The name is absent



Aliki Mouriki

Diagram 1: Types of flexibility and security

TYPES OF FLEXIBILITY

TYPES OF SECURITY

external numerical

flexibility:

possibility to vary the
amount of labour in
response to even short-term

changes in demand

•   fixed-term

employment
contracts,
temporary agency
work

• subcontracting

• outsourcing

• easy hiring & firing
procedures (low
EPL index)

job security:

expectation of a high

job tenure with the same

employer

(objective and subjective
job insecurity)

•   indefinite duration

contracts (workers
in public sector or
large companies)

• high EPL index

• reduced working
hours

• early retirement

internal numerical
flexibility:

possibility to change the
number of hours worked
and to determine the
working time schedules

•   part-time work

•   overtime work

•   night and shift

work

•  weekend working

•   compressed

working week

employment security:
degree of certainty to get
a new job if loosing the
current one, even with a
different employer
(employability=
marketability of
individual cumulative
skills)

• active labour
market policies

• education, training,
LLL

functional flexibility:
possibility to quickly
redeploy employees to other
tasks and activities

• task rotation

• multitasking

• job enrichment

•   flexible organisation

of work

• training

• team autonomy

income security:

protection of income in case
of sickness, unemployment
or maternity

(vulnerability)

• UB, social benefits

• minimum wage

• supplementary
benefit for working
fewer hours

financial flexibility:

possibility to alter
standardised pay structures

•   wage flexibility

• performance

related pay

• local adjustments in
labour costs

• reductions in SS

payments

• bonus, fringe
benefits

combination security:
possibility to combine paid
work with private life and
social responsibilities

• different types of
leave schemes

• voluntary working
time arrangements

• early retirement

Source: Eurofound, 2008a, “Employment security and employability: a contribution to the flexicurity debate”

The above scheme is far from being flawless and unproblematic, as it assumes that the vast variety
of business strategies and of labour market situations encountered in real life can actually fall into 16
well defined boxes of “ideal types” of flexibility and security.

In their widely known work, Wilthagen and Tros (2004) take this scheme a step forward and
establish a matrix identifying the possible combinations between the four types of flexibility and the
four types of security to produce a set of possible flexicurity policy mixes (see Diagram 2).

Page • 12



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