101: Flexible schedules

Flexible schedules are becoming more common, a way for employees to better balance home and work, especially with added responsibilities of higher education, long commutes, or multiple jobs. For employers, flexible scheduling is seen as a way to better recruit and retain employees, and to increase their job satisfaction. The manager trusts them to manage their time, right from the start. Availability hours can replace working hours. Team members need time to take children to school and attend their own appointments, while you may need someone who is not necessarily working, but ready for opportunities and emergencies. “Set a defined period of availability hours during the week,” writes Unito CEO Mark Boscher at Entrepreneur.com. “These are periods during which all employees need to be available …These periods shouldn’t be eight hours long. Instead, pick a period of three to four hours at the start or near the end of your typical workday. This should give your team ample time to interact with and support one another, while still providing far greater schedule flexibility,” he writes. Know that it’s better for productivity. The idea that employers can better supervise productivity if workers clock in on site is a myth, with statistics showing working remotely increases productivity, working 1.4 more days per month on average in 2019. FlexJobs.com says remote workers are evaluated on their actual work quality, as opposed to their mere presence in a physical location. Find the best match for your company, advises SHRM.org. Maybe a four-hour workweek, or compressed workweek, works best for your business, depending on its type and size. But flextime may be the way to go for others, or shift work could be the best option. Part-time schedules or job-sharing are other potential ways to handle getting all tasks accomplished, with SHRM recommending an organizational assessment by an outside consultant if necessary.