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Analysis of good practice examples3.5 Work-Life Balance (WLB)3.5.1 History of the project and resourcesThe project developed from the interest of anacademic at Glasgow Caledonian UniversityBusiness School, on the topic of work-life balanceand flexible working practices, including how theycan affect gender equality. There was anunderstanding of the fact that ESF and Equal couldbe a coherent framework for the project andtherefore an application was developed andsubmitted under the Equal CI.The overall amount of resources dedicated to theproject was in the order of £171,000, and fundingwas provided by ESF and Glasgow CaledonianUniversity.3.5.2 Objectives, beneficiaries and territorialcoverageAs stated in the final project’s report, theproject’s overarching aim was“to encourage the expansion of the numbers ofMSMEs in Scotland with active flexible workingpractices (FWP) and family-friendly employmentpolicies (FFP). To achieve this aim, a number ofperspectives were explored including currentpractice in work-life balance (WLB) in MSMEs, theviews of potential employees, and representativesof stakeholder organisations with an interest inemployment and economic development” 53It should be noted that, at the beginning, thescope of the project and, more specifically, itsaims, were much broader. For example, the projectintended to study the incidence, nature and valueof family-friendly working practices across ScottishMSMEs. Subsequently, an effort was made tonarrow these aims down and to focus the work tomake it more manageable. In the end, the specificobjectives of the project were defined as fol<strong>low</strong>s:• “to explore the current and alternative natureof work life balance policies; their incidenceand coverage in MSMEs in Scotland;disadvantages and benefits of flexible workingpolicies and practices; and current strategiesfor monitoring their implementation;• to assess the extent to which different andalternative types of flexible work policies andpractices meet the employment and domesticneeds of employees, especially those withfamily and primary care commitments andwomen generally;• to evaluate the awareness, alternatives andstrengths of attraction of flexible work policiesand practices to potential labour marketentrants, especially to women and those withprimary care responsibilities; and• to investigate the perspectives of representativesfrom local development agencies,careers advisory services, local authorities andother institutions with an interest in promotingemployment development and economicstability” 54 .In summary, the project examined ways in whichScottish micro, small and medium-sized firmsconsider and incorporate flexible working practices(FWP) and family-friendly employment policies(FFP); hence the territorial coverage of the projectwas Scottish-wide. This choice was made based onawareness of the existence of a gap in theknowledge of these issues across Scotland.3.5.3 Operational aspectsThe project ran from 2002 to 2005. The empiricalresearch was undertaken between October2002 and September 2004, and a final report waspublished in November 2005. The project teamwas composed of four academics (a visitingprofessor, a senior lecturer and two lecturers) and53 MacVicar A, McDougall M, Bell S, Maxwell S and Rankine L (2005) Work-Life Balance in Smaller Businesses in Scotland: Encouraging the Expansion of Flexible Working Policiesand Practices, Glasgow Caledonian University Business School, Equal Scotland, November 2005, p. 5.54 MacVicar A, McDougall M, Bell S, Maxwell S and Rankine L (2005), Op. Cit.,p.13.27
Gender Equality in Local Economic Development in Scotlanda full time research assistant, most of whom havesince moved from Glasgow Caledonian BusinessSchool to other universities.The work carried out was clearly structured at theoutset and entailed a number of practical steps:• Desk-research to define the issues, understandthe relevance of the topics dealt with to ScottishMSMEs and provide the basis for the empiricalresearch to fol<strong>low</strong>;• The undertaking of preliminary interviews withten Scottish MSMEs owners or seniormanagers;• The preparation and distribution of aquestionnaire to 2,560 MSMEs across Scotland(the survey was carried out in two phases, sincethe returns after the first survey of 1,280 firmswere deemed to be inadequate 55 ; in the end210 responses were obtained);• The development of a database to record theresponses obtained from the survey;• The undertaking of further interviews in tenfirms selected from the survey for thedevelopment of ten good practice case studies(all of which are available from the project’swebsite);• The arrangement of a focus group of potentiallabour market entrants and the undertaking ofinterviews with potential employees tounderstand the views of this group of actorson the topics of FWP and FFP;• The undertaking of interviews with fourstakeholder organisations in the field ofeconomic and business development inScotland;• The creation of a dedicated project websitehttp://www.worklifebalanceresearchsme.org.uk/;• The delivery and dissemination of the finalproject report.The project operated with the support of aSteering Group which included representativesfrom the Equal Opportunities Commission,Scottish Enterprise (the main Scottish economicdevelopment agency), the Federation of SmallBusinesses in Scotland, Fair Play (a genderequality network) and the Confederation of BritishIndustries.3.5.4 Quantitative and qualitative resultsThe research led to a series of interestingfindings and delivered a series of practicaloutputs of immediate relevance for ScottishMSMEs, such as: (i) a model of good practice, (ii)a diagnostic and implementation tool for micro,small and medium businesses to support theintegration of flexible/family-friendly workingpractices in their businesses, and (iii) ten casestudy examples of good practice. The implementationtool, specifically, could be of particularsignificance, as the survey and case study workconducted by the researchers highlighted that acrucial constraint for Scottish MSMEs for theimplementation of FWP and FFP is that they lackthe knowledge of the varied solutions and optionsthat exist, and that they do not know how tooperationalise these. The “Work-Life Balance implementationtool” is a practical response to this.The project also carried out knowledge transfer,by disseminating the key findings of the researchto relevant actors (e.g. through a class for theChartered Institute of Personnel and Development,via conferences, in work with the Chambers ofCommerce etc.). The project’s final report was also55 The survey was administered in paper form and via post (as not all MSMEs would have e-mail) and for this reason there were a lot of changes of address and returned mail.As difficult as it was to obtain 210 returns, this number was only considered sufficient over a population of Scottish MSMEs of around 89,000.28
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