Business adapts to workforce changes

Richard Burton, who doesn't read books on management, was about 10 years ahead of his time, by accident. Although the Council of Trade Unions hasn't caught up with it, flexible arrangements are increasingly the way of the working world for reasons of mutual convenience.

North American research reveals compelling arguments for flexible workplaces: lower staff turnover, reduced absenteeism and lateness, higher morale, less stress, increased productivity.

As Australia has found, flexible work practices also hugely foster employment. Less than a quarter of Australian families fit the old notion of the male bread-winner and the housewife.

In 60 per cent of families with dependent children, both parents work. Flexibility solves other seemingly intractable workplace problems, too, such as absenteeism. According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies, about half of all absenteeism is for family reasons - grandma or the kids are sick.

When Pacific Dunlop, which has a mainly female workforce, introduced flexible working hours, absenteeism collapsed by half.

Staff turnover and access to unused skills and talent are other examples.

There may also be extra profits in flexible work practices. A long-term study by Sweden's Nutek research agency says: "Between 1993 and 1995, workplaces with a traditional work organisation had an average rate of growth of 9 per cent while workplaces with a flexible work organisation had a rate of growth of some 12.5 per cent."

Many firms would die for that extra 3.5 per cent.