely use. I’m not the first and won’t be the last to talk about how it’s not strictly achievable. Work and life will never be equally balanced. Some days the scales will tip in the direction of work, other days, family life takes priority.

So rather than try to achieve the impossible, we can look to integrate work and life more successfully and achieve a state where they sit harmoniously together, even if not perfectly balanced.

Define your hours

Establishing set working hours is a first step to preventing you from overworking and never shutting off. When work is at home, home is also at work. The temptation to remain logged on, replying to emails or carrying on with work tasks is ever present.

Giving yourself clear, defined hours is not just helpful for your own mental health and wellbeing but also for those you live with.

One of the most important considerations when you work from home are your household members. Having set time away from work means they don’t feel as if they’re living in an office or that your work constantly takes you away. It helps to give everybody some structure and a framework on which to base other household activities such as meal times or play times.

One of the big attractions of homeworking is the flexibility and freedom of setting your own hours. While those hours need not be 9-5, it’s still important to give yourself some core times, even if they start earlier or finish slightly later. Once defined and written down, they become easier to stick to and it ensures you have enough downtime and can enjoy family time too.

In an office environment, you have your core working hours and you should not expect to work longer than those just because you’re at home. You also get the visual and social cues to switch off, take breaks and finish for the day. These are harder to come by when working alone at home so setting an alarm, scheduling an end of day meeting or call can help give you a sense of closure to the working day and transition to free time. Giving yourself an activity to mark the end of the day can also help you to switch off. Even a short walk outside around the block and back can signal the end of your working day and almost replace a daily commute.

As the world grapples with a global pandemic, many businesses have been forced to move their day-to-day operations from offices to their employees’ homes. This global remote workforce creates new security risks for businesses, their customers, and their employees, with a significant increase in phishing, malware, and other malicious activity. It is a fitting time to celebrate Work Wise Week 2020 this week and National Work from Home Day on Friday 15 May in the U.K. and put a spotlight on how to work remotely, yet securely.

The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA), along with a coalition of nonprofit organisations from across the globe, launched the Work from Home. Secure Your Business campaign in March focused on shoring up the defences of a newly remote workforce.

The campaign provides clear, actionable guidance including links to tools and step-by-step instructions to put better security in place in the home environment. The campaign incorporates the GCA Cybersecurity Toolkit for Small Business, which offers free and effective tools for immediate action to reduce cyber risk.

Since the launch of the campaign, the coalition has grown to 23 nonprofit organisations, including several based in the UK.

Work From Home. Secure Your Business focuses on several key areas to help users work wisely while working remotely:

Patch to Protect

One quick, easy way to vastly improve security is to apply any security updates, or patches, immediately to ensure your devices are always up to date.

· Anything that is on your network, storing your data, or connecting your devices should be patched.

· Laptops, tablets, phones, and office and home routers should all be configured securely and updated.

· Turn on auto-updates. For most devices this will only take a few minutes each.

Take time to review the guidance provided within the Patch to Protect section of the website.

Sign in Securely

Knowing who is on the network and accessing your information is crucial. An important way to help with that is the use of multi-factor authentication (also known as two-factor authentication, or 2FA).

2FA requires multiple credentials, making it much harder for an attacker to gain access to your accounts. With 2FA, a user needs the following:

· Something you know, such as a password; and/or

· Something you have, such as a token (Google Authenticator, Authy, Okta, RSA, etc.) or a verification code sent to your phone; and/or

· Something you are, such as your fingerprint or face (biometrics).

Depending on your environment, the actions that need to be taken to implement 2FA will differ. If your organisation has a centralized work environment (servers are located at a central office), then the IT department will most likely use RSA, Symantec VIP, or some sort of corporate 2FA mechanism. If your organisation is more decentralized and using the cloud for many services, this is where you and your IT department will enable 2FA on those services and have users download an authenticator tool such as Google Authenticator or Authy. You can find more detailed guidance in the Sign in Securely section of the website.

On this year’s annual Work from Home Day, there are more people working from home than ever. But of course, it is happening in the hardest of circumstances.

While it may be a day to note that fact, it's not the time to celebrate it.

Many people who can work from home have felt the benefit of continued employment. We know many other workers have lost their jobs or been furloughed on reduced pay.

Working from home can bring its own challenges at the moment – balancing work and home life; getting to grips with new technologies and new ways of working; or having to look after your children and try to get some home-schooling done.

Meanwhile, others have continued travelling to work in essential roles on the frontline. They are keeping the rest of us safe and supplied, powered and connected, cared for and fed. And they have put their own health on the line to look after us all.

Both our unions have members who can work from home, and others who cannot. For those who can, they are likely to continue home-working for a long time yet. For those who can't, the future may be uncertain, or in some cases bleak.