With more and more people thinking differently about how, when and where they work, flexible working is increasingly helping people access the labour market and stay in work. Quality flexible working can help organisations attract talent, improve employee job satisfaction and loyalty, reduce absenteeism, and improve well-being; it can also make businesses more responsive to change. In this section, we provide evidence-based practical guidance, tools and information to help you effectively implement flexible working in your organisation.
Compressed Hours
This option is useful if you want to continue working the total number of hours you currently work and retain your current benefits but would prefer to compress the hours into a shorter working week or fortnight, allowing some ‘free’ time during the normal working week. The work patterns proposed will be considered to see if they are workable within the department concerned.
Flexitime
This option allows flexibility at the start and finish of the working day, and also allows an accumulation of hours at busy times. This means that employees can more easily fit work around personal commitments and the office benefits by having a more flexible workforce.
Job Share
There are many job roles that involve a range of duties, which could be shared by 2 people. Not only does this create additional employment opportunities, but offers increased flexibility in employment arrangements particularly for those who wish to work part-time while retaining a high level of responsibility.
Reduced Hours
Due to personal commitments, there may be a number of occasions when it is more beneficial to work reduced hours, either on a temporary or a permanent basis. It may also be a recommendation from Occupational Health to work phased hours either before or after a long period of absence.
Remote Working
Remote working is where an employee meets their contractual obligations by working from home or another location outside their normal base on an occasional, temporary, regular or permanent basis. There are many types of jobs that could enable staff to use this option either occasionally or regularly. It may be the case that a particular task needs completing which could be done more easily in a home environment, such as writing a report. There may also be occasions when it is more convenient to work from home for personal reasons, for example when attending medical appointments.
Staggered Hours
Working staggered hours mean that although staff work fixed hours every day, the start, finish and lunch times could be agreed to suit personal needs. This is particularly useful if someone has fixed activities to be accommodated each week, such as care duties. This option could mean that potentially the workplace would be staffed for longer hours than normal if staff were working different ‘shifts’.