Flexible Working Environments as a tool For Employee Recruitment and Retention for

                                                World Duty Free Company

Introduction

Factors such as compensation health benefits, reward incentives, retention process, maternity and paternity leave, the recruitment and retention policies are things that should be altered and reformed according to the requirements and demands of distinct organization. Companies in the retail sector favour flexible working because it helps to increase productivity, efficiency and performance of the employees. It is both beneficial for the employer because it increases productivity, decreases absenteeism, decreases tardiness and in the overall improves the turnover of the employees. Recent tendencies in demographic, ethnic, monetary and legal settings have had an influence on many features of human resource management counting employee recruitment and retention approaches (Barker & Mueller, 2002). Specifically the expedition for work life stability, deliberated at the moment as a basic obligation by progressively educated personnel, has contributed to the petition for flexible working performances. Financial aspects such as remuneration, bonus, and grant are still significant, non-monetary paybacks including flexible working are gradually being used as an implement in managing employee turnover (Bamberger, 2008).

Bryson (2004), regard the upsurge of flexible working to fluctuations in demographics, socio-culture technical advances, corporate and economy. Flexible working performances are typically defined as both formal and informal structural approaches which permit personnel to break loose from the old-fashioned 9am to 5pm work timetable and help them accomplish a better work life equilibrium (Brodbeck et al., 2007).  Such approaches generally comprise one or more categories of flexible practice such as flex time, job distribution, and career job-sharing, and flex residence or teleworking (Cannella & Holcomb, 2005). 

By providing flexible working environment, the business should deliberate some basics like; creating a plan on how the employees will be benefitted, the chances of employee growing, the criteria that will be considered for flexible working. Also whether the business will preserve and bring in new workers because of the upsurge in job fulfilment and output or will be obligated to amend policies and standards for the old personnel bearing in mind their usefulness and competence at work. The goal of this thesis is to aid shed light on the influences of flexible working as a tool to help increase effectiveness in travel retail business citing the case of World Duty Free Company.

Research objective

The objectives of this study are;

1. To explore whether upsurge in flexible time schedules will entice higher number of job aspirants
2. To institute whether flexible time schedules will effect employee verdict to stay within the corporation
3. To research whether flexible time arrangements influence employee inspiration and has an influence on their performance
4. To evaluate whether flexible time schedules influence employee non-attendance, lateness and turnover.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis of the four objectives selected for this study is;

• HO: do no appeal job aspirants

H1: appeals job aspirants

• HO: will not influence workers’ decision to stay

 HO: will influence workers’ decision to stay

• HO: will not have an influence on the motivation and conduct of the worker

HO: will have an influence on the motivation and conduct of the worker

• HO: do not effect non-attendance, lateness and turnover of the workers

HO: will effect non-attendance, lateness and turnover of the workers

 

Literature review

Flexible working

Current drifts in the employment sector have seen an ageing of the employment force and steady retirement of baby boomers. These and other demographic aspects, such as an increasing involvement of women in the labour force, predominantly those with children, are posturing challenges for businesses in development of their employee recruitment and retention approaches (Bunderson, 2003). Recognizing the need to deliver a sense of balance between work and life has led to an amplified concern in flexible working schedules and family friendly dogmas among contemporary businesses. Flexible workings practices are now often used to aid them contend with other businesses in recruiting the best employees (Cannella & Holcomb, 2005).

Flex time

Weber et al., (2005) defines flex time as a planning decision that permits employees to choose their beginning and termination times within restrictions recognised by administration. Normally it encompasses essential times when all workers must be present and although beginning and termination times differ, employees are obligated to work a regular number of hours

Flexible working arrangements

Cannella et al., (2008), in their evaluation of work flexibility literature, find that flexible work schedules offer paybacks such as less tension, more work enhancement, lower lateness and non-attendance, greater job contentment, and higher output. Flexible working offers the prospect for employees to exertion in agreement with their natural timer, diminish charges of commuting and devote more time on domestic and leisure undertakings (Carpenter, 2002)).  Higher job gratification and investments, tied with inferior work-family conflict, are specifically attractive to personnel and function as the key motivators for their resolution to choose for flexible working arrangements (Carpenter & Fredrickson, 2001).

