Enhancing Employee Morale by Providing Felxible Workweek Options: A Success Story in Sharjah

Abstract Since UAE has adopted a shorter workweek since the new year -2022, to align with global markets, many organizations have had to implement measures to adhere to this change. Sharjah National Oil Corporation has decided to provide their employees with multiples flexible weekend options to choose based on their convenience. A survey was conducted on the options provided to employees, for their feedback and effectiveness of this new change. The employees had been provided with 3 flexible weekend options containing all details regarding working hours, work schedule, effect on leave entitlement etc. These options were circulated to all employees, and a meeting was conducted to address any questions on the options provided. Employees adopted the new options and a survey was conducted to evaluate the Effectiveness of the new weekend policy and its impact on business and team performance after the 3-month mark. The survey questions were categorized based on employees personal, team and business perspectives. Employees were sent a link to complete the survey online regarding their feedback and evaluation A total of 86.5% of SNOC employees have participated in the survey, 13.5% of employees did not participate due to non-interest or absence from work. The results showed that 87.16% of employees are willing to stick with their current weekend selection for the remainder of 2022, 12.84% of employees wanted to change their option due to personal convenience and productivity levels. Majority of employees have agreed that employee morale has increased and work-life balance has improved based on the new weekend policy change. 87% of employees have agreed that there has been no negative impact on their "personal" work productivity and 74% of employees have agreed there is no negative impact on "team" productivity due to the weekend change. Only 7% of employees agreed that the new weekend policy caused disruptions in day-to-day communications with colleagues and 6% agreed there was a negative effect on communication with vendors and other business entities. Overall majority of employees have been positively impacted with the changes and agreed that the flexible options have provided them with more work life balance and has not impacted their work productivity. However, employees have remained neutral on the increase of employee engagement since the policy update. This paper helps to give better insight on how flexible weekend options can improve employees work life balance and productivity by giving them the flexibility to choose their own work schedule based on their convenience.