Albeit reluctantly, business owners, CEOs, and VPs of HR have finally come to the realization that flexible work schedules are a great boon to the non-work life of their employees. They allow employees to schedule around doctor’s appointments, sick children and all manner of life’s other inopportune emergencies. It is important that the HCM technologist understands the benefits as they are the ones that must ensure the HCM technology maintains compliance with the various government mandates surrounding wage and hour.
What is Flexible Work Schedule?
In its broadest sense, a flexible schedule is any plan that allows an employee to work hours that differ from the normal company start and stop time. While an employee sees this flexibility as a great bonus, it can be a logistical problem for the HR department.
In the process, employee morale and loyalty is often improved and productivity from most employees will actually increase. Still, there are doubts from those who are tasked with managing the procedure but, nevertheless, the flex schedule seems here to stay for the immediate future.
The Next Wave
The newest generation of workers has embraced the concept like no other and, in many instances, they demand that a flex-schedule option be available as a condition of their employment. While many owners are loathe to yield their autonomy in making a schedule, a flex schedule actually gives them quite a toolbox to work with in meeting a wide variety of unusual scheduling issues. Here are a few flex-schedule options that may change your mind about the whole issue:
Telecommuting – The protestations of Yahoo’s CEO aside, telecommuting is a fact of life and the newest generation of workers is demanding it. The sensible business owner will embrace the concept and enact procedures that ensure that the company is getting its so called money’s worth from the employee.
While it may seem like there is an extra layer of oversight needed in this situation, monitoring the activities of off-site employees is really no different than doing so for in-house ones, especially if most of their activity is on line or reported after the fact. In addition, the company does not lose employee time to such minor difficulties as cable installation, doctor’s appointments or inclement weather.
Job Sharing – Another interesting flex schedule benefit that can support both the employee and the employer is a job-sharing arrangement. Job sharing is ideal for on-call positions where more than one employee can be assigned in an emergency. However, it should not be used in situations where delegator powers or important responsibilities are held as there will inevitably be miscommunications with subordinates and important tasks can fall through the cracks.
Alternative Shift Schedules – For businesses that operate on a 24 hour, 7 day schedule, shift work is often the answer for covering those “hard to fill” shifts. Many employees are not enamored with this relationship but there are plenty of working couples who would relish the possibility of eliminating child care costs for a portion of the month. In addition, there are part-time business owners who will benefit from being able to communicate with the customers during the day and at night.
Temporary Employees – While temporary employees have been the mainstay of many a company looking to keep the costs of benefits down, recent rulings by the U.S. Department of Justice has cooled this idea. No longer can employees be simply declared as “temporary” but must meet certain government guidelines to be classified as such. Still, there are many employees who seek out temporary assignments and revel in the freedom it allows.
The Bottom Line
Regardless of the reasons for and the types of flex scheduling, both companies and their employees can benefit if a reasonable effort is made to balance the wants and needs of both parties.
For the HCM administrator, capturing time appropriately and ensuring that all wage and hour laws are adhered to is important. Does your HCM solution help you stay in compliance to local and federal guidelines or do you have to do this manually? A good HCM does it for you.
To compare HRMS Solutions for your business see www.compareHRIS.com.
