Flexible staff scheduling can be a great incentive to offer employees. As well, leaders can reduce staffing costs by implementing a flex plan and overlapping the schedules of employees.
Flex Plan Assessment
In order assess whether flex scheduling will work with your team, consider the following questions:
- Do all of the team members need to be on the job at the same time?
- Do some projects or processes only require a few of the team members?
- Are there some key positions that must be staffed from nine to five?
- Are there multiple people in each role whose schedules could be staggered?
- Can projects that are assigned to my team be completed on time and on budget with employees working on flexible schedules?
- Is there buy-in with the other departments that work closely with my team?
- Has flexible scheduling been introduced in other departments or locations?
- Are there times in the day that are less busy than others?
- Are there times in the month that are less busy than others?
- Will customer service suffer if we move to a flexible scheduling?
- Will there be issues with security or building maintenance if office hours are extended before 8 am or after 5 pm?
Flex Plan Options
Variable Work Schedules: The employee works full-time hours but not the within the standard office hours and/or not a standard five day work week. For example, the daily schedule can be extended to cover enough time to allow for a day off every second week. Increasing the daily schedule by 47 minutes (reduce the lunch hour to 43 minutes and increase the work hours to 8:30 am to 5 pm) would allow for a day off every second week.
Voluntary FT Reduction: The employee voluntarily reduces his or her schedule to less than full time hours and takes a pay cut. Typically, the reduction is only a few hours (8-16 hours over a two week period) to ensure that benefits are maintained.
Other Flex Options
- Job Sharing – two employees share full-time hours over a two week rotation.
- Telecommuting – employees work from home by remote access and mobile technology
Once you have established that a flex plan will work for your team and business, consider setting up the new scheduling for a trail period of three to six months. Plan the trial over a production peak period to fully assess the impact of the change.
Flexible scheduling can attract exceptional talent that require a flexible schedule for life work balance. If an accommodation can be made, it demonstrates how your company is progressive and innovative with its human resources practices.
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