Revising work time flexibility policies to promote work inclusion (REFLEX)

In REFLEX, we investigate the relationship between work-time flexibility and work inclusion. The combination of work-time flexibility and new technologies like smartphones and laptops has made it easier for many employees to juggle work and home. This is more important than ever as the workforce is aging. On one hand, flexible working hours has proven beneficial for seniors, for workers caring for young children or sick family members, and those with health problems. Flexibility, for example in the form of flexitime or remote work, can help these groups remain in the workforce and thus promote inclusion. On the other hand, flexibility in where and when work tasks are performed can lead to continuous connectivity to work, overwork, burnout, and sickness absence, and thereby contribute to withdrawal from work. In several European countries, a response to these challenges has been a legal right for workers to disconnect from work. However, there is a need for increased knowledge on how to ensure that groups needing flexibility to remain in the workforce receive this, and simultaneously prevent overwork and negative health consequences. REFLEX aims to provide a broad knowledge base for policy development in this field. In the project, researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers collaborate to 1) Map and explore the consequences of various forms of work-time flexibility and connectivity to work through digital tools, at multiple levels (for the individual worker and for work organizations); 2) Analyze and understand political and legal instruments for flexibility; 3) Facilitate learning, development, and knowledge dissemination about best practices in collaboration with relevant stakeholders. REFLEX aims to generate knowledge across different disciplines and methods, and across various perspectives.

Work-time flexibility might be ambigous for workers’ health and subsequent work force attachment. Flexibility is beneficial to maintain full work attachment for seniors, workers with caregiver demands and health issues, but can also lead to unhealthy connectivity and overwork. Connectivity’s harmful effects have fueled new protective legislations, like “The right to disconnect” (RTD) in the EU. Knowledge about RTD is still scarce. REFLEX proposes an interdisciplinary, mixed-method approach, organized in six work packages (WPs). WP1 addresses how or to what degree central dimensions of work time, autonomy (i.e., flexitime-options) and protection (i.e., the right to disconnect) are understood as tools for inclusion in working life, in legal frameworks and by social parties. WP2 co-design an intervention to test disconnection-measures with four schools through Mutual Innovation and Learning Platforms (MILP). We evaluate the results of the intervention for work participation in a pre- and post-test quasi-randomized experimental design (intervention=470/control=3000)(WP3) and a qualitative process evaluation of the implementation processes of employees and managers (80 individual- and 8 focus group interviews) (WP4) to assess connectivity practices and frameworks, and the acceptability/feasibility of a disconnection intervention, before and after the intervention. WP5 examines attitudes and reactions towards after-hours connectivity with regards to work inclusion in a comparative survey-experiment (n=2500), to generalize findings. In WP6, findings from WP1-5 are synthesized with stakeholders to generate guidelines and inform well-aimed policies. All WPs focus on work time policies’ potential to either include or exclude employees from the work force. REFLEX will collaborate with stakeholders to provide a broad and sound knowledge base to design well-aimed policies for work time flexibility and connectivity – to promote work participation and prevent withdrawal.