Benefits of flexible working for employers and employees

Rewards of flexible working relished by personnel in return create affirmative effects for businesses. Cho & Hambrick (2006), show that human resource conducts which increase worker well-being also upsurge managerial performance.  Moreover reduced extent of non-attendance and advanced worker recruitment and retention, flexible working permits workers to pursue unceasing learning which eventually augments to administrative knowledge. In particular, Cohen et al., (2003) establishes that tactical human resource conducts such as flexible working enable businesses to build superior knowledge administration aptitude which in turn augments their invention performance. Regardless of these advantages, nevertheless, the enactment of flexible working conducts often faces opposition by executives as a consequence of their privation of faith and backing for the rule (Carter et al., 2003).  Some administrators also remain unconvinced of the definite contributions of flexible working towards the establishment (Daily et al., 2003).  Thus, it seems that the enactment of flexible working is resolute by societal and administrative features comprising conjoint trust, administrative support and a sincere consideration of the reimbursements of flexible working.

 

Barker & Mueller, (2002) supplementary backs this concept in their study signifying that flexible working is positive as production upsurges and decreases non-attendance from work. Flexible working indications to amplified multiplicity intensify job fulfilment and devotion, reduced non-attendance and tension in workplace. Many sectors have adopted flexible working programmes in their operations, a good illustration of this is in the health sectors where there are many fiscal and non-fiscal recompenses in order to get official and official recruitment to intensify and advance recruitment and retention strategy which is all conducted through Flexible working schedules (McDonald et al., 2008). The enactment of practical flexibility in any form of business sector does not have any key effect on employees’ views of work-related distinctiveness. Conger et al., (2001), states that the existing monetary situation and freedom life of feminine part timers in subordinate level occupations intricate certain customs of flexible work amid a decrease in present work life encounter and eminence of prospect occupation. Deutsch, (2005) conceptualise flexible conducts as both formal and informal labour structures that permit employees sequential elasticity in their work programmes.  This basically means that flexible practices offer employees substitutes besides the inflexible, 9 am to 5 work customs.

Flexible working and employee recruitment and retention

Employee recruitment is the general procedure of appealing, shortlisting, choosing and even signing up suitable contenders for a job either long-lasting or momentary. Recruitment is one of the major challenges that are confronted by establishments and it will linger to intensify in the next decade (Bush, 2001). Flexible working choice is an operative tool for recruitment; many people that are employed today are significantly swayed by the flexible work options that the establishments offer. The sway on the women is much superior as equated to the men and this is accredited to the accountabilities of women as mothers and home care givers (Bush, 2001).

Employee retention can be defined generally as a business’s charitable activities which improve job gratification and objective to stay over a long period (Dalton et al., 2003). In a more precise language, it is basically deliberated as a wide-ranging set of human resource guidelines and approaches of an establishment to appeal and retain in its occupation the best accessible talents.  Li & Hambrick (2005) have stretched the notion into an unceasing process that initiates with employing the right persons and follows up with other human resource programs to keep workers engaged and devoted to the establishment.

According to researchers (Harrison & Klein, 2007), recruitment and retention of workers is critical for businesses to uphold a basis of competitive lead because the loss of brilliant workers can be damaging to the efficiency and productivity of companies.  The challenge in worker recruitment and retention mostly stems from variations in personnel demographics such as the cumulative function of Generation Y and female personnel who have presented an altered set of subjective wants and work standards (Martin & Sayrak, 2003). This has impelled present-day businesses to offer substitute work schedules and plans for this specific division of the working populace.  Such selections also aid to appeal other sub-groups in the employees, such as dual revenue couples who have shared family accountabilities, persons who are pursuing more education, and individuals with incapacities who are incapable to work old-fashioned timetables of 9am to 5pm (Carpenter et al., 2004). 

