Possibilities of flexible employment in the Hungarian public service regulations

Flexible employment, COVID, public service

In addition to the health, economic and social challenges posed by the COVID-19 virus epidemic, the workplace has undergone tremendous changes. All sectors of the economy have felt the impact upon them, short and long term: the number of businesses close to bankruptcy has increased, and many employers have reduced working hours or headcount. According to the United Nations Labor Organization (ILO) ¹⁾ , about 1.25 billion people, about 38 % of the world´s total workforce, work in the sectors most affected by the epidemic (trade, catering industry, manufacturing, business services, etc.). 80 % of the global workforce lives in countries where jobs have been closed or restricted in some way. These are mainly developed and moderately developed countries; the impact of the crisis is slower in developing countries. The outcome of the process is not yet predictable, where job losses will stop. This depends on the magnitude of the complexity of public interventions. In the health and social sectors most affected by the crisis, the physical risks of working, the psychological burden of overtime and increased responsibility have increased, depending on the severity of the epidemic. In other sectors, however, the biggest risk is mainly the further cascading effect of job losses caused by the downturn and falling demand due to the loss of income. However, the effects of the crisis may be differentiated across sectors. While e.g. in transport jobs, operators have to face reduced downtime or forced redundancies; those working in the freight or public sector have to face years of intense workload growth.

More than half of Hungarian workers work in high- and medium-high-risk sectors such as manufacturing, hospitality and tourism, real estate, transportation or the creative and entertainment industries, according to researchers at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) ²⁾ , who show that what difficulties the global and domestic labor markets face in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. This ratio represents a high degree of exposure, especially considering that the contribution of these sectors to GDP is very high. The economic risks are twofold: on the one hand, industrial output will decrease, and on the other hand, loss of income will reduce purchasing power and demand, experts

Every crisis situation provides an opportunity to induce positive changes. Changed forms of work, extremely fast-changing practices of work coordination and control, challenge organizational leaders to be able to transform established and stable work organization solutions, use resources more flexibly, and rethink their own roles and opportunities.

In the situation created by COVID-19, people experienced new things. Isolation, loneliness, is forcing us all to reevaluate the importance of human relationships, from useful pastime activities to our shopping habits, in almost every area of life. Businesses had to introduce new ways of working: e.g. telework, they tried to stay afloat by building new services, they transformed not only their internal but also their external forms of communication. Governments are also looking for solutions that can quickly and effectively prevent the spread of the epidemic, maintain the purchasing power of the population, and retain jobs to minimize losses from economic downturns.

For today´s employee, the priorities are already completely different from the past decade: flexible conditions and work-life balance are now more important than pay for some positions. Research shows that flexible working is not only good for employees, but also worthwhile for companies“ of course only under certain conditions.

Although more and more companies are trying to implement flexible schedules today, the use of this type work environment in practice is in its infancy both in Hungary and in most parts of the world. Research shows that some employees are afraid to take advantage of similar opportunities so as not to be discriminated against, even though well-thought-out conditions and appropriate methods have been shown to increase employee performance. A Stanford University researcher examined the impact of working from home, which found that the performance of staff working in the home office increased by 13 percent compared to those who performed their duties in an office environment during the same period. In addition, home workers spent three-quarters of an hour more time on their work, were more likely to be available, and took less sick leave than their office workers” so overall, they were much more satisfied with their jobs. That is, it totally doesn´ t matter how long our co-worker runs his dog on a bike during work hours as long as he does his job accurately and effectively. Also an important factor was that home workers dropped out of work for much less time in the two years, were less sick, and spent less time off than office workers. Fluctuation among home workers was essentially halved compared to the control group, which also improved productivity. (It also takes time to hire and train a new staff member, and it can take months for tasks to become routine.) Another direct benefit, which can be translated into HUF, is that a total of $ 1,800-2,000 in annual savings could be shown in office rentals.

More and more people also see between managers and subordinates that the office is a repository of interruptions, not a space for in-depth continuous work. If efficiency is important, companies can hire more and more talented people with telecommuting (because talented individuals prefer telecommuting) who will be able to perform better, reduce turnover, and save money with less real estate rentals. ³⁾