Recruiting and retaining top staff for your small company may be made easier if you provide some wiggle room for their schedules. This can be done through flexible work hours. It is common for employers to incorporate flexible work hours and alternate schedules in a benefits package to better meet the demands of their workers. In this article, we’ll give you more information about how a flexible work schedule may function in a small firm.
What’s flexible working?
As an alternative to typical working hours, the concept of flexible working is adaptable, including a wide variety of working patterns and hours. Work-from-home, flexible start and finish hours, or even a 4-day work week are just a few examples of the broad phrase “flexible work.” Therefore, flexible work may take many forms, but at its heart, it refers to any work schedule that does not follow the standard 40-hour, 8 hours a day work week. It is your choice as the business owner to choose the best flexible work option for your company and present it as an alternative to your employees.
Different forms of flexible work
As stated above, flexible work is just an umbrella term that encompasses many different work arrangements. Here, we’ll cover only the most common ones. Firstly, remote work or “work from home” is probably the most typical alternative to conventional work made even more popular due to the pandemic. Here, your employees have a choice to complete their tasks from their home office. Many employed parents prefer this option. Another way to work flexibly is to have flexible hours in which your employers can come to the office whenever they want during the day as long as they complete their eight-hour shift. This may work for some, but if you have tight deadlines to adhere to, it may not be the best option. Finally, a 4-day work week is another flexible work alternative in which your employers will work a ten-hour day, but for four weeks, having a three-day weekend. It’s also called a compressed workweek.
Train your managers
Having highly trained managers is definitely one of the things every small business needs. It’s simply not the same to manage a conventionally working staff and a flexible one. A managerial mistake can happen to bigger companies too. For example, Yahoo found that their remote workers hadn’t signed in to their accounts in months and were still receiving paychecks. Your managers should be comfortable using a wide range of communication tools, including phone, email, and instant messaging, to engage with their teams. Insist on having frequent phone calls or, if at all feasible, in-person meetings.
Establish core hours
If you have a smaller company that needs to get its work done every day to ensure optimal growth but you also care about your employees work to life balance, you should look into so-called core hours. For example, you should set a certain timeframe when your firm expects workers to be accessible. As long as they work certain set minimum hours, this provides for a flexible start and end time, as well as a possible early Friday finish.
The benefits of flexible work
Improved motivation and performance have emerged as the major advantages of flexible working arrangements. Employers might expect to keep their staff for longer because of factors like increased loyalty and fewer sick days. Flexible working is also reported to be one of the most important non-monetary elements in boosting employee happiness. Furthermore, if your employers work from home, you may also expect to save some money on energy costs.
In spite of what it may seem, research has shown that flexible working hours really encourage workers to be more productive when they work outside of the office. It’s possible that this advantage will have a significant influence on overall productivity and the future growth of your business.
