When an employee wakes up at 5:30 in the morning for 20 years someone has to think that this sometimes becomes very routine and boring. Get up at 5:30, be at work at 8 and then watch the clock until 4 that afternoon. This describes many peoples’ attitudes to their workday. What if they are a night person and say could work from 11 that morning to 7 in the evening? This is the idea of flextime and it is gaining in popularity in the United States’ major and smaller corporations.
Flextime is basically allowing an employee to pick the hours of their workday around the core mid-day hours, such as 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. They determine their own starting and stopping hours to best suit them, but they must still put in their regular weekly hours of work. In practice most employers only give employees a limited amount of freedom in choosing their hours, such as an employee has to be in by 10 A.M., but to a mother who needs to have a few more hours of rest in the morning this could make a huge difference in her attitude toward work, job performance, and absenteeism. These are just a few advantages of the flextime work arrangements.
“At Ernst and Young, the focus is on results, not face time,” says Denny Marcel, a member of the company’s New York-based Office for Retention. “Employees know that they can choose flexible work arrangements (FWA) and still be competent. We empower people to decide how, when, and where they get their jobs done.” Flextime often gives employees a sense of empowerment and motivation to their jobs. Flextime scheduling often works as a motivator. By letting employees more or less set their own hours, an employer is telling them two things: “I trust you to put in the time and to be productive,” and, “This is your chance to show you can be a self-starter.” Both of those are powerful motivating messages.
Flextime can also help retain a company’s most prized employees. This excerpt is from a September 2001 issue of Sales and Marketing Management.
“One morning in 1998 Bruce Fleischmann, a sales manager with Pfizer, was out making calls with a salesperson who had just returned from maternity leave. Fleischmann noticed that the woman, whom he knew well, just wasn’t herself. She seemed anxious and preoccupied. So Fleischmann asked if something was on her mind. “She just burst into tears,” he recalls. “She said she felt torn about whether or not to be home with her child or at work; that even though she liked her job, it was tough to do that and be a new mother.” A few weeks later the salesperson quit, unable to find a way to combine work and parenting. “It’s a typical situation,” Fleischmann says. “Her productivity was high and from a financial point of view, it costs Pfizer tens of thousands of dollars to replace someone at that level of sales,” Fleischmann says. “It’s downright painful to lose them.”
In an effort to stem the turnover of productive salespeople like these, Pfizer recently began offering a limited number of its highest performers the opportunity to work shorter, more flexible hours. Flextime reps would work 60 percent of a full-time schedule, with several scheduling options to choose from. Their income would also be scaled back to 60 percent, but bonuses, awards, and health benefits would stay the same.”
As one can see that if an effective flextime program would have been in place at Pfizer loosing valued employees such as this could be avoided. Not only does Pfizer face the task of hiring a new salesperson, but also must pay to train the new salesperson as stated in the example. Many employers have no idea that they have lost a valued employee because of an unfilled lack of flexibility.
Flextime can also help attract the most talented of employees to work for a company. When employees see that a corporation cares about their personal lives and their well being then the company will be one that many people will want to work for. In fact according to the book 100 Best Companies to Work for in America, one of the top areas for improvement has been sensitivity to work and family issues. Many of the companies cited in the book showed major advancement in dealing with the problems of family care and flexible work schedules, offering such options as flextime. Flexible working hours are also more important than money to many new job seekers. Flexible working hours are more important than money for nearly a third of people looking for a new job, according to a recent survey. The online poll, carried out by recruitment website reed.co.uk with the Department of Trade & Industry’s Work-Life Balance campaign, surveyed more than 4,000 job-seekers. They found that 68% of jobseekers would like the chance to work more flexible hours when necessary. 77% of parents with children under the age of six said that work/life balance is an important factor in deciding whether to apply for a new job, and 60%of workers view their work/life balance as an important factor in deciding whether to take a new job. Flextime is a major advantage to companies who are seeking new talented employees.
In fact just having a flextime program in place also reduces stress on the job. “Most of those employees won’t actually take advantage of flextime, but just knowing they can take advantage of it makes all the difference,” says Maria Bailey, founder of Blue Suit Mom .com, a work/life balance consultancy based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Having a flextime program gives a sense of comfort to employees, and allows them the freedom they need when they might need it. Having this reduces job related stress tremendously.
Flextime can also lead to loyalty to the company from the employee. With the economy in a downturn many employees are not looking to change jobs at this moment, and with money tight companies want to keep employees. Flextime offers ways in which employees can work hard when they want to. An employee is more loyal to a company who works with them and gives them more options than just a paycheck. Many employees view loyalty as a two way street in which the employer must show loyalty to them also. Flextime is a great way to show the loyalty that the employee deserves.
Flextime is a flexible hour program that could very well change the way work is done in America. Flextime can lead to less stress, better employees, employee loyalty, employee retention and motivated employees. If a flextime program is not an integral part of a corporation it is not only the employees who loose, but also the corporation. More than a quarter of full-time workers, or 25 million people, work flexible schedules. With the benefits of flextime and other flexible options both employees and employers can benefit from their advantages.
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