In the 1980 movie Nine to Five, three women kidnap their maniacal manager in order to expose his embezzlement scheme—and give an unrepentant chauvinist his comeuppance. Their original plan falls short, but the company chairman notices a few of the progressive changes that the ladies implemented during their boss's "absence." Productivity increased, morale improved, and the maniacal boss was sent off to South America.
One of the programs they introduced was flexible time, a perk allowing workers to select their own hours. The idea was a fairly new concept for the early 80s, but today it has become a common (and even necessary) recruitment tool.
Flextime is helpful in attracting and retaining employees, and you should consider implementing it in your company.
Time of Their Lives
Flextime can be offered in several ways. The most common are the gliding schedule and the compressed workweek. With gliding schedules, employees choose their own hours: 9-5, 10-6, etc. In compressed workweeks, employees work their allotted hours in fewer than the standard five days a week: say, four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days. These methods leave employees with extra hours, or even days, for family time or the occasional long weekend.
Attending to one's personal life is becoming increasingly important to all workers. Originally, flextime was associated with working mothers who needed more time for their children. But now, 70 percent of both women and men claim they do not have sufficient time with their families, according to a non-profit research firm in New York.
Another recent study by Rutgers University found that 97 percent of workers say that the ability to balance work and family is the most important aspect of a job. They place it ahead of job security, work environment, and relationships with co-workers.
Time on Your Side
Don't think that employees are the only ones who benefit from such programs. Consider what flextime can do for employers, too:
- Keep current employees happy and hard-working by allowing them the time to take care of their personal lives
- Maintain the bottom line by cutting down on the cost of turnovers (recruiting and hiring fees, lost work by the departing employee)
- Cut down on overhead, because flextime employees can share desks and computers
- Provide good customer service; flextime allows offices and phones to be staffed longer each day
And more and more employers are hopping on the bandwagon.
How can your company put together its own flextime program? Take these steps:
- Put together a group to analyze the needs and schedules of affected workers. Assign leadership of the project, and consider bringing in an HR consultant on flexible work options.
- Survey the workers themselves as to what they would like in a flextime program.
- Draft a program. Have the group put together a preliminary flextime system and get even more feedback from workers. Let employees know that their participation in such a program has your full support and will not affect them adversely.
- Implement the program while closely watching its benefits and drawbacks. Give it time to work, and consult with your task force on problems that come up.
Of course, there are some drawbacks to flextime programs as well: Managing employees coming and going at different times; employee fatigue from inconsistent hours; occasional abuse of the flextime system. And not all companies can realistically offer flextime. Factories with assembly lines, for example, need a certain number of people present at all times. In the end it’s up to you as the employer; use your best judgment to determine if a flextime program would work for your company.
- See Will a Flexible Work Schedule Work for Your Company? for more information about this topic.
