Employee Resourcing Mental Health and Working Condition

Question: Define flexible working within the legislative framework within the EU. Critically discuss the implications, both legally and with regards to good practice, when recruiting staff to work flexibly. You should use examples to support your answer. Critically evaluate the impact of the flexible working hours upon the organization (Sysdoc Group) and its employees performance. You should use examples to support your answer. Draw conclusions and make any relevant recommendations that may be of benefit to Sysdoc Group and to employers considering implementing similar flexible working practices. Answer: In recent times, the importance of flexible working conditions and freedom of employees has increased. In the current business environment, employees want to work for the companies that focused on flexible working environment. The legislative framework in Europe and in several other parts of the world, supports flexible working environment. There are various large corporations in Europe that have already adopted the approach of flexible working environment. The focus on flexible working environment provides a platform where employees can work with high productivity level towards organization goals and objectives (Eikhof, 2016). It is important that the organizations should work under the legal guidelines set by the government of that country. The government of countries in European nations has focused to create a culture where employees are treated with fairness and equity. It would be correct to stay that the focus on flexible working environment is not only a good practice but also a mandate for organizations. The government may not set the conditions for flexible working environment explicitly. However, the government ensures that the corporations can exhibit high standards of flexible working environment (Dancaster, 2014). The Sysdoc group has been able to attain a good growth rate in the market as it has got the support from talented employees. The company has always recruited the best talent from the market and has developed an internal culture where employees feel motivated. One of the drivers of employee motivation is the focus on flexible working environment and conditions. The management is committed to provide best-working conditions to employees and the management ensures that there is discrepancy among employees. The employees who are in need of flexible working like pregnant mothers, single fathers, etc. can apply from flexible working framework in the UK. It would depend on the organization and it strategies to approve the same and likewise the d ecision to approve, the number of flexible working days in a year would vary based on the organization. However, there are certain basic guidelines that should be followed, for example: The employee should be competent and he or she should have the ability to work as an individual contributor The employee must request the flexibility working through formal human resource challenges. Generally, Human Resource people would require 3 months to revert on the application The employees should request the flexibility working once a year. This is not a fixed guideline but employers appreciate if employees do not make this as habit. The focus on flexibility and flexible working conditions has positive impact on the employees and the organizations. The internal working conditions of the organizations directly impact the performance of employees. Therefore, it is important that the organizations should focus to create a culture where employees can get flexibility Dierkes, M., et al (2003) indicated that organizational learning is more than individual knowledge. What more is done other than training to ensure organizational learning produces expected outcomes? Dierkes, M., et al (2003) highlighted companies such as IKEA and a banker who stated, "this is the way we do things in this bank" which imply that the knowledge must be integrated into the organization to transcend employees that may be appointed at intervals.It is said that an organization needs to comprehend the knowledge it possesses in order to know what it needs to learn, therefore organizational learning should use the competences of workers in the organization and outsource when the need arise. Internal knowledge should be maximized if it is relevant to the decision to be taken or the strategy that needs to be implemented. The focus on flexible working environment enables organizations to preserve the knowledge within the organization. The focus on flexible working environment also enables organizations to emerge as a learning organization. It is stated that there is a difference between the learning organization and organizational learning. Both forms of learning contribute to performance of employees however, the learning organization is said to have continuous improvement as its foundation while organizational learning deals mainly with interaction with human nature and the environment (Wang Ahmed, 2002). EU has created several laws again the workplace discrimination. Whilst discrimination can take place surrounding marital status, children, nationality, sexual orientation or religious beliefs, such data is only really supposed to be obtained for monitoring reasons. Anti-discrimination laws have already encouraged the omitting of questions surrounding personal information. Human Rights legislation and EU Directives have established the legislation needs to be adhered to during the recruitment process. Whilst the employer has a need to obtain an idea regarding suitability of the candidate, consideration needs to be placed upon how such suitability can be identified (Burgoon, 2015). Asking specific competency-related questions will provide a clearer idea of the right type of candidate. Asking for personal information will not really contribute towards this. The focus on flexible working environment also enables the organizations to create a true diverse culture. It is true that the young generation shows more flexibility to differences in gender or culture, and is more colorful than the old generation, but the old generation is seen more in executive and decision making positions. Diversity creates new business opportunities, because diversity in culture allows diversity in interest. The case of investing more in customers with specific needs as baby boomers age, certain ailments, and specific cultural celebrations. As a conclusion, diversity must be measured and managed differently from a culture to another, and from country to another. The company, Sysdoc, emerged as a successful company only because it was able to develop an excellent culture for its employees. It is believed that the organization should be given a chance for the experienced employee (old employee) to develop himself and should help them because they will be adding value to the organization and the loyalty for these people will be more than others and new as well and also in some positions the organization may take a decision to hire good behavior people but they are less experienced people. If the organization has plan to generate second and third generation to lead the