Being Flexible About Workplace Flexibility

Wednesday, March 25, 2015 TimeTec 0 Comments


There is nothing wrong with sticking to the regular working hours; it has been there for ages. Employees are familiar with what is expected of them and having regular working hours will keep them in line with the company’s imposed disciplines perfectly. Ideally, that is what all employers are gunning for, one system that fits all, having all ducks in a row. In reality however, employees come from diverse economic backgrounds, they have their own set of family history; each carries with them their own set of problems or situations. People have sick family members to take care of, elderly people need attention, children need to be attended to when babysitters aren’t available, and various other problems or there are some employees who prefer to report to work at certain times in order to remain creative and productive.

Applying flexibility in scheduling might not be able to solve problems across the company but it helps to tackle a few common problems of employees and in turn can become a great tool to improve recruitment, retention and at the same time addressing employee diversity, putting the company in a better light as a company that cares. 

What is flexible scheduling? It simply means that employer needs to tweak schedule effectiveness by redefining how and when work gets done. It might not be applicable for every employee but it can be a great tool for select employees who require the adjustments in order to thrive in their positions. Providing workplace flexibility is not playing favors but it provides alternatives for good employees who can excel if the flexibility is provided. Flexible scheduling focuses on the total number of hours an employee works instead of adhering to the standard one-start and one-stop generic work hours. 

For example an employer can consider flexible time where the check in time is not fixed at 9am, instead the affected employees can come 60 minutes late and they’ll check out 60 minutes later, bringing their total work hours the same as everybody else yet they are given ample time to deal with inevitable things that need to be attended to in their lives like sending children to school, take care of the elderly, enough time to breastfeed the baby, and etc. With the flexibility provided, it will improve employee engagement, job satisfaction and also reduce stress in their everyday lives tremendously with that little nip on timing. 

In TimeTec employer can set the rules of flexi schedule making sure it complies with the company’s time rules and the law.
TimeTec allows administrators to determine the type of Flexi Schedule suitable for a certain individuals or groups.
Another tool which employer can experiment and implement is Compressed Workweeks. Basically if an employee is scheduled for 8 hours per day 5 days a week (40hours total), Compressed Workweeks will allow the employee to work 10 hours per day for 4 straight days. It doesn’t change the total work hours but it adds a couple more hours daily to cater to those hours on the 5th day. However, employers need to make sure that the hours requested by the staff comply with labor law and does not pose any risk to the company. An employee might want to go 16 hours on Monday, 16 hours on Tuesday and 8 hours Wednesday; but company needs to be mindful as to whether the law allows that. The simple rule is an employee must have the same total work hours but compress them into shorter workdays. 

All time computations are intact in TimeTec for reviews and audit.

A company can also launch utilize Compensatory Time program to provide employees with flexibility the workplace. With this program, an employee can use to take time off instead of getting paid for their additional hours worked in excess of their normal work hours plus the weekly overtime. To implement Compensatory Time Program, HR and employees need to be aware of law compliance and the company must have a systematic way of recording time data and rates of the working schedule as to provide fairness to both parties involved. 

Ultimately a company expects each of its employee to perform as expected, and with the changing dynamics of today’s workforce, applying flexibility in the workplace in terms of scheduling is not only desired but it has been proven to boost the staff’s morale, productivity, creativity and contribution for the stressors of everyday life has been reduced significantly with a slight adjustment in the timing. 

TimeTec comes with flexible schedule settings that can comply with America’s work rules and regulations. Check out www.timeteccloud.com


0 comments: