Time flexibility at work

Scheduling is easily one of the largest components of workplace flexibility. Remember, just as traditional workplaces had to adjust their operating hours and service availability in light of the pandemic, so too did the businesses your employees rely on. Providers ranging from doctors’ offices to childcare centers have, in some cases, permanently reduced days or hours of operation. When your employees need to use these services to reliably attend and remain at work, it causes an obvious time-conflict issue and a great deal of stress.

Condensed workweeks

Condensed workweeks allow employees to work their set week’s hours in longer shifts to free up a half-day or a day off. For example, rather than working eight-hour shifts Monday through Friday, they may work 10-hour shifts Monday through Thursday and take Friday off completely. Depending on the needs of your company, you may extend this option to all employees, or you may wish to stagger the opportunity between groups of employees to ensure consistent shift coverage while still giving them work flexibility.

Shift swap opportunities

Shift swap opportunities give employees the ability to trade out a shift they may need off unexpectedly for another that typically falls on their days off. Employers that offer this ability usually have a reasonable restriction on usage within a time period to avoid chaotic scheduling. One or two shift swaps a month, for example, may be appropriate if you can still adequately meet your day-to-day business needs and customer/client service standards. It’s also reasonable to enforce small blackout periods, such as weeks surrounding industry-specific trade shows, holidays and so on.

Unpaid time off

Unpaid time off (UPT) is another incentive provided by some employers to give their employees self-guided flexibility. You may offer it as a block of time for a specific time period, for example, 10 hours allotted every calendar quarter, or let it accrue alongside working hours, like vacation or paid time off (PTO). While you need to consider the available-worker opportunity cost, UPT doesn’t carry the financial pinch of PTO. This makes it an excellent flexibility tool for small-to-medium businesses looking to balance human resources budgets with employee satisfaction.

Location work flexibility

While focus and management are undeniably important for overall productivity, it’s important to recognize that the way we approach work as a whole has changed dramatically. As the working ranks fill with employees who grew up using computers, smartphones and tablets, in-person work is no longer the must-have it once was. Flexibility at work doesn’t have to mean a reduction in growth and productivity, provided it’s approached logically.

Hybrid office setups

Hybrid office setups are increasingly familiar in an era of pandemic distancing mandates. While there’s an initial cost in setting up these programs, such as buying equipment for your employees to use outside of the workplace, there are financial benefits as well. Productivity can, in the right conditions, increase: Employees who no longer have to battle morning traffic or wrestle with car-sharing issues within a household have more attention to offer at work. The hybrid component comes from an expectation the employees will spend at least part of their working hours on-site. Employers can reduce facility costs by using desk-sharing layouts, which in turn require less square footage in space rentals and leases. Desk sharing allows on-site workers to alternate use of shared work spaces while they’re in the office.

Telework or remote work

Telework or remote work is taking the plunge completely—moving employees to an entirely off-site workplace setup. While this solution typically utilizes an employee’s home office or home-based work area, you can also do it in conjunction with coworking space providers. It offers all of the benefits of hybrid setups for employers with the added benefit of vastly increasing the potential-hire talent pool. An employer in New York offering fully-remote work opportunities has just as much access to digitally -savvy talent in California as it does within its own city.

Structure flexibility

The broadest concept of the three flexibility pillars, structure is arguably the hardest to pin down. Consider it through the lens of educational reform. While decades ago, the only approach was institutional, many schools and learning providers have adjusted their focus to address individual learning strengths rather than using a blanket approach. You may have one manager who works best with a rigid structure and formulaic to-do lists, while another may thrive on solving crises in the moment with a more esoteric skill set. While it’s usually not feasible to alter your workflow to suit every individual’s talents perfectly, a little room for adjustment can have a big impact.

Job sharing

Job sharing lets employees with complementary skills team up, each providing part-time effort to fulfill a single position. If you would normally hire a creative director for a specific salary, for example, job sharing would involve dividing that salary (as well as divisible benefits like PTO) between two employees instead. Between them, they would take responsibility for deliverables and expectations, privately working out who would perform which duties. This involves a measure of trust, of course, and you should probably only offer it as an option to employees who have proved themselves to be dedicated workers and good collaborators.

Team accountability

Team accountability involves trusting your employees with larger deliverables as a whole rather than assigning a point person to answer for them. While not something to approach lightly, it’s a show of confidence on the part of an employer that they can put their faith in their workforce. Periodic check-ins are, of course, a smart idea, but when incorporating team accountability, it’s important to adopt a hands-off approach. Motivated by autonomy, a team handed the reins and a deadline will typically work hard to justify that trust for future projects. Embracing this type of results-oriented flexibility may also help highlight hidden gems in your workforce—individuals with natural leadership and organizational skills.

Talk to your employees

Working more flexibility into your company is an endeavor that should always start with your employees. Reading about flexibility trends in the workplace and looking at your competitors should definitely factor into your research, but it shouldn’t comprise your entire plan. When all is said and done, your employees—both current and future—are the ones who depend on and use the flexibility efforts you put into place. That means if you put a great deal of time and energy into benefits that don’t really benefit them, the results will more likely cause frustration than loyalty.

Have an open meeting with your entire staff and be prepared to listen. You’ll likely hear some familiar themes when you ask for pain points in their workflow. These are where you need to focus to make the most out of any new flexibility efforts.

After sorting through these notes, send out a poll to your employees and ask them to rank their preference on the flexibility considerations you’re willing to provide. Some employees may be hesitant to bring up concerns organically in a group discussion but may happily weigh in anonymously if given the opportunity.

Once you have this information, it’s time to balance those needs with the needs of your business. Sit down with your HR head or team and ask for feedback on what things your employees struggle with.

• Are employees often late to work? Flexible scheduling may help solve the issue.
• Are employees often late on delivering projects or reports? Condensed workweeks may prevent the divided attention of a busy workday ending too soon.
• Are employees calling in sick for child care or car issues? Hybrid or remote work opportunities may reduce stress for both your workers and your workforce coverage.

Adding flexibility in the workplace to your company isn’t simply an all-give-no-take proposition: You can benefit from it as well. The right measures can increase your potential hireable talent pool, help with employee retention and increase job satisfaction and productivity overall.

If implementation or ongoing costs of these approaches give you pause, consider the costs associated with missed hours, training new employees due to high turnover and missing important deadlines. By avoiding these common operational pitfalls, chances are that incorporating flexibility in your workplace will start to look like a very cost-savvy move.