Flextime - An Alternative Work Arrangement - Part 3

Continuing from Part 2 in this series of articles. Flextime program has been becoming a popular option in organizations around the world. "Approximately 43 percent of the U.S. full-time workforce now has flexibility in daily arrival and departure times. And this is not just a U.S. Phenomenon. In Germany, for instance, 29 percent of businesses have flextime for their employees" (Robbins and Judge, 2008, p.95). Companies like IBM, Sun Microsystems, Ernst & Young, etc. have adopted flextime work arrangements since many years and they have been successful at it. Sometimes flextime programs are offered with a mix of telecommuting and part-time job-sharing to give more flexibility to the employees.


Flextime programs are mainly of two types:

1. Rigid flextime program:
In this program, an employee has fixed work timings. Example: the employee may come in to work at 6:00 AM and leave at 3:00 PM every day till changes are made to his or her schedule after a meeting with the management.

2. Daily flextime program:
In this type of flextime program, the employee has more autonomy and can choose his or her daily work timings. The employee could opt to come to work at 6:00 AM on one day and on 9:00 AM on some other day. The employee does not need to ask the management for his or her daily work timings. But the employee must keep his or her manager and colleagues informed about the next days work timings.

There are some questions to be answered by the organization before it can take up a flextime program. Lets study those in the next part in this series.

By: CD Mohatta

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