It’s hardly dawn when the loud clicking of the alarm clock wakes you up in the morning. You are still heavy headed from last night’s socializing event where you had to attend as part of your duties. You would prefer to stay in bed till about midday but you have to be in the office at 8:00 a.m. sharp for a meeting scheduled by your superior. Probably this is not the moment when you think the nicest of him/her and most probably this will not be your most productive day of the week neither.
But it shouldn’t be like this if flextime would be an option at your workplace. Unfortunately most managers think of flextime as some kind of devilish creature that enhances the opportunity of cutting working hours and decreases productivity. Are there any benefits of it for the company and its leaders as well? – they might ask. The short answer is: Yes. Check out the benefits specified below:
- Happier employees and reduced stress level: those employees who have control over their working hours are happier and more satisfied with their job. In fact employees are tend to choose flextime over salary raise if they are asked. Flexibility of working hours may result in reduced stress level and minimize the chance of burnout.
- Increasing productivity and staff concentration: employees with flexible working hours concentrate on their tasks more intensely while working either at the office or at home like those who are “sitting” at their office desks from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every single day.
- Reduced absenteeism and overtime: if staff members have the chance to do what they have to do (doctors’ or lawyers’ appointment, bank issues etc.) and arrive at work later they will avoid taking a whole day off. As employees can regulate the hours they work to balance between busy and slack periods, it reduces the need for overtime.
- Better teamwork and improved communication: communication becomes more focused on the tasks/projects itself than on casual chit-chatting as everyone knows that colleagues are available only during the core time at the office for face to face conversations. If everyone reaps the same benefit, employees will be more connected and more supportive to each other and pitch in to help out if somebody is missing.
- Job is completed on a timely manner: in general, people prefer completing a task and staying in the office later, if they know that they can take time off the next day to compensate the extra hours they worked. Employees with flexible working hours are more task oriented than those with fixed hours who tend to stay in the office late just to impress the boss.
- Uneven workload can be more easily identified: just by looking at the amount of hours worked by individuals, workload alternations or promotions can be more easily identified.
- Reduced staff turnover and hiring costs: offering flextime might be a considerable benefit to keep key staff members and avoid brain drain. It can be offered as a benefit for new employees and it also reduces the cost of filling in vacated positions as happy staff members will not leave.
- Wider talent pool with new sources: offering flexible schedules together with family friendly policies might open up new sources of talents that might be closed off for traditional fixed working hours. It might bring into the workforce talented people from other countries, mums with small children, people with disabilities, retired professionals who still want to work.
- Cost matters: offering flexible overtime over other benefits might be an advantage for organizations in combatting the forces of economy. Applying flextime also might help when weather conditions would prevent employees from coming to the office and work instead of staying at home.
The characters of FLIGBY are built up in a way that the player as a new General Manager can face different challenges when tries to motivate his/her subordinates. For example there is Joe: a young talented and enthusiastic employee who needs a little bit more than just some nice words and the recognition of his capabilities. Whether his enthusiasm remains or vanishes depends on the player’s decisions.
Just like in real life, the question of allowing flexible working hours for employees is a challenge in FLIGBY as well.
(This entry was made by Judit Nuszpl)