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Being flexible with work hours
Flexibility is the new buzzword in the 21st century workplace. And it's not just for women with children. Flexibility is fast becoming the ‘in' way of working for people of all ages, regardless of their life stage and gender.
Traditionally, many employees have been used to working to very specific rules relating to their hours on duty.
The following sort of arrangement was the norm and is still common:
Hours of Work : The normal workday for employees consists of eight consecutive hours of work starting at 8am with an unpaid meal period no later than 5 hours after the start of the workday. Daily and weekly schedules may be changed from time to time at the discretion of the organisation to meet varying conditions. Changes will be announced as far in advance as possible.
Today, however, many workplaces are very different. At the University of Western Australia , the following policy applies:
"General staff should, as far as the requirements for the proper functioning of the school allow, work flexible hours of duty. When considering the 'requirements for the proper functioning of the school', Heads of School are requested to ascertain employee preferences. In some cases, it will not be possible to meet the employees wishes, therefore, alternatives should be explored to see whether a mutually acceptable arrangement can be worked out."
It seems the emphasis is very much on collaborative agreement. Partly this trend is a symptom of the push for greater work/life balance. But also, it is partly driven by the fact that employers have found that significant productivity gains take place where people have choice about their hours.
For the uninitiated, flexitime or flexible time is the term used to define work schedules that allow flexible starting and quitting times within limits set by management. The flexible hours could vary accordingly, like at either end of the day, with a core time in the middle during which all employees must be present.
Usually, flexitime requires employees to work a standard number of hours within a given time period like 7 am to 7 pm . The employer can adapt flexitime to the organisation's needs by deciding whether flexibility is a daily or a periodic choice, how core time is defined and whether banking of hours is allowed.
Since some employees will want to begin their workday earlier than usual starting time, and others will want to come in later and stay beyond the usual closing time, flexitime can enable the organisation to improve its coverage or extend its services hours. This, in turn, often reduces the need for overtime which translates into effective cost-savings.
Anecdotal evidence and much workplace research shows numerous reasons for flexitime's positive impact on productivity. Benefits of flexitime include:
- Reductions in paid absences,
- Better organisation of work because meetings, telephone calls and visits are concentrated into core hours,
- People can schedule work according to their own biological clocks, and
- Improved employee morale and job satisfaction.
Furthermore, reductions in tardiness and turnover have been observed in companies that use flexitime. Hours of work or service can be expanded and telephone communication with other time zones may be improved. In using flexitime, employees can cover for co-workers on different schedules and some employers have observed a cross-training effect that expands employee skills.