Quality of Work and Employment in Europe
Working time and work-life balance
in European companies
David Foden
Research Manager
Eurofound
18/12/2008 1

Some general info on the survey
Coverage:
- 15 ‘old’ MS of the European Union
- 6 NMS (Czech Republic, Cyprus, Latvia, Hungary,
Poland and Slovenia)
Telephone interviews in over 21,000 workplaces
Establishments with 10 or more employees, across all
economic sectors : random selection
personnel managers and – where available – employee
representatives
18/12/2008 2

What do we want for work-life
balance?
Introduction or extension of
flexi-time or working-time accounts
A general reduction in
weekly working hours
Introduction or extension of opportunities
for phased retirement
Introduction or extension of opportunities
for early retirement
Reduction of overtime or introduction
of time-off in lieu
Introduction or extension of opportunities
to work part-time
No action needed
Better possibilities to change from un-
usual hours to normal working hours
Introduction or extension of
long-term leave options
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0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

Flexible time arrangements
Flexible working time arrangements exist in almost
half (48%) of companies with 10 or more employees
in Europe
A larger proportion of companies in the services
sector (50%) than in industry (43%) report the
existence of some form of flexibility
18/12/2008 4

Flexi-time arrangements in Europe
LV
SE
FI
UK
PL
IE
CZ
AT
DE
DK
ALL 21
FR
LU
NL
ES
IT
SI
BE
HU
Possibility to use accumulated hours for longer periods of leave
EL
Possibility to use accumulated hours for days off
Possibility to accumulate hours, but no full days off
PT
Possibility to vary start and end of daily work, no accumulation of days
CY
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
18/12/2008 5

Flexible time arrangements
The two main reasons cited by managers for introducing
flexible working arrangements were ‘enabling employees to
better combine work and family (or personal) life’ (68%) and
‘better adaptation of working hours to the establishment’s
workload’ (47%)
Both managers and employee representatives report higher
job satisfaction as the main outcome of the introduction of
flexible working times, followed by a better adaptation of
working hours to the workload
18/12/2008 6

The effects of flexitime
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Reduction of paid Better adaptation Lower Higher job Other positive Communication Rise of costs Other negative
overtime of workloads absenteeism satisfaction effects problems effects
All Managers Managers with corresponding Employee-Representative-Interview Employee Representative
18/12/2008 7

40%
UK
NL
s aeo p r - i esp r e t bs mn ( a e e t whp r - i ee p y e )
h r f at tmr e sa l h e t b s : s. i at tm ml e s o
DE SE
IE
t
DK
LV
BE
AT
FI
FR
ES
CY
i
PL
IT
HU
LU
EL
CZ
PT
SI
0%
100%
% establishments w ith any part-timers (base: A ll establishments)
18/12/2008 8

Forms of part-time work
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
A verage Scandinavia Western Europe A nglo-Saxonia Mediterranean Eastern Europe
Som e fixed hours every day Other fixed cycles Flexible hours on dem and Other form s /DK/NA
18/12/2008 9

Switching to part-time (skilled)
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
United Kingdom
Sweden
Netherlands
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Austria
France
EU21
Ireland
Germany
Latvia
Spain
Poland
Finland
Luxembourg
Italy
Slovenia
Hungary
Cyprus
Portugal
Greece
18/12/2008 Easy to switch Possible, after some time Possible, only exceptionally Practically no chance Never happened 10

Part-time work
A significant proportion of both employee
representatives (41%) and managers* (27%) stated
that working part-time had a negative impact on
career prospects
* 34% of managers in establishments whre an
employee representative was interviewed
18/12/2008 11

Career prospects of part-timers compared to
full-timers with comparable qualifications
70%
61%
60%
57%
49%
50%
40%
30%
25%
22%
20%
16% 16%
12%
11% 11%
10%
9%
10%
1% 1%
0%
0%
All managers Managers with corresponding employee- Employee representatives
representative interview
18/12/2008 12
Better than those of full-timers About the same Slightly worse Significantly worse Don't know/No answer

Family-related leave
In half of all companies (51%) in the survey, at
least one employee has availed of parental leave in
the three years preceding the interview
On average, 30% of the establishments with recent
experience of parental leave reported that one or
more male employees took parental leave
18/12/2008 13

Family-related leave
National systems/ culture : very important here
Possibility / length / generosity
Training programmes to facilitate the re-integration
of employees returning to work after an extended
period of leave are offered by about 22% of all
companies
18/12/2008 14

