The benefits of flexi-time and telework

On many occasions we have heard that the number of women in the labour market is considerably lower than men, especially in the late 20s early 30s age bracket, when many women are likely to get married and start a family.

The family has been the primary reason why women stop working but the lack of family-friendly measures at the workplace has been the main cause for them not going back to work.

Over the last couple of years in Malta, there has been a large emphasis on getting these women back to the workplace, and one measure which is considered to help is flexi-time.

Flexi-time has been wrongly perceived as a measure which solely benefits employees. However, as is clearly brought out here, Mariella Scerri believes employers can also benefit from flexi-time.

Although flexi-time may still be a relatively new concept Ms Scerri points out she has availed herself of this business solution for the past ten years at Orienta. It was originally implemented because the company required female employees, but they found out that many women were unavailable to work the normal full-time hours due to family responsibilities.

"The way flexi-time is executed at Orienta is that women employees choose the hours they are able to work - still amounting to 40 hours a week - so in this way they can successfully manage to reconcile work and family."

Any hours which are not covered are then filled by other employees who are more flexible in their working schedule. Another important aspect which Ms Scerri spoke about is that this measure is not only offered to women, but also to men who want flexible working hours to be able to devote more time to family life.

"The saying 'quality is better than quantity' applies here, as the advantages a company enjoys due to the implementation of family-friendly measures, such as flexi-time, are very evident," Ms Scerri said.

"The company benefits from having more qualified staff, who in turn remain longer with the company, due to higher levels of work satisfaction. This consequently allows the company to avoid the financially expensive and time-consuming process of recruiting and training new employees."

The employees' reaction to the introduction of these measures at the workplace was phenomenal. At Orienta, they felt that the flexi-time system was a life-saver, as they were able to keep their job, and thus an income, without having to compromise their family life.

Asked if she recommends the adaptation of these measures to other companies, Ms Scerri said this depended very much on the nature of the business. Her advice to companies willing to introduce flexi-time is to hold regular meetings with employees to ensure all hours are covered. In this way, every employee will know in advance what hours he or she is working, thus establishing these important points beforehand and leaving no space for inconveniences to arise.

The family-friendly measures campaign was a collaborative project between Communications Studies students at University and the Gender Equality Unit at the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC). The campaign is designed to raise awareness among employers and managers of the benefits of implementing flexi-time and telework as two business solutions for a work-life reconciliation. The participants of the project were Denise Buhagiar, Anna Catania, Maria Ellul, Stephanie Grech, Piao Hauli, Xiang Li, Samantha Mamo, Ker Qi and Sue Zrinzo.