What is flexible working?
Contents
Types of flexible working
Flexible working involves rearranging working time and/or locations. It can include the following:
- Part-time working: Working less than standard or full-time hours.
- Flexi-time: Employees have the freedom to work in any way they choose outside a core set of hours determined by you.
- Staggered hours: Employees have different start, finish and break times, allowing a business to open for longer.
- Compressed working hours: Covering the total number of hours in fewer working days.
- Job sharing: One full-time job is split between two employees who agree the hours between them.
- Shift swapping: Employees arrange shifts amongst themselves, on condition that all required shifts are covered.
- Self-rostering: Employees choose the shifts they'd prefer, leaving you to compile shift patterns matching their individual preferences whilst covering all required shifts.
- Time off in lieu: Time off taken to compensate for extra hours worked.
- Term-time working: Receiving paid/unpaid leave during school holidays.
- Annual hours: Contracted hours are calculated over a year. Though the majority of shifts are allocated, the remaining hours are kept in reserve so that employees can be called in at short notice, as required.
- Voluntary reduced work time: Employees agree to reduce their hours for a fixed time with a corresponding reduction in salary, returning to full-time work when this period ends.
- Zero-hours contracts: Employees working only the hours they are needed for.
- Homeworking: Spending all or part of the working week working from home or somewhere else away from your business premises.
- Sabbatical/career break: Taking an extended period of time off, which is either paid or unpaid.
Flexible arrangements should comply with the law on maximum working time.
Impact of flexible working arrangements
Introducing a flexible working policy can be mutually beneficial to your business and your employees.
Business benefits of flexible working
Flexible working arrangements can bring the following improvements to your business:
- Greater cost-effectiveness and efficiency, such as savings on overheads when employees work from home or less downtime for machinery when 24-hour shifts are worked.
- The ability to attract a higher level of skills as the business is able to attract and retain a skilled and more diverse workforce.
- More job satisfaction and better staff morale.
- Lower staff turnover (thereby saving on recruitment costs), as staff who might otherwise have left, are offered hours they can manage.
- Reduction in staff sickness levels.
- Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty as a result of the above.
- Improved competitiveness, such as being able to react to changing market conditions more effectively.
Benefits of flexible working for your employees
The main gain for your employees is the increased opportunity to fit other commitments and activities in with work and make better use of their free time.
This can be particularly helpful for people caring for children or other dependants, but others may find flexible working helpful too. They may feel more in control of their workloads, and manage a better work-life balance.
Benefits of flexible working for the customer
You could find you are able to offer longer opening times, more experienced staff and a better overall service.