organization in future you will get the situation that the organization will concentrate in the behavior more than the experience so that they will have the ability to learn faster and gain experience for the future to lead in. Sysdoc is one such organization that has a team of enthusiastic people. The case study mentions that creating a work culture that embraces flexibility, Sys doc has built a committed and enthusiastic team that has delivered well-above-average business results: in 2008/09 the company grew nine times faster than the sector as a whole.It shows that the concept of flexible work hours has had positive impact for the organization. The result was observed in the positive business outcome of the company. For example: The company's performance and the impact of its positive approach to work-life balance have exceeded expectations. Sysdoc was able to develop a learning culture where employees were willing to learn from the experiences of other employees. It would be correct to say that organizational learning gingers changes both in the management level and the employees, without continuous leaning and application adapting to changes will not be viable which will reflect negatively in their financial report and income. Without company strategizing, there will be poor performance and this will lead to low profitability and competitive advantage is not assured (Lucifora, 2013). When there is no knowledge base in an organization strategizing cannot be effective and this will lead to poor performance.The management of Sysdoc was able to realize this fact and as a result it focused to create a knowledge culture in the organization. (Dierkes et al. 2003)highlighted that the proper leadership is necessary to take an active role influencing the process of the organizational learning.In sum, organizational learning requires the properinternal organizational culture to assist in the implementation of re-organized strategy, new strategy or to use the same response used in the past.This was evident at Sysdoc with a strong focus on the flexibility given to employees. For example, the program, Sysdoc way states "commitment to the growth of our people and support of their families". In order to survive in the market the organization has to acquire information from the surrounding or supporting environment to identify threats and opportunities that can either affect survival positively or negatively and use or process thisstimuli or information in ways to ensure survival, sustainability and growth. Sysdoc believes that employees and the customers feedback is the best way to analyze the external environment. Milway Saxton (2011) mentioned that organizational learning is a vital concept for the further development and success of business. Milway Saxton stressed the fact that employees are an integral component of organizational learning. It is said that organizations are in a more complicated context than individuals are in the environment, this is so due to the types of interaction between the organization and individuals and the organization as an entity (Macey, 2013). It is simply true that to grow wider and bigger, and to reach more customers, organization needs to understand population different groups culture, and their emotional drive to purchase specific products or services. Only diversity within the organization can allow flexibility with diverse talents exchange, to sustain business growth. For example, what is acceptable in Canada, maybe destructive to business in UK. Not all countries accept diversity at the same level and with the same understanding (Houkes, 2014). A careful approach to diversity from organization when entering new market is needed, because the concern is not to make a point, but to do successful business with the respect of the external environment and human resources. It would be correct to say that Sysdoc has emerged as a responsible organization with focus on the internal and the external parameters of Corporate Social Responsibility. In relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR) to be successful for example, the importance of planning and awareness regards vision, mission and values becomes paramount towards human resource department. Therefore, it should be incorporated into the business strategy, structure, process, as well as culture (Kotler Lee, 2005). The utmost intensity of CSR attainment would usually need CSR issues to be legitimized as an integral element of corporate identity. The establishment should be transitioned from a target drive culture to a value driven culture that maintains corporate social responsibility (Mullerat, 2011). However, realistically, the organization has to begin with modifying its vision, mission in addition to value statements as this offer an open message mutually to the internal and external stockho lders regarding the companys goals including priorities that consecutively drives performance and behaviors. Therefore, valuing diversity as well as investing in employees is just an example that integrates into such statements. With the above discussion it can be said that Sysdoc has emerged as a responsible employer, which has established an internal culture where employees have a feeling of self-belongingness. At Systdoc, the employees are able to match their goals and objectives with organizational goals and objectives. It has created a positive vibe among the employee and employees are able to contribute to there fullest (Herod, 2014). This is evident from the fact that there have been minimal sick leaves in the organization. It is recommended that Sysdoc should continue on the same path to manage its internal resources. The management of Ssydoc realized that employees are their biggest assets and therefore, effort was made to improve the work life balance of employees. The employees are free to cut short their working hours if they have a family problem. It is recommended that the company should continue to invest in its human resources. With the investment of people, the company should be able to incr ease the overall productivity. It is recommended that Sysdoc should also launch few training and development programs. The terainig and development programs should be based on the feedback of employees. The management should also arrange few informal events in the company where employees can share their experiences and different employees can learn from the experiences of other employees. References Cottini, E., Lucifora, C. (2013). Mental health and working conditions in Europe.Industrial Labor Relations Review,66(4), 958-988. Dancaster, L. (2014). Work-life balance and the legal right to request flexible working arrangements.South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences,9(2), 175-186. Dierkes, M., Berthoin Antal, A., Child, J. Nonaka, I., eds. (2003)Handbook of organizational learning and knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Eikhof, D. R. (2016). Knowledge Work and Flexible Working: Helping or Hindering Working Women?. InHandbook on Well-Being of Working Women(pp. 361-374). Springer Netherlands. Galea, C., Houkes, I., De Rijk, A. (2014). 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