Not only are you likely to have read about flexible hours on this blog, but also heard about it in the media.

More and more now, flexible hours are heralded as a great way to attract high calibre staff, and motivate your team.

But what are flexible hours?

In essence, it is a move away from the traditional working hours of 9-5, Monday to Friday. Many companies are moving away from operating purely on this model.

How could you offer more flexible working?

  • Allow people to work from home – this could be continuous, just for 1 day per week, or an occasional arrangement to support an employee’s personal situation
  • Staggered start and finish times – for you this gives greater flexibility for customers with your business manned longer than 9-5. For your team, it means enabling them to carry out tasks they couldn’t do other wise
  • Extended hours, less days – I know this sounds strange! This is about allowing people to work longer hours for fewer days – packing a 5 day week into 4 days for example. Clearly this is only effective if your team has sufficient work that can be carried out outside of core hours
  • Part time – some of your team may welcome the chance to reduce hours, and indeed you can often attract some very good people who do not want to carry on working full time.
  • Job share – splitting a role so two people share the duties, both working half the week. If you want to do this, I would always advise ensuring that the two employees have some overlap – to make transition more seamless
  • Volunteer days – giving employees 2-3 days per year to volunteer for a cause close to their heart.

As I have said before, flexible working has been the backbone to the success of our business. We have successfully implemented this in a number of guises for many clients.

If you would like to implement flexible working in your business, please contact us on 01256 328 428.