From Employers' Concern to Employee Action: A Self-Assessment Checklist for Flexible Work Arrangements

Informed by the survey responses of 367 employers and built on the qualitative data of a study with a sample of eight representative employers in Singapore, this article introduces a checklist for employees to pre-evaluate their flexible work arrangement (FWA) requests. Based on the challenges commonly raised by employers in the study, our checklist considers four evaluation criteria, including operational feasibility, employees' reasons for requesting FWA, employment status, and arrangement period, to determine the feasibility of their request. A further work productivity assessment is developed for employees to identify and address potential issues they may encounter during FWA that they can use to negotiate the methods and deliverables they can offer to support their requests. We reviewed the FWA research literature and conclude that the deployment of flexi-load work arrangements may give businesses a competitive advantage in attracting diverse and underutilised labour pools.