Flextime pros and cons professional#

These government workers enjoy flextime within pre-determined limits or “bands.” Pros and Cons of Summer FridaysĪ growing number of companies allow workers to take off Fridays (or every other Friday) during the summer months. During core hours, all employees on a team must be in-office during flexible hours, workers put in a set number of hours. They divide employees’ workdays into core hours and flexible hours. Government Office of Personnel Management provides for two types of flex schedule hours. Most of the people who fit into this exemption regime are flextime managers and certain specialized professionals. (Of course, working with independent contractors allows you to get part-time help without paying overtime.)Ĭertain states have especially strict definitions of an “exempt employee.” California assumes all employees (even salaried employees) are exempt unless they spend at least 50% of their time conducting exempted activities. Most employees who enjoy flex time are salaries, “full time exempt” office workers, managers, etc. If you aren’t sure, discuss your individual situation with a business lawyer – or just play it safe and assume it’s probably a non-exempt position.īe careful when using flex time with non-exempt employees. The exempt employee definition is quite strict employers must prove a position is exempt to gain this benefit. These exemptions apply to certain computer professionals, sales teams, and retail/service organizations.

Flextime pros and cons professional#

However, people with certain executive, administrative, and professional jobs can be exempt from this rule. The typical worker is non-exempt, meaning their employers aren’t exempt from paying overtime. In most cases, employers must pay overtime (150%) wages to people who work more than 40 hours per week.

This person could write reports and juggle timesheets in a dedicated “solo work” period at the end of the day.

This strategy also allows people to work in private, which can dramatically increase productivity.įor example, a manager who spends most of the day “putting out fires” might enjoy a working a slightly later shift. Your employees might appreciate the option to start and end their work days a couple of hours early (or late). Many workers appreciate the freedom flextime gives them from rush hour traffic. It’s up to you to create the balance of freedom and structure that best suits your business model – and today’s finicky millennial workforce. This model works well in the manufacturing and customer service sectors – but creates unnecessary structure in many other fields. The whole concept of flextime involves reinventing the “ get paid to show up for a regular shift” model that served companies so well during the industrial revolution. When exploring and setting up flextime opportunities for your team, determine which areas of their schedules need to stay firm – and which can be safely “flexed.” However, this takes place within many real-life limitations. In short, if your office has a flextime policy, you can add/subtract flex hours from your workday. How Does Flex Work?Įvery company that offers flextime puts a new spin on flex, meaning we need to dig a bit deeper to understand this workplace phenomenon. For example, employers often place restrictions on flextime, meaning workers have only a measured amount of freedom. In practice, however, companies define flextime in many ways. This simple flextime definition is a good place to start:Įmployees can choose when to work a set amount of hours. To create jobs with flexible hours, you can follow a number of flextime strategies. To keep your team members on your team, you need to provide the work/life balance this generation craves.

Younger workers change jobs much more often than their predecessors – costing employers thousands of dollars per new hire. Flexibility-and flextime work options matter more and more in the modern workplace.Īs more and more millennials enter the workforce, companies must adopt new employee retention strategies.