Flexible benefit plans in Dutch organisations

Flexible benefit plans give employees a greater say over the composition of their benefits than traditional Dutch benefit plans. These arrangements developed in a time of further individualisation, increasing flexibility in the workplace, and a tight labour market in the Netherlands. By giving employees a choice in the way they are paid, employers hoped to become more attractive employers, and lend a helping hand to employees who were combining work and care. In this study, flexible benefit plans (FBPs) were researched on two levels: the choice of organisations for an FBP and the choices employees made within such arrangements were both addressed. The theoretical model for the analysis of the organisational choice for an FBP consisted of a combination of rational choice and institutional pressure, as used before to explain the occurrence of new HRM arrangements. This was augmented with a third perspective, that of the organisation's sense of itself as an employer. Besides efficiency or cost considerations and a desire to fit in in their institutional surroundings, organisations were expected to judge the costs and benefits of an FBP also on the extent to which it fitted in with the general nature of other HRM arrangements they offered their employees. Data were collected amongst over 600 Dutch organisations in the market sector. Analyses revealed that bussiness considerations play a minor role in the choice for an FBP, if any. Institutional surroundings do affect this choice, particularly the behaviour of other organisations and the absence of an industry collective labour agreement. FBPs were also more common in organisations that offered many flexible and work-family oriented working arrangements. Employees' choices were expected to be affected by work and household. Data about their choices were collecte in two organisations and amongst members of a large trade union. The way benefits are paid out could be improved upon for a considerable number of employees. Participation in an FBP was particularly worthwhile for fulltime employees, higher earners and parents. The fact that participation in an FBP is more attractive to 'full members' of organisations raises questions of fairness. The majority of participants in the FBPs changed the balance between time and money in their pay. In the two organisations employees chose overwhelmingly for selling their time off, the trade union members exhibited more balanced behaviour in this respect. Time selling was popular amongst parents of older children, while parents of younger children chose more often for extending their annual leave. Selling leave also turned out to be a way employees could correct the balance between their actual working times and their annual leave. There is a considerable group of workers who do not take all their annual leave, this allows them to trade the excess in for something more useful. Employees' opinion of their employer played an unexpected role, and this may be related to whether or not people sell their time off. Contrary to expectations, the lower the grade people gave their employer, the more likely they were to have sold their time off. This suggests that the opinion of the balance between time and money in people's reward influences their time choices, and raises questions about the actual extention of working time that results from these trades

Het gebruik van een meerkeuzesysteem arbeidsvoorwaarden

Contains fulltext : 67429.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Keuzemodellen komen sinds het einde van de jaren tachtig in steeds meer Nederlandse organisaties voor. Zij bieden werknemers de mogelijkheid om de samenstelling van hun arbeidsvoorwaardenpakket te wijzigen, zodat zij die arbeidsvoorwaarden kunnen kiezen die het best bij hun situatie passen. Met behulp van logistische regressieanalyses onderzoekt de onderhavige studie het keuzegedrag van werknemers van een Nederlandse universiteit (N=488) in een dergelijk keuzemodel en de invloed van de werk- en huishouden- situatie op dit keuzegedrag. Daarbij wordt in het bijzonder aandacht besteed aan de keuze voor meer of minder verlof. Het onderzoek laat zien dat de werknemers vooral kiezen om verlof in te ruilen voor een andere, meestal financiële arbeidsvoorwaarde. Zowel de werk-, als de huishoudensituatie blijkt van invloed op de deelname aan het keuzemodel, en de keuze die werknemers binnen het keuzemodel maken. De mogelijkheid die een keuzemodel werknemers biedt om de samenstelling van hun beloning aan hun voorkeur aan te passen wordt door de werknemers van deze universiteit duidelijk benut

Onderzoek Publicatieculturen NWO-MaGW

Onderzoek naar de verschillen in publicatieculturen tussen de disciplines van het NWO gebied Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen

Trading Time and Money: Work and Household Effects on Employee Participation and Leave Choices in a Flexible Benefit Plan

