Flextime Can Work For Everyone
The workplace, like everything else, is getting more complex all the time. We can choose to ignore advancements being made or we can be open to change and embrace new attitudes, new ways, new strategies and get better results in the end. It’s all about the word “change”, a concept an entrepreneur must be open to. Staying ahead of the curve is so important to compete effectively. One important factor small business has a distinct advantage with is in making quick and effective changes that will improve the competitive edge immediately.
A relatively new wrinkle in employee management is flextime. It’s actually been around for a while, but it is gaining more traction daily and demands your review and possible application to your specific circumstances. It’s important to attract and maintain a quality workforce. We all know, understand and agree that a huge factor in running a successful business is the quality of your trained workforce, be it sales people, office people or operations people. A quality, loyal and skilled labor, administrative and sales force is critical for a successful business to remain competitive, growing and profitable. What does flextime have o do with this? To retain quality employees the business owner must be willing to provide an ever-increasing quality of life opportunity for its key employees. This may mean a four-day work week, maybe it’s home office work two days a week, maybe its a twelve-hour shift, three times a week, maybe it’s one week on, one week off, early day end, mother’s hours, late starting time… it can mean anything that keeps employees involved, happy and productive and works for the business as well. Flextime is a non-monetary, incentive-based reward. The incentive being a job that meets the employee’s requirements not vice versa as has been the rule for so long.
The challenge, of course, is in making this work with the office requirements, customer needs, and other employees who may need to work more traditional hours. However, the design of the program is not the purpose of this article so much as introducing the concept is. Your immediate job is to open your mind to the possibility and allow acceptance to surface. The knee-jerk response is often “This won’t work for us because…” It will and can work if you want it to. (Don’t be afraid to ask for help in designing a successful flextime plan if you can’t envision it yourself.)
One issue is productivity and the fear that you are not getting your money’s worth. The operative word here being “fear.” Logically. this is not a problem. As we shift to less supervision or unusual, flexible hours, you can take advantage of the opportunity to require additional change. Adjust the compensation equation to include more job performance indicators so productivity can be measured and monitored, assuring everyone of a win-win conclusion. That’s it. That’s the trump card. Redesign the work effort to include measurable output, design the equation to replace hours with specific productivity and you have a winning equation. Does it always work? It can if adequate effort is put into building a good tracking and monitoring method as well as installing a fair and reasonable productivity scale. The employee will be happier and the business should experience increased productivity when it moves away from using hours worked as a tool to measure success.
Does it always translate to productivity? Yes, that’s the key, and also the big challenge–finding the way to remake a job into one with productivity standards. Keep your well-trained employees and reward them with customized flextime. It works for everyone involved and represents our changing times.
