Flextime allows employees to choose their working hours, enhancing work-life balance and reducing commute stress. Businesses benefit from increased productivity, reduced absenteeism, and higher employee retention rates with flexible schedules.
By Brad Nakase, Attorney
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Flextime, sometimes known as flexitime or flex-time, is a working hours plan that is flexible enough to let employees change their beginning and ending times. Flex time differs from conventional job arrangements in that employees are not required to put in a usual nine in the morning to five in the evening day. Instead, employees usually have a “core” duration during the day (between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., for example) as well as a “bandwidth” period (say between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.) during which they must complete all necessary hours.
The portion of the workday that falls beyond the core time is known as “flexible time,” during which employees are free to select when they’re at work as long as they complete the required tasks and reach their monthly, weekly, or daily hour goals during the bandwidth time that their employers have established. Employees following an approved Flex time plan are expected to work roughly the same amount of total hours as those adhering to regular work schedules.
Employees are granted the freedom to choose when and where they work under flextime and flexplace policies, respectively. The ability for workers to plan their working hours around the routines of their kids, public transportation, and everyday commutes to avoid peak traffic periods like rush hour is one of the benefits.
There are others who argue that the nature of employment will shift due to flexible scheduling. Wilhelm Haller and Christel Kammerer came up with the concept of flex time. Working fifty-five hours or longer per week is the occupational risk with the highest disease burden. According to estimates from the WHO (World Health Organization) and the ILO (International Labor Organization), approximately 745,000 individuals worldwide pass away from stroke or ischemic heart disease each year as a result of working extended hours.
Flexibility is defined practically, according to the industrial viewpoint on flexible working hours. Workers are free to work from wherever they like as long as they maintain or even surpass their current level of output. Furthermore, studies reports provided quantitative analysis supported by statistical data demonstrating the shifting attitudes of organizations worldwide, particularly in the UK, favoring flexible working. For instance, flexible work arrangements are already being considered by 50% of UK businesses, and 73% of executives surveyed expressed a strong preference for them.
However, workers’ preferences for flexible work arrangements were so strong that 40% of UK workers would rather have it than a higher wage. Additionally, more attention was focused on explaining why both stakeholders were demanding these arrangements more frequently, which was made clear by their benefits in terms of producing output of the highest caliber and providing the ideal environment for employees.
Furthermore, as has been observed recently, the majority of commercial organizations have begun to offer flexible work schedules to their staff in an effort to boost productivity and improve profitability. Employees who benefit from flexible working hours have a better work-life balance since it is viewed as a friendly-to-families policy. Qualcomm Inc., Agilent Technologies, and NetApp are a few companies that provide flexible work schedules.
Considering that flexible schedules are less expensive than fixed or non-flexible hours of work, they may be a means for organizations to grow and expand both domestically and globally. Workers and employers agree that working flexible hours have advantages, but there are also potential disadvantages. These include additional costs and obligations for the company to bear in order to implement these arrangements, as well as lower benefits for employees as a result of their shortened work weeks.
Since its introduction to academia in 1970 (via Google Ngram Viewer), flexible working has been the subject of numerous research studies.
Scholarly publications have boosted awareness and curiosity about flexible employment arrangements for over forty years. The major goals of academic research were to describe the backdrop of the notion of flexibility’s history and to emphasize the key aspects that contributed to its expansion. Furthermore, they provide proof of the substantial and continuous rise in the adoption of flexible work arrangements across numerous nations.
Research has indicated that individuals with greater levels of education and ability, those employed in higher-level occupations, and those in supervisory positions are the ones most likely to be eligible for flextime. Contrary to popular belief, women are not given superior access to flex time arrangements, and employee access to flex time is poorer in organizations dominated by women than in workplaces with an equal or greater proportion of men and women.
Numerous research papers look at the results of flexible work schedules. For instance, a study conducted by Origo & Pagani using a representative group of European nations provided an in-depth examination of the idea of flexible work by assessing the degree of variation in the impact of flexibility on work fulfillment and discovered some positive relationships with specific elements of work while unfavorable or no relationships were found with other elements.
The “business case” for flexible working is becoming more and more supported. Flexibility in work arrangements can yield numerous advantages for organizations, such as enhanced output, decreased absenteeism, and improved performance, as demonstrated by a systematic review of research.
Both positive and negative effects can be achieved with flexible working. Flexible work schedules are generally associated with favorable opinions of jobs in terms of balancing work and life and improving and controlling autonomy, especially for remote employees. However, some aspects of the jobs—like career advancement prospects—will suffer as a result of the differences in the various aspects of the jobs.
Increased hiring and retention of staff members have also been connected to flexible working arrangements. Research by Chung & van der Horst has demonstrated that the implementation of flextime greatly lowers the probability that mothers will cut back on work hours following childbirth & that first-time moms will stop working entirely.
One of the key elements in the policy discussion of the European Union is flexible employment. It is a way to lower unemployment, boost social and economic cohesiveness, keep the economy competitive, and improve chances for men and women. Flexible employment arrangements are not without issues, though. Additionally, research has demonstrated that flexible work arrangements may result in more extra hours.
An order on work-life balance was proposed by the European Commission in 2017. It would grant all employed parents of kids under 12 and caregivers of reliant relatives the ability to ask for flexible job arrangements, such as reduced hours of work, flexible working hours, or flexibility regarding their place of employment.
Non-legislative provisions are also included to safeguard parents (including expectant mothers and returning employees from leaves) and caregivers from discrimination and termination. Additionally, gender parity in the utilization of family-related breaks and flexible work schedules is promoted. As per EU Directive 2019/1158, the proposal was accepted.
In 1971, Haller established a firm in the United Kingdom and filed for a trademark for “Flextime,” which is currently owned by hfx Ltd., the replacement company. According to the Office for National Statistics (2003), in the springtime of 2003, 17.7 percent of men and 26.7 percent of women in the UK had flexible work arrangements. Flex-time employment arrangements are widespread in the public and private sectors of the United Kingdom. In local governments and commercial organizations, the practice is frequently observed in back office and administrative tasks.
A rule granting parents of kids under six or parents of impaired kids under eighteen the legal right to ask their employer for a flexible work schedule was introduced by the United Kingdom government in 2003. 60 percent of male and 71 percent of female employees, respectively, were informed about the rights established by the 2003 law, according to a 2005 National Office of Statistics survey [30].
A shift to flexible hours of operation was desired by more than fourteen percent of employees between 2003 & 2005. Since 2007 (April), caregivers for adults are also entitled to ask for flexible work schedules.
The legislation granting all employees the ability to ask for flexible working hours went into effect in 2014 (April), as announced by Deputy PM Nick Clegg on 13th November 2012. Attorneys have predicted “huge issues” for companies as a result of this.
Industrial reports, which are now required by law as of 30th June 2014, focus on employees’ rights to ask for flexible work schedules and how the ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service) facilitates those requests. They described the ways in which this code is intended to assist employers, workers, and their legal representatives in handling grievances and disciplinary problems that arise at work.
In general, senior managers and shift workers are not eligible for flex time plans. Employees who serve the general population during particular hours are another group of employees for whom flex time contracts are uncommon.
Individuals who use flextime benefit from improved work-life harmony, fewer commuting hours, reduced weariness, more vacation days, and a decrease in illness rates. Better workers who are more motivated, more effective and efficient operations, fewer weary workers and fewer mistakes, fewer facilities needed, and a decrease in sickness rates are all advantages for the organization.
Flex time can help organizations attract and retain employees. In 2009, it was an especially well-liked choice for companies looking to cut expenses without having to lay off employees due to the economic downturn. It can also lessen the requirement for overtime by helping to offer staff coverage after regular business hours. Furthermore, flexible scheduling can enhance the ability to provide equitable opportunities to employees who are incapable of working regular hours.
Employees using flex time have more leeway to arrange their work schedules to fit their personal demands. Also, if you travel outside of peak hours, it may be less expensive and simpler.
Similar to salaried employees, flex-time employees in Florida enjoy considerable flexibility in determining their own hours of job and are free from insurance requirements. Employers must still pay overtime to flextime employees if they put in over forty hours of work a week, in contrast to exempt salaried employees.
When referring to plans to change the country’s overtime laws, the word “flex time” has taken on an even more contentious connotation in the past few years. One such Bush administration proposal, released on 5th August 2004, said that companies would not have to pay overtime wages to non-exempt workers for exceeding forty hours of work per week as long as the worker is not exceeding eighty hours during a period of two weeks.
For instance, if an employee works seventy hours in a given week, they might not get paid overtime as long as they put in ten hours or fewer the next week. Labor organizations such as the AFL-CIO oppose such agreements.
Workers in several fields and businesses, like information technology, are able to change their schedules by using flex time. For instance, they could decide to work 4 10-hour workdays a week and take the Monday and Friday off. Another flex time plan is the “9/80 working schedule,” which entails working nine hours from Monday to Thursday, eight hours on Friday, and one Friday vacation every other week.
Such an arrangement is permissible for workers in certain US federal organizations, which identify it as an alternate work schedule. Employees can plan their vacation days in a way that ensures their obligations are sufficiently met.
Alternatively, other employees can choose to arrive early, like around five or six a.m., and depart in the middle of the afternoon, or arrive late and go later. One advantage of this timetable is that commute times fall outside of a certain geographic area’s clogged peak-hour traffic. Flexible work schedules benefit parents as well.
For example, one parent can work from 10 in the morning to 6 p.m. and supervise the kids before school or daycare, while another parent can work from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and oversee the kids after school or daycare. Parents can commute on time thanks to this. Employees who are seeking education might also benefit from flextime.
In Australia, the term “flexi-time” typically refers to accrued hours of overtime that a worker can accumulate and redeem for a comparable duration of paid time off. Jane works from seven in the morning to three in the afternoon, Monday through Friday. Jane is qualified for a day off (paid) because she has put in eight hours of extra over the last month.
Workers are obligated to conduct a “flex burn down,” wherein they use up their remaining flex hours if they accrue too much. Likewise, “flexing off” refers to using a flex day vacation.
For employees in the majority of the territory and state government ministries, it is an official implementation within the Australian Public Service (federal). Nowadays, there are not any new published (online) standards for flextime due to modifications to labor relations legislation (2006) at the State and Federal levels.
There are numerous ways to track working hours; these include written time sheets and complex software (computer programs). The majority of these techniques include paying wages in exchange for the number of hours performed. The purpose of numerous flexible working arrangements is to enable employees to “swap hours” with their employers in exchange for a set income. As a consequence, they frequently overlook this essential difference.
The term most frequently used to characterize those born between 1981 and 1996 is “millennial.” Numerous benefits are anticipated to increase as everyone has the legal right to seek flexible work schedules. Many businesses are showing enthusiasm for Millennials, and flexible working appears to appeal to them. Millennials are known to be more prone than previous generations to shift occupations due to economic factors, primarily due to their ethnic variety and advanced level of education. Additionally, the workforce had voids until the millennial generation filled them as a result of the baby boomers’ delayed retirement.
Flexible employment is a type of work arrangement that gives workers autonomy over the start, end, and place of their workdays. For a while now, flexible work schedules have piqued the curiosity of scholars and professionals in the business world. In fact, some countries had laws implementing them in place since 1930, but more recently still. The literature currently in publication emphasizes the critical role that flexible working plays for academics and businesses in helping employees achieve a healthy work-life balance. This is because it is believed that happier employees will be more productive, which benefits the company as a whole. Studies on the declining benefits of working hours seem to support this.
Academic studies have shown that flexible work schedules can help employees with happiness in their lives, improved well-being, a healthy work-life balance, and various health benefits. However, some researchers contend that while these benefits exist, there are drawbacks as well, such as increased workload and insecure employment.
According to studies, not all professional disciplines can benefit from a flexible work schedule. Evans et al. conducted in 2000 highlighted the medical field as one example of a particular field. Another criticism is that certain job schedules that are considered “flexible,” such as a shortened workweek, might be proposed by the business rather than the specific worker, which means that they might not reap the same advantages as worker-selected flexible scheduling.
One benefit of flexible work schedules that industry sources have also been able to emphasize is their ability to draw in highly skilled professionals. However, Brookins identified some drawbacks for companies with flexible work schedules, including increased costs and responsibilities, unfavorable employee availability perceptions among consumers, and availability for workers.
It has been demonstrated by academic and industry sources that certain professions—the medical field, for instance—may not offer flexible work arrangements, or that those that do may see employees negatively if they do not. According to Evans et al.’s 2000 study on flexible work schedules in the medical field, certain physicians may hold unfavorable opinions of their colleagues who have such schedules.
Workers in the UK were granted the ability to ask for flexible work schedules in 1930, but there were no rules or guidelines dictating how this would be implemented. Since flexible scheduling is a fairly recent notion in work arrangements, its applicability in the remainder of the world, including some regions of Africa, has been limited.
Flexible work schedules allow staff members to choose the amount of time, place, and length of their employment. Researchers and industry sources agree that it has advantages such as improving employees’ work-life balance, which boosts efficiency for the company or organization. Studying the way adaptable working patterns can be implemented successfully can help organizations seeking to implement this type of working style for their employees minimize some of the costs and problems that previous research has related to implementing such practices.
Different names for flexible hours accounts include work banking systems and deposited work-time accounts. The reform agenda of the Federal Labor Govt. in Germany, approved by the Federal Government on 21st Aug 2002, is the source of its inspiration. After that, Gerhard Schröder (Federal Chancellor) declared that Peter Hartz, a former Volkswagen director of HR, would be invited to serve as chairman of the Labor Market Reform Committee. The purpose of this initiative is to modify the outdated social welfare policies and soften the harsh financial burden by bringing greater flexibility to the labor structure.
1. Definitions
In order to create labor-self accounts and enable workers to save the hours they work in a manner similar to that of financial savings, time-sharing accounts are proposed. Their hours of employment are their assets, allowing both employers and employees to adjust the amount of work demanded of them without having an impact on well-being or wages. As long as the goal of flexible work is met, the standard accounting system may be either long-term, short-term, or permanent.
2. Characteristics
The four qualities listed below describe a flexible time management account system:
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