Understanding Flexitime: A look at its benefits, challenges and how to implement it in the UK

Are your team struggling to find the time to run personal errands and consistently take time out of their working day to complete them?

The juggle of a 9-5 and personal life can be tough sometimes, but we have the answer.

Flexitime is a work arrangement perfect for those seeking adaptability and balance.

It's transforming the way we work for several reasons, so we're here to share exactly what it means and how it can work for your organisation.

We look at the ins and outs of flexitime, exploring its benefits, drawbacks, and how it's reshaping the traditional work environment.

So, if you're intrigued by the prospect of a more flexible workday, stay tuned.

What is flexitime?

This flexibility enables employees to better balance their work and personal lives, such as childcare or personal errands.

It also allows for a more efficient use of time, as employees can work during their most productive hours.

Flexitime can be beneficial for both employees and employers, as it can lead to increased job satisfaction, productivity, and work-life balance.

However, it requires clear communication and trust between both parties to ensure that work is completed effectively and efficiently.

How does flexitime work?

Flexitime balances employee needs with the business's needs.

Typically, the company will set a range of working hours and allow employees to choose their hours within that range.

For the benefit of collaboration, companies will also set 'core hours' where all employees must be present, so compulsory business tasks can be handled.

Outside of these core hours, employees have the freedom to choose when they complete the remaining hours to fit around their personal lives and schedules.

In some cases, flexitime also accommodates compressed work weeks or remote work setups, but more on that later.

Industries that allow flexible hours

Not all industries can adopt flexitime as it depends on their operational demands and requirements. It works best in organisations where round-the-clock support is not needed.

For example, marketing, IT and design are fields where flexitime can flourish. Employees in public services, for example, administration and management, would also benefit from flexitime.

At the end of the day, it's less about the type of industry and more about how the business is run operationally.

If your company run daily tasks that have specific deadlines each day or you need specific people on site all day, flexitime likely won't work for you.

This typically happens in industries such as healthcare, retail and manufacturing. Whereas if your industry has more flexibility, flexitime will be easy to integrate.

Advantages of flexitime for employees

As we've mentioned, there are a multitude of benefits to flexitime. If you think it could work for your role or organisation, see our top advantages below.

Capitalises on peak energy cycles

Not everyone shares the same productivity cycles.

Some people are most productive first thing in the morning, while others reach their peak in the evenings.

A great benefit of flexitime is the ability it gives you to work during your most efficient times and not during hours you're told to be productive.

Flexible hours give employees the power to optimise their days by tailoring a flexitime schedule around their energy cycles.

By working when they're most energised, productivity, performance, and job satisfaction are all increased, optimising outcomes for them and you as their employer.

Saved time and cost during off-peak commuting

I don't think you'll find a person on this planet who says they enjoy commuting during rush hour. If there is ever a reason to go fully remote, that is it.

Flexitime gives employees the freedom to dictate their own travel times, enabling them to drive or take public transport during non-peak hours.

By side-stepping busy rush-hour travel, commuting stress is minimised and transportation costs are reduced, contributing to overall job satisfaction and well-being.

Works around family life

One of the main drivers of flexitime is to allow employees to fit work around their personal lives.

Everyone has different demands outside of work, with some of those demands crossing into the traditional 9-5 working hours.

Flexitime means employees can tend to those demands when they need to, without having to leave early or make other arrangements.

Flexitime means work responsibilities are complete and employees can be present and active when they need to be, without having to worry about when they're going to pick up a prescription or take their child to their karate class.

It bridges the gap between work and personal life and provides an inclusive work culture.

Promotes work-life balance

With the ability to shift work hours as needed, employees maintain control over their job and personal life, lowering stress levels and improving mental health.

This balance not only contributes to happier employees but also leads to a healthier and more engaged workforce. That's a win-win in our eyes.

Disadvantages of flexitime

Where there are advantages, there must be disadvantages. You should carefully review these before deciding if flexitime is right for your organisation.

Coordination and communication challenges for job sharing

Flexitime, while promoting productivity, can bring coordination challenges among team members working at different hours.

While having standard core hours should help with this, it doesn't erase it completely.

If employees only have 4 hours of cross-over each day, these can quickly be filled with important meetings with clients or the team.

This means that scheduling can become a challenge as you have a more limited window of everyone's shared ability. Collaboration can be impacted as employees are online at different times.

Increased management complexity

If you have any micro-managers at your company, the success of flexitime will be stunted.

Flexitime requires managers to trust their employees to complete the work, regardless of when it's being done. This comes with its challenges though as managers need to be aware of tasks and deadlines to ensure nothing is being dropped.

In some cases, employers might implement systems to track employee hours, tasks and deadlines, to keep things ticking along.

This is then a cost to the business both in time and money, implementing and managing those systems.

Potential risks of overtime during flexible hours

Flexitime does pose a risk of blurred boundaries between work and personal life.

If work is no longer confined to traditional hours, the temptation to work longer or fit in extra hours outside the standard work time could lead to unforeseen overtime.

This is where clear policies need to be established around rest and recreation periods, to discourage continuous overtime.

How to implement flexitime

So from what you've seen so far, you think flexitime would work for you.

Here are our tips for how to implement it so it has the best chance of being successful.