Getting a Life

B. Underline the parts of the article which helped you to decide on the missing paragraphs, then compare with a partner.

Matthew Brown on how one council solved its staff turnover problem by giving workers control over their hours.

Six months ago, Carol Wyatt was on the verge of leaving her job as an inquiry officer in the housing benefit department of Merton council, south London. It wasn't that she didn't like it; she had even taken a salary cut to take the post in November last year. But the journey to work was taking its toll.

1)

Normal flexi-time did not apply to the job and Wyatt told her line manager she wanted to leave. She was not the only one. As the authority's assistant chief executive, Keith Davis, readily admits, the council was hardly what they call an employer of choice.

2)

Prompted by the public services union Unison, Merton applied for - and won - £50,000 from the government's challenge fund to pilot a 'work-life balance' scheme in three departments, including housing and council benefits. A programme was devised after a series of focus groups, run by consultancy Briony Group, in which employees were asked to say how they would like to work in an ideal world. Staff raised concerns about rigid working times and inflexible core hours and came up with suggestions for a four-day week and homeworking.

3)

So what changed? Office hours were extended, so that people can now work any time between 7am and 7pm, and core hours were abolished. Staff can take time off as and when they need it to meet other commitments, as long as they make it up and meet their targets. Now as little as half an hour can be taken, even at short notice. Previously, everyone had to book a half day's leave in advance.

4)

Other people arrive later in the morning after taking their children to school, or take time out when they have appointments; some people like to work late, when it is quieter; and others work at home some days so that they can be there when the plumber calls, or the new sofa is delivered.

5)

Davis is adamant that the scheme is not a backhanded way of improving council services and extending working hours. He says: "Of course, there are some basic rules - mainly, that the service comes first. People have to commit to that. But we're finding that staff are working together to cover each other. They come up with the arrangements themselves. There's a lot of self-rostering."

6)

Far from taking it away, Davis is now extending the scheme across the authority, introducing six-month trials in three more departments this month. He is even looking at ways of introducing a nine-day fortnight. "Now we're asking: 'Why can't it work?' rather than just saying: 'It can't work.' The only thing that could stifle it is lack of imagination."

A According to deputy benefits manager Rebecca Strang, it was clear within two weeks that the new system was going to work well for all concerned. "It made all our lives easier," she says. "The staff were happier, team morale went up, and there was more incentive to finish workloads. If the new system was taken away now, there'd be World War III in my office."

В She had to be in for 9am, when the phones started ringing, but that meant caring for her elderly mother (and her dog) every morning before braving the rush hour traffic. "I used to get quite stressed sitting on the bus, hardly moving, knowing there was nothing I could do about it," she says. "I don't handle that sort of thing too well."

С Although not all ideas were taken up, the pilot has been an unqualified success: sickness levels in the housing benefit section have dropped by half, productivity is up, a backlog of cases has been dealt with - and Wyatt is still there. Merton was recently held up by the government as a model of good practice for public sector employers, and has published a national guide to work-life balance, funded jointly with Unison.

D A survey published last month rams this point home. It reveals that half the employees interviewed were unaware of the job options on offer to make their lives easier. Managers also confided that while they sympathised with workers' needs, it was difficult to agree to requests for flexible working hours or unpaid leave when staff were often already stretched to the limit.

E "We had recruitment problems, high levels of sickness and high staff turnover," he says. "And there was a general feeling that staff morale was low. We felt we needed to do something pro-active."

F The cynic may think it is all a good management ploy to increase working hours and produce a flexible workforce, but that's not how the union sees it. "The main thing is that it empowers staff," says Sean Cunnisse, Unison's branch secretary at the authority. "Although a manager can still say 'No', now they have to justify their decision, rather than staff having to justify why they should be allowed time off."

G Wyatt now goes to work early, arriving well before 9am to avoid the morning traffic, and leaves mid-afternoon. "It has made all the difference," she says. "It really does make you feel you've got more control over your life. It gives me a chance to organise my working time around my other needs."

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