Flexibility in work life consists of a broad variety of arrangements that have to do with the actual organization of work and work conditions. This research examines flexibility in working conditions when it comes to place of work, work schedules, payment systems, teamwork and multitasking. These areas are examined as parts of the flexible mode of action of work organizations. A central research objective is work not bound to a certain place or time, such as traveling work or telecommuting. The aim of research is to find out to what extent and in what ways different flexibilities are applied in the Finnish work life of the 21- century and to examine the conditions of flexibility as well as the implications of it.

A total of 106 work places took part in the research. They represent different sectors and lines of businesses, have different numbers of employees and are regionally diverse. The data collected in this research is broad, 1177 answers consisting of employee interviews carried out at the work place, information on flexible work arrangements acquired through work place-specific questionnaires and theme interviews with management and shop stewards. The data was collected during the spring and fall of 2004.

Ministry of Labour. Labour Policy Studies no. 277.

More and more work is done elsewhere than at the actual work place. At one time or another over 40 percent of wage earners work either from home, on business trips, at the customer’s place or at different locations of the same business. Employees with mobile work who do more than 10 percent of their work either outside the work place or outside their home consist little more than 10 percent of the wage earners.

One fourth of all wage earners also occasionally do their primary work from home. For executives in upper management, this portion is nearly 60 percent and for those in a specialist positions in upper management this portion is approximately 50 percent. The most common reasons stated for performing primary work related tasks at home are the work schedule, the amount of work and the desire to do the work well. In four out of five cases the work completed at home is voluntary and does not result in special compensation.

Employees having an agreement with the employer to work from home make approximately 4 percent of all wage earners. The occupations in question have a long tradition of home based working, such as teachers and planners. It seems that there is a general interest towards distance work and a little more than one fifth of wage earners according to their own evaluation have both the ability and possibility to telecommute. This however often means telecommuting for a maximum of one weekday per week. There is no great interest towards work that happens primarily outside the work place. The workplace is a community and a social environment and people do not want to be left outside of it.

There are several practices in use and being developed in order to combine the needs of work and domestic life. According to our research Finnish work life is already quite flexible in adjusting private life and work when it comes to work schedules. Approximately four out of five management level employees and one third of workers have flexible working hours. Also ‘banked time’ types of arrangements are fairly common. The flexibility in working schedule benefits not only the employee, but can also be beneficial for employers. As the types of flexible work and use of flexible hours are becoming more and more common, the challenges are growing too. These arrangements require work time management.

Many work organizations have proceeded to use performance based salaries. This agreement on flexible salary applies to more than half of upper management, nearly half of management and 40 percent of workers. Those with flexible, performance based salaries earn at all levels clearly more than other wage earners.
They are also more satisfied with the relationship between work input and salary than respondents on average.

Teamwork is common in Finnish work life and it has had its role in increasing the diversity of work content.
Wage earners working in groups estimate more frequently than others that they have good opportunities to use their capabilities and skills in their work. This development towards multitasking has in general had a positive effect on the content of wage earners work.

According to our research the increase in work life flexibility has, as a rule, had a positive effect both for the work organization and the employees. The increase of flexibility in work arrangements brings the employees often to a better wage level and more meaningful and challenging work tasks. On the other hand, stress and the management of work related worries are ordinary things in Finnish work life as they are also results of the intensification of work life and the constant changes occurring in it. In our research the most significant cause for uncertainty was that the work load could become intolerable.

Ministry of Labour
P.O. Box 34
00023 Government
Finland
Phone: + 358 10 60 4001
kirjaamo.tyoministerio@mol.fi
http://www.mol.fi

01/06/2005

Heikki Uhmavaara, Jukka Niemelä, Harri Melin, Tero Mamia, Anita Malo, Jaakko Koivumäki and Raimo Blom

research

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment > Working patterns

Flexible working, Remote working