Part-time, less hours favoured to achieve work-life balance
James Debono Private sector employees are demanding more and more to switch to part-time employment to achieve a better work-life balance, according to 75.7% of businesses that were surveyed by the Employment and Training Corporation.
Additionally, this was followed by requests to reduce working hours and work on a flexi-time basis.
The demands appear to be met with favourable responses: when probed about whether they were actually implementing such measures, 77% of employers indicated they were already implementing forms of work-life reconciliation measures in their company.
But companies operating in the manufacturing, construction and real estate sectors were the least likely to implement these measures. Some employers claimed there was no need to introduce such measures because their workforce was either predominantly male, unmarried or made up of mainly new graduates who had neither family nor other commitments as yet.
Some 44.5% of the respondents pointed out that employees making requests for work-life reconciliation measures were generally married or have a partner.
Persons working at supervisory and/or management or senior management levels were less likely to make such requests.
Employers were most likely to grant requests for reconciliation measures when these were tied to family matters: 96.7% were positively inclined to grant such requests; 77.9% were likely to agree to such requests when related to further education; and up to 71% for voluntary or philanthropic work.
However, employers were less likely to accept requests on measures related to sports.
The survey also revealed that 66% of private sector employers agree that the government should extend school opening hours, while 54% of them welcomed the possibility of flexible working arrangements for female employees returning to work after maternity leave.
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