As distinguished by McDonald et al., (2008), procedures such as flexible work times, accessibility of child maintenance tuition aid platforms and concessions on amenities top the list of preferred welfares.  McNamara et al., (2008) further argues that money might be the excuse that workers offer when they leave their job, but it is not really the reason for their quitting. They are just mindful of it for a sometime but if they are uninterested with the employment, juts getting a good salary will not motivate them to stay in a job. Golden, (2008), have projected that flexible working offers businesses with recruitment and retention benefits because it mends employees’ job fulfilment. Organisational obligation and turnover are equally vibrant notions, and personnel who distinguish their businesses as flexible are also revealed to exhibition superior enthusiasm and job enactment (Richman et al., 2008). 

Aggregating worker’s efficiency will be reliable on the working setting, conditions and the prospect growth facets considering the work life stability assembly of the workers who are inadequate in keeping a sense of balance amid the two (Price et al., 2002). Augmented flexible work schedules or more part time based employees can build a sense of employees being transitory which can decrease the insight of cohesiveness of employees which may influence on job fulfilment (Rico et al., 2007). Flexible working schedules and concept of two customs flexibility is a crucial element in creating defiance among personnel. Flexible workings have sturdy confident influence on job worth as per employees’ insight. Association between flexible working and job value is more multifaceted ensuing in high effect of range of choice (Tuggle et al., 2010).

For flexible working to have a constructive outcome on employee fulfilment and retention, other conceivable aspects which may contradict or moderate the anticipated concern of flexibility must be acknowledged and counteracted.  Furthermore, the institution of any flexible working practice in an establishment must be headed by a suitable wants valuation of its employees, monitored by methodical documentations of which flexible practices are obligated to meet those requirements. This thesis addresses this knowledge gap by lengthening the above considerations by using a case-based study of World Duty Free travel retail business.

Methodology

Research strategy

This study will incorporate a positivist paradigm where quantitative research method with the help of questionnaires will be used. The research that will be conducted in reverence to this thesis will be practical. The proposed research will take the procedure of a new exploration but centred on standing research matter.

Research technique

To gratify the objective of the dissertation, a positivist paradigm will be incorporated where quantitative research method with the help of questionnaires will be used. Its basic benefit, which also founds its basic variance with quantitative study, is the element that it provides a comprehensive account and analysis of a study subject without restraining the range of the study and the nature of the reactions by the contributors (Cuervo, et al., 2017).

Research methodology

The research methodology that will be functional for this study will be inductive in nature. The research will initiate with precise opinions that will be utilized to generate comprehensive philosophies and assumptions that will be gotten from the study. The core fault of the inductive methodology is that it aids in the production of comprehensive theories and assumptions founded only on a trivial amount of observations, thus the consistency of research outcomes is to some range questionable (Magruk, 2015).

Data collection methods

As an attempt to explore and understand the potential effects of contextual factors on flexible working and employee retention and recruitment in the world duty free retail business, this study will use both primary and secondary data gathering methods.

1. Primary

 In primary data gathering, personal interviews will be used. They are advantageous because they help in eradicating non-reaction rates, though for this to happen the interviewers must have established the essential skills to productively execute an interview (Poggenpoel et al., 2001). Open ended questions will be incorporated which in this case help to solicit detailed information on flexible work practices that are implemented in the travel retail businesses, while at the same time providing opportunities to discover other interesting trends.

1. Secondary data

Secondary data will cover different literature sources and provide a crucial grounding for the interviews. Secondary facts will help to validate official evidence; learn about key proceedings, technical information, historical verdicts and main managerial players and functions. They will similarly help support the exploration of actual reactions in the course of interviews. With the improved technology and search engines, it is now easy to filter the required and most important data by just using key terms. In this case some of the key terms that have been used to get data include; ‘flexible working’, ‘retail businesses’, ‘retention’ and ‘recruitment’.

