Shawnee Love   •  
July 13, 2016

In today’s busy world, flexibility is something employees are asking for and expecting from their employers.  Flexibility of working hours is a major attraction as long as paycheques aren’t affected.  I.e., flexibility doesn’t imply a random schedule (aka not guaranteed) of anywhere between 2 and 40 hours per week. Rather it means that the commitment of total hours exists, but the employee has flexibility to adjust hours or come and go as long as the work gets done.

In practice, employers who have embraced employee-centric flexibility in hours will:

• Typically have standard business hours published,
• Allow people to start earlier or later and finish earlier or later as long as there are enough people available during core business hours to meet operational needs,
• Not have established break times (people can stop and start as it suits them),
• Permit employees to take time off during the work day and make it up later (or earlier),
• Trust employees to be doing the work and delivering on commitments,
• Support working from home if the employee needs to.

Frankly, not every work environment fits these types of practices.  As such, it is important when considering how to offer flexibility, that you do a deep dive into business needs, operational systems and your culture.  Sometimes the square peg of employee-centric flexibility will not fit into your round business.

How has your business approached flexibility for your employees’ sake?