For many businesses, flexitime policies have become the new norm. They allow staff to find more balance, enjoy more freedom, and even work when they feel most productive. In this post, we explore the ins and outs of flexitime. Discover why it’s so valuable in the modern workplace.
When we talk about “flexitime” in the workplace, we’re referring to the practice of altering start and finish times to give employees more flexibility. Unlike part-time working, flexitime isn’t about working less. It’s about working a set number of hours, but shifting the times people clock in and out.
Flexitime policies aren’t a free pass for staff to “work whenever they want”. Boundaries are important, and in most industries, companies require employees to work during core hours. This allows meetings to run and day-to-day projects to be managed effectively.
In 8-hour day office-based roles, many companies ask staff to be in between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm. This means staff might choose to do an earlier shift (7 am–3 pm) or a later one (10 am–6 pm). Having this set window of time provides certainty and allows businesses to plan meetings or events when they know all staff will be available.
When it comes to monitoring hours, most employees on flexible schedules record their time using time management software. This ensures they can keep track of their designated hours over the course of a week or month.
Flexitime is no longer an exclusive perk. While, in the past, flexitime was only awarded to parents or carers who had been in their role for 26 weeks, things have moved on since then. As of the 6th April 2024, any employee can make a statutory request for flexible working from their first day, even in businesses where flexible working isn’t the norm.
After receiving a request, the employer must accept or reject it within two months (previously three). Any requests that are rejected must be done so in line with one of the eight statutory business reasons. These reasons include factors like cost, impact on performance, or inability to reorganise work.
From a practical perspective, flexitime tends to be better suited to certain job types. Let’s say you work in an industry where you have set responsibilities to fulfil, but it doesn’t actually make a difference when you do them. For you, flexitime is perfect because it doesn’t prevent you from doing your job. Yet, if you work in a customer-facing job or you need to carry out tasks within rigid timeframes, flexitime might not be so suitable. In these types of environments, managers need to be notified in advance if a staff member is planning to switch up their hours. This is so that they can secure cover or find someone else who’s willing to adjust their hours accordingly.
From compressed hours to remote working, there are countless ways modern businesses are allowing staff to enjoy more flexible working arrangements. When these flexible options are combined, they give people more autonomy and help to improve their work-life balance.
Here are some other flexible working arrangements that work well with flexitime:
Remote working: Remote working works well with flexitime because it means that WFH staff members can maximise their time doing other things. With flexibility over their start time and no commute to worry about, a person might partake in a fitness activity, meet with a friend, or spend time with family. These are all things that can improve a person’s quality of life.
Hybrid working: Hybrid working involves a mix of both time spent in the office and time spent working from home. Hybrid offers similar benefits to remote working alone; however, it also means that staff get to connect with other colleagues face to face. This in-person interaction is something that some employees might crave when all communications are virtual.
Part-time working: Part-time work pairs particularly well with flexitime for parents or carers, not just because it gives them more time for caring responsibilities, but also because it allows them more rest periods/time to invest in wellbeing. This is crucial for people with a lot of physical and mental demands in their personal lives.
Are you a manager wondering whether flexitime is right for your team? Here are some benefits you need to know about:
Better mental health: Most managers recognise that mandating strict hours isn’t worth it when it gets in the way of staff wellbeing. The CIPD reports that flexible working has enhanced quality of life for 80% of staff. When you prioritise a work/life balance instead of forcing people into inconvenient schedules, it reduces stress and burnout, and increases their chances of having a positive attitude towards work.
Increased output: It’s no secret that staff work harder when they feel looked after, and there’s a general consensus that flexitime in particular helps to boost staff productivity. Offering flexitime means trusting in your staff to manage their time effectively. In most scenarios, employees will successfully prove that they can do this. In fact, they may even perform better than they did on their previous schedule because they’re able to work in alignment with their “peak productivity” windows.
Creating a more inclusive environment: Successful workplaces rely on having a diverse mix of staff with varying experiences, opinions, and ways of approaching work. By offering flexitime, you create a more inclusive work environment. You support those with religious and cultural commitments, provide flexibility to staff with disabilities and neurodivergence, and create inclusivity for parents or carers who may be disadvantaged by traditional schedules.
Attracting a bigger talent pool: According to research from the CIPD, in 2023, approximately 4 million people changed careers due to inflexible working. It’s well documented that inflexible policies drastically cut down your potential talent pool. In this day and age, job seekers are on the hunt for employers who provide autonomy, care about wellbeing, and trust them to get on and do their work without being micromanaged.
So, are there any challenges? Of course. Switching up work styles and schedules is always going to require careful consideration. Here are some key points to think about:
Your industry: Ask yourself: how easily will flexitime fit into your company’s type of work? If you work in marketing, PR, finance, or business consulting, flexitime is much less likely to drastically alter your operations. But if you work in retail, healthcare, engineering, or education, flexitime isn’t so straightforward. In customer-facing or complex roles, you always need to ensure you have the necessary resources. This requires extra effort and planning.
Fairness: As an employer, making flexitime fair can be particularly challenging when staff have very different responsibilities. For example, you might have one staff member with very few client meetings or customer interactions, while another has to attend events or deal with customers daily. To introduce flexitime equitably, you’d need to put time into planning cover for the staff member with in-person responsibilities. Otherwise, flexitime wouldn’t work as a blanket policy.
Financial cost: Finally, you need to consider the cost. Beyond industry compatibility and extra time spent planning, are there any ways in which flexitime would affect you financially? For example, if you already have underperforming employees, could flexitime make it harder to spot issues? When someone’s working non-standard hours, it becomes trickier to observe their work patterns or determine whether poor performance is due to genuine struggles or them taking advantage.
Ultimately, introducing flexitime requires a level of trust between you and your team. Provided it suits your industry and is carefully considered, it can have big benefits for your staff and business overall.
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