A research plan was formulated to help recognize the impacts of flexible working environment as an implement for recruitment and retention in World Duty Free Company. The journal articles from EBSCO data base, Cochrane Library, the Joanna Briggs Institute and other reliable articles were utilized for this study. The research studies that were utilized were in the time series of year 2000 to date which helps to ensure that the information retrieved is current and reliable.

The data was recovered from the research studies if it matched the required content and so the first step in the selection process was to scrutinize the abstracts to countercheck the reference of the article to the topic. The next step was to analyse the finding, discussions and conclusions to help eliminate the articles that are not as detailed in relation to the impacts of flexible working environment as a implement for recruitment and retention in the travel retail businesses.

The literature exploration

About 100 citations were retrieved from the data bases but after scanning the titles and the year published, 44 of them were eliminated and the rest of the 56 articles were reconsidered by evaluation of the abstracts. 10 of the articles were eliminated because the content of the abstracts did not relate with the subject topic. The 46 remaining were further reassessed in regard to their findings, discussions and conclusions and 12 of them were eliminated. The remaining 34 articles were relevant to this study because they discussed matters relating to flexible working environments and they were selected for the study.

Instruments

In reference to the collection tools, the interviews will involve the utilization of semi structured survey which will be utilized as an interview guide for the investigator. Some of the queries that will be included in the questionnaire will include;

1. Are flexible schedules offered in your organizations?
2. Are flexible schedules important to the employees?
3. Do employees benefit from flexible working schedules?
4. How do the flexible schedules affect employee’s relationship with their employer?
5. Do you support flexible work schedules and why?

Sample selection

Purposive sampling is the method that will be utilized to develop the taster of the study that is under discussion. This technique belongs to the category of non-possibility selection practices, taster affiliates are usually selected on the basis of their understanding, associations and proficiency in reference to a certain topic (Magruk, 2015). In this study the taster members that will be selected are people that have enough knowledge on flexible working environment. The requirements of the participants are for them to have sufficient academic knowledge and practical experience in the human resource management in order to be able to address the topic of the interviews.

The participants of this study will be individuals in the middle state employment within various travel retail companies within Europe namely;

1. Lagardere Travel Retail
2. Hellenic Duty Free Shops
3. DFS Group
4. Dufry Company
5. World Duty Free

Another instrument that will be use is the tape recorder that will helps to store the data from the interviews before they are later transcribed.

Research process

The interviews will be steered with the human resource managers or the executives that represent each of the company that will be used in this study.  The researcher will hold meetings with the potential participants so as to increase recognition of their partaking in the study. Through the meetings, the investigator will explain to the participants what the research is all about and their role in the study. Each of the interview will be tape recorded which will be later transcribed where a copy of the transcription will be delivered to informants for validity reasons.

Analysis of the data

Content analysis will be used to evaluate the facts collected from the interviews. This is a category of study whereby facts that are gathered are branded in themes and subthemes making it easy to compare (Poggenpoel et al., 2001).  During the investigation, the information collected from the interviews will be evaluated from the extant literature point of view to help identify any unique trends in flexible working conducts and employee retention in the retail industries.

Ethical considerations

This research will focus on some ethical considerations. To begin with, the participants will be required to sign an acceptance and a briefing letter in respect to their involvement in the stud which will help to show that their participation was out of their own consent. The participants will also be expected to sign an interrogation and pulling out letter. The two letters will help in reassuring the contestants that their involvement is deliberate and they could pull out from the study at any point they felt like. The contestants will be wholly educated on the purposes of this research and they will be assured that their responses are private and will only be used for theoretical reasons and only for this study in particular. The researcher will ensure that the participants are safe and they will not be injured or ill-treated either physically or emotionally in the course of the study.

Work plan

Activity	Timeline
Selection of topic	Mid-January
Approval of topic	Early February
Literature Review	Mid Feb - April
Data collection; identifying primary sources	Mid April – mid May
Method development and experiment	Mid May - June
Result analysis	July- mid August
documentation	September
presentation	October

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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