Contains fulltext : 46346.pdf (preprint version ) (Open Access

The future of the Dutch public library: ten years on

The public library is the biggest cultural institution in the Netherlands, with around 4 million members and 130 million items lent each year. Inspite of this, the library is under pressure: membership numbers and borrowings have been declining steadily for several years. In the last six years the public libraries have been working together with local, provincial and national authorities on a 'library renewal' programme. From an organisation primarily concerned with lending books, the library is being transformed into a cultural centre which is active in five domains: knowledge and information, development and education, arts and culture, reading and literature, and meeting and debate. Meanwhile, rapid changes have been and are taking place in society and in the world of information and culture. This study describes relevant developments within and outside the Dutch public library sector and relates them to each other. Based on these observations, the report outlines two possible futures for the position of the public library in the Netherlands ten years from now. In the first scenario, trends continue at the same rate and the public library gradually loses support. In the second possible future, the present trends accelerate and the threats are greater. These two future projections are followed by an analysis of the deficiencies that could arise from a social perspective in both cases. In conclusion, a number of suggestions are put forward for action by the sector and the public authorities to counter these deficiencies. The central focus is on the substantive renewal of the library service

De openbare bibliotheek tien jaar van nu

De openbare bibliotheek is de grootste culturele instelling van ons land met zo'n 4 miljoen leden en 130 miljoen uitleningen per jaar. Toch staat ze onder druk. De ledentallen en het aantal uitleningen dalen al jaren gestaag. De afgelopen zeven jaar hebben de openbare bibliotheken en de gemeentelijke, provinciale en landelijke overheden samengewerkt aan 'bibliotheekvernieuwing'. Van een organisatie gecentreerd rondom de uitleen van boeken is de bibliotheek aan het veranderen in een cultureel centrum dat op vijf gebieden actief is: kennis en informatie, ontwikkeling en educatie, kunst en cultuur, lezen en literatuur, ontmoeting en debat. Ondertussen gingen en gaan de veranderingen in de samenleving en in de wereld van informatie en cultuur in hoog tempo door. In deze studie worden de relevante ontwikkelingen binnen en buiten de openbare-bibliotheekbranche op een rij gezet en met elkaar in verband gebracht. Het rapport schetst op basis daarvan twee mogelijke beelden van de maatschappelijke positie van de openbare bibliotheek over tien jaar. In het eerste beeld gaan trends in hetzelfde tempo door en verliest de bibliotheek geleidelijk draagvlak. Voor het tweede beeld is uitgegaan van een versnelling van de trends en zijn de bedreigingen groter. Daarop volgt een analyse van de tekortkomingen die in beide gevallen vanuit maatschappelijk oogpunt zouden kunnen ontstaan. Afsluitend worden handreikingen geboden voor wat de branche en de overheden kunnen doen om die tekortkomingen tegen te gaan. Centraal daarin staat de inhoudelijke vernieuwing van de dienstverlening

Working times and flexible benefits: Employee choices in a new work-family arrangement

Flexible benefits were first offered by Dutch organisations in the late 1980s. In a flexible benefit plan, employers give their employees the opportunity to change the composition of their benefits, so that the employees can choose those benefits that suit them best. The opportunities to sell or buy time off, particularly, make this arrangement interesting from a Work-Family point of view. We researched who participated in the flexible benefits plan, and who used the plan to adjust the balance between money and time off in their pay amongst employees of a Dutch university . We focused on the effects of the household and work situation on these choices, in order to examine whether flexible benefits can help employees to better combine work and household. Participation in the FBP turned out to be high. Employees in these organisations mostly opted to sell their leave, very few people used the FBP to acquire more free time. Both household and job characteristics influenced participation in the flexible benefits plan, and the choice to sell time off. A flexible benefit plan gives employees the option tochange the composition of their pay to their personal preferences and it is clearly being used by employees of this university

Onderzoek Publicatieculturen NWO-MaGW

Onderzoek naar de verschillen in publicatieculturen tussen de disciplines van het NWO gebied Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen