Adaptability of flexi hours concept in the government construction consultancy organizations in Sri Lanka

Abstract

To aid the employees towards balancing their work and personal life (work life balance), most of the organizations (apart to the construction industry) tend to offer flexible working hours. It allows employees to elect their work start and end time, consequently providing them with an opportunity to avoid travelling during peak traffic times. As a solution to overcome from the traffic congestion during peak hours and also to consume energy more efficiently, the selected research topic is essential by being vigilant to the Sri Lankan working culture and economy. Therewith, the timely need of the adaptability of flexi working hours concept to Sri Lankan construction industry is required to address the existing literature gap and to reduce the job stress with in the industry. The purpose of this research is to grasp the real essence of understanding how employees and employers experience about the usage of flexible working hours and how to adapt it to the government sector construction organisations in Sri Lanka by limiting to consultant organizations. The objectives were achieved with qualitative approach and data were collected from two rounds of semi-structured interviews. Findings were analysed with the use of manual content analysis to encode the collected data from the interviews. The study originates minimising work stress, minimising work-family conflicts, and improving business continuity to be major enablers of the flexi-hour concept in any sector and that flexible working hours will enable handling of emergencies. Non-availability of public transport, personal attitudes, restricted technology access, and increased expenses were the barriers identified to implement flexi-hours in any sector. Time and employee management related issues are the barriers to implementing flexi-hours in the construction industry. Thus, changing legislation to accommodate flexi-hours, enhancing awareness about flexi working hours among project stakeholders, and introducing monitoring systems were the strategies suggested for implementing flexi-hours in government construction consultancy organisations.