Companies in which fathers taking parental leave
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
18/12/2008 SI
SE FI PT NL BE UK LU DK IE FR EU21 EL IT ES DE LV AT PL HU CZ CY15

Long term leaves
80%
71%
70%
60%
55%
53%
51%
50% 47%
38%
40% 37% 36%
32% 32%
30%
26%
22%
20%
10%
0%
Total leaves* For the care of elderly, ill or disabled For further education For any other purpose
relatives
18/12/2008 16
Average Private sector Public Sector
* without parental leave

Retirement
Phased retirement schemes are offered in about 37% of
companies in the survey
Phased retirement is more likely to be found in countries that
have broad experience of part-time employment than in
countries with little experience of such work
Early retirement schemes are more widespread: 48% of
companies surveyed offer this
The incidence of early retirement is particularly high
in the education sector (72% of establishments),
in financial intermediation (63%) and
healthcare (61%)
18/12/2008 17

Typology of working time flexibility
Type of WT-flexibility
% of organisations 14% 22% 18% 7% 18% 21%
Indicators
part-time workers (>20%) + + + + - -
irregular hours - + - + -
flexible working hours (>20%) + - + - -
overtime (>20%) + + - + -
parental leave + + - - - -
long-term leave available + + + - - -
early retirement option + + + - - -
facilities for work-life balance + + + + - -
+ + - - -
flexible contracts
See also Table A in handout
18/12/2008 18

High flexibility, worker oriented
% o f e s ta b lis h me n ts
1 7 .0 to 3 3 . 0 (6 )
1 0 .5 to 1 7 . 0 ( 1 0 )
2 .9 to 1 0 . 5 (5 )
18/12/2008 19

High flexibility, firm oriented
% of es tablis hments
25.2 to 28.6 ( 6)
20.8 to 25.2 ( 8)
12.8 to 20.8 ( 7)
18/12/2008 20

Intermediate flexibility: life-course
% of es tablis hments
19.8 to 35.0 (9)
14.4 to 19.8 (8)
5.6 to 14.4 (4)
18/12/2008 21

Intermediate flexibility: day-to-day
% of es tablis hments
9.8 to 12.1 (5)
2.9 to 9.8 ( 11)
1.1 to 2.9 (5)
18/12/2008 22

Intermediate flexibility: overtime
% of establishments
21.5 to 32.3 ( 7)
13.3 to 21.5 ( 8)
6.7 to 13.3 ( 6)
18/12/2008 23

low flexibility
% of e s tab lis h me n ts
33.1 to 50 .8 (6 )
18.8 to 33 .1 (7 )
7.4 to 18 .8 (8 )
18/12/2008 24

Distribution of company types within
industry and services
35
high flexibility, worker
oriented
30
high flexibility, firm
25 oriented
% of establishments
intermediate
20 flexibility, lifecourse
intermediate
15
flexibility, day-to-day
10 intermediate
flexibility, overtime
5
low flexibility
0
Industries (NACE C-F) Services (NACE G-O)
18/12/2008 25

Distribution of company types within
private and public sector
30
high flexibility, w orker
25
oriented
high flexibility, firm
oriented
% of establishments
20
interm ediate
flexibility, lifecours e
15
interm ediate
flexibility, day-to-day
interm ediate
10
flexibility, overtim e
low flexibility
5
0
private s ector public s ector
18/12/2008 26

Relation of WT flexibility to
firm’s performance
High Intermediate Low
worker- firm-
oriented oriented life-course day-to-day overtime
+ -
Economic situation very good 16%
+ + - - -
Personnel size increased 34%
+ - + -
Problems finding skilled staff 35%
+ -
Problems retaining staff 9%
+ - - + -
Low motivation of staff 16%
+
Social climate very strained 4%
+ - +
Work-life balance very difficult 6%
18/12/2008 27

Summing up
•Based on observed practices in ESWT: 6 types of firms
regarding WT-flexibility
•Typology is more subtle than ‘more vs. less flexible’
working time flexibility is not a 1-dimensional concept
•Substantial variation within and between countries
•No strong relation between high flexibility and ‘performance’
differences between types of flexibility at least as important
18/12/2008 28

Further information
European Foundation website www.eurofound.eu.int
Company survey page
http://www.eurofound.eu.int/areas/worklifebalance/eswt.htm
Publications
http://www.eurofound.eu.int/publications/index.htm
Or email Camilla Galli da Bino: gdb@eurofound.eu.int
18/12/2008 29