Flex Work Research Centre

In the context of the current labour market crisis in Ireland, this report investigates the incidence and impact of equality policies and flexible working arrangements for those who are in employment. An equality policy is, broadly speaking, a formal statement of commitment to actions that seek to promote equality and to prevent discrimination in an organisation. The flexible working arrangements we investigate are: part-time work, flexible working hours or flexitime, job sharing and working from home. There is a large literature that demonstrates how employment equality can help individuals to achieve their full potential and organisations to utilise, to best effect, the skills and productivity of their workforce. Flexible working arrangements can increase employee well- being and productivity. The pursuit of equality in the workplace and the implementation of flexible working arrangements may benefit both employees and organisations: the latter is particularly pertinent in the context of a recession. The study examines the incidence of equality policies and flexible working arrangements in 2009 and the extent to which these have changed since 2003, the last date at which these issues were explored. How have employers responded – in relation to equality policies and flexible working arrangements – to the changed economic context? Do we find evidence of retrenchment or expansion? This report also examines the impact of equality policies and flexible working arrangements on employees and organisations in 2009, and how this has changed since 2003. Impact is measured in terms of employee well-being, job quality, employees’ attitudes to their jobs, absenteeism and innovation. The study addresses these issues using a large, nationally representative survey of employees: the National Workplace Survey 2009. The survey data were collected soon after the labour market entered a deep recession, and are compared here with those from a 2003 survey conducted during the economic boom. All the analysis is based on responses from employees.