Effect of Flexible Work Schedules on Employee Perfomance at Safaricom Plc

Abstract

The issue of flexible work practices has received considerable attention since the early 1980s with policies such as labor market deregulation to remove constraints on the form of employment contracts which employers can offer. This research sought to ascertain how workers' job performance at Safaricom PLC was impacted by flexible work schedules. The research was built on the psychological contract theory and the spillover idea. The study utilized a descriptive research methodology and had a single organization as its subject. In descriptive research design studies that additionally make an effort to connect variables, it is appropriate to explain and describe how things relate to one another. 1470 employees from various divisions of Safaricom PLC made up the target audience. The primary data was coded and input into SPSS. The descriptive elements of the research were examined using descriptive statistics composed of means, frequencies, standard deviation, and percentages. The purpose of the research was to ascertain how flexible work schedules influenced employees' performance on the job at Safaricom PLC. The study incorporated four dimensions of flexible work schedules: telecommuting, compressed hours, part time and flexi work arrangements. Data analysis comprised of descriptive and inferential analysis. Based on descriptive statistics, the study found that majority of employees (54.1%) at Safaricom Plc are fulltime employees with majority of those who participated in the study being attached to human resources division (40.2%). In regard to inferential statistics, the study established that telecommuting has a positive (B=0.248) and significant effect (a=0.000) on employee performance. As a result of practicing telecommuting, employees achieve a huge saving in time and commuter costs hence becoming more productive. In addition, telecommuting causes employees to dedicate more time to work as they can easily work early or late, off the set official hours. Additionally, telecommuting lowers absenteeism in proportion to the number of days an employee shows up for work. Compressed hours have a favorable (B=0.293) and substantial (a=0.000) impact on employee work performance, according to the figures calculated. According to the research, working compressed hours affects both an employee's performance during a certain time period and the number of hours they put in to help the company succeed. Compressed hours also guarantee that workers have ample time to participate in extracurricular activities, which improves job satisfaction and performance. The results demonstrate that working part-time has a favorable (B=0.213) and substantial (a=0.000) impact on workers' job performance. Working a part-time schedule reduces an employee's concerns about stress, which improves attention and increases each employee's production. Additionally, part-time employment in the telecommunications industry gives the individual less autonomy, which has an impact on how much work they are required to do. The results show that flexible work schedules significantly and favorably affect employee performance (B=0.606, a=0.000). Flextime is one professional service delivery method identified by the research as having an impact on the volume of favorable customer feedback. Perhaps giving employees greater flexibility in arranging personal obligations at either end of the workday would increase productivity. The research indicated that the features of a flexible work environment explain 43.2% of employee performance, with a moderate correlation between the two components of 0.658, based on the total impact of flexible working schedules on employee performance.