Flexible working 'improves job commitment'
Fri 25 Apr 2008
25/04/2008
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Flexible working practices can have a direct impact on absences and job commitment, according to new scientific research.
A study in the US, which canvassed the findings of a health survey completed by more than 3,000 employees of a large multinational firm, suggests that flexible working can offer a boost for stressed out staff.
Research undertaken at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, published in the latest issue of the Psychologist-Manager Journal, revealed that flexibility has a strong correlation with health and well-being.
Joseph G. Grzywacz, senior author and an associate professor of family medicine, said the results suggested that flexible work arrangements could offer a useful incentive as well as improving overall performance.
Flexibility – comprising either remote working or features such as flexitime and job sharing – was associated with a decrease in sickness absences and improved job commitment.
However, decreases in flexibility, while not affecting absences adversely, did have a "significant increase in impairment and reduced job commitment".
The government has been keen to endorse flexible working, while an increasing array of companies are committed to offering some form of opportunity to work from home.
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