More Than ROI
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More than ROI"working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living, working 9 to 5, it's all takin' and no giving..."
I wonder how many of you remember that movie. It's somewhat outdated, not that many people don't work a set schedule of hours without variation, but I know that fairly set hours are still a part of many companies. I have a number of former JD Edwards friends that work together at a large company in Denver, and they all have "core hours" when they need to be at work. There's some flex, but it's not usually a regular flex every week.
This story is what I think more companies should pay attention to. It's quite a bit of flexibility and working around schedules, but it does let you do one thing to retain employees. You can customize the schedule around what's important to the individual.
Larger companies have an easier time of it since they have multiple offices, usually have VPN or other telecommutting systems in place, and other people that can cover work when someone is off. It can still work in smaller companies if you think about it and have people willing to ensure their work is getting done.
The biggest part of flexible schedules, however, is the need to make work project based and not time based. In other words, expect and ensure workers complete their assignments, regardless of the time it takes. I know I've used this one before with my employers, asking to not be penalized for working more quickly, and getting a little more flexibility and time off.
There is a problem with this strategy. It creates a disparity between those that work quickly and those that don't. I can see workers that struggle to complete their work quickly will feel like they're shouldering more of a burden with longer hours than those that work quickly.
As with most everything, it's a balancing act. Give a little more flexibility to people and take the chance that you'll get better performance out of the group.
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Definitely flexi working.
This week I've started my days at 9:26, 8:38 and 7:42 and before Christmas I had a couple of hours out in the afternoon to go to a school prizegiving and took a day off that used accumulated hours - all perfectly normal under our flexi system.
Sickness and unauthorised absence is lower and many people choose to start earlier and get the day done - most are leaving between 4 and 4:30pm thus avoiding the worst traffic.
There are rules - absence in core hours (10:00 - 12:00 and 14:00 - 15:30) is accountable either as flexi leave or other reasons - off site working, holiday, sickness etc. and at the end of each 4 week period the flexi balance must be between -10 and +18 hours and only two days flexi leave per period can be taken.
For Christmas however we had a week's shutdown and could accrue up to 40 hours flexi in the three months before to take as time off at Christmas or before the January period end.
I would now reject a job offer without flexible working as it has become really important to me and a major factor in my quality of life and staying in an otherwise underpaid job
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