Case Studies
The case studies below are practical examples of how certain retailers have introduced and managed flexible working practices in their businesses. New case studies will be gradually added so come back to this page to learn from the real-life experience of other retailers.
1. Reduced hours
2. Finding their own solutions
3. Part-time store manager
4. Flexibility in rosters
5. Co-managers
6. Area manager working from home on a regular basis.
1. Reduced hours
One clothes retailer has offered their head office staff the option of reducing the length of their week in return for extra pay for the hours worked. Employees then have the choice about how they work these hours. They might choose to reduce their days per week, have some half days off, or take extended lunch hours. They can also choose to have flexibility in their start and finish times.
Everyone taking up the flexibility option must have an agreement with their supervisor. The company expects productivity to improve and that the operation of their department should not be compromised by the arrangement.
The take-up by staff has been very positive. Employees are very happy with the opportunity to improve their work-life balance and the organisation has realised a significant reduction in its wages bill.
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2. Finding their own solutions
A retailer has allowed their merchandising team to redesign their jobs using flexibility options. The motivation for doing this was to bring about greater efficiency, in particular the span coverage of the amount of hours open, to re-invigorate staff and increase their energy and motivation to do their jobs.
One flexible strategy that is being used to achieve this is offering flexible starting and finishing times. Staff choosing to start later and leave later avoid peak-hour traffic, meet their caring responsibilities and have more energy and reduced stress. They tend to “hit the ground running” and therefore are more productive from the moment they arrive at work. Other staff start earlier and leave earlier.
So the combination of rosters provides the employer with a greater coverage of hours and more satisfied employees.
Another flexible option being looked at is a compressed working week where a staff member may elect to spread their working hours over 4 days rather than 5 days.
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3. Part-time store manager
Every business owner knows the value to their business of highly skilled and motivated staff. One retail business owner realised this only too well, so when a highly-skilled store manager wanted to return to work after parental leave, a way to make this happen simply had to be found..
The manager’s needs were satisfied by offering her part-time work (25 hours per week) and because she was retained, the business has benefited from her skill and knowledge. This is a particularly interesting case study because the manager working part-time has two assistant managers both of whom work full-time. There is no problem with the manager working with the assistant managers under this arrangement.
Everyone is happy: the manager because she has retained her position; the assistant managers because they remain full-time and continue to learn from working with such an experienced manager; and the business prospers from the skills of the manager and the growing experience and confidence of the assistant managers. There is little doubt about the success of this arrangement as it has been in operation for five years.
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4. Flexibility in rosters
In one retail chain of stores, the rostering system is not set in concrete, it has built-in flexibility. The managers doing the rosters do so knowing that staff can make changes to the roster to suit their needs. Of course, changes cannot be made without consultation and there is a set of flexible arrangements that the managers and staff must adhere to. The main proviso for the stores is that whatever the flexible roster arrangements might be, the store must maintain or improve its performance.
In some stores, employees have the flexibility to swap rosters or even to swap between stores located near to each other. In another store, rosters are adapted to the particular needs of employees such as caring responsibilities, university study and participation in sport.
The employee feels a greater sense of control over their working time and collegiality with their co-workers. At the same time, business rostering needs are covered, and absenteeism and managerial administration time are reduced.
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5. Co-managers
Sometimes flexibility is about changing our mindsets and considering new ways of approaching a staffing problem. For instance, one store faced with the pleasant problem of choosing between two equally qualified and skilled staff members for the store manager position, decided to solve the problem by allowing the two people to share the position. The two people determined the allocation of tasks and responsibilities between them and jointly report to the area manager.
Without this flexible approach, the store would have most likely lost a valuable staff member who may well have gone off to work for a competitor. The advantages of the shared manager situation for the store is that it has resulted in:
- increased coverage of managerial duties
- increased store performance due to the improved efficiency and effectiveness of store management
- higher employee motivation as there is more than one manager who can respond to their needs
- less reliance on the area manager as the two managers have the other manager to use as a sounding-board
- increased problem-solving capacity
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6. Area manager working from home on a regular basis.
One flexible working arrangement that is growing in popularity is being able to work from home for part or all of the working hours.
One retail business offered to an employee returning from parental leave the option of working from home on a regular basis. The employee was glad to accept this flexible working arrangement because it meant that she could achieve the optimum life-work balance. This equitable arrangement also sent a positive signal to other staff about the value the employer places on experienced and skilled staff.
The business owner is pleased with the arrangement because a valued employee, in whom they had invested time and money and who was good for business, was retained. The alternative was to lose the staff member which would result in the time-consuming and costly exercise of recruiting and training someone else, not to mention the drop in efficiency and turn-over while the new staff member was getting up to speed. Another benefit to the employer was the increase in efficiency arising from working at home where the usual interruptions experienced in any office situation are all but eliminated.
The arrangement has been highly successful for both parties and store performances are currently meeting business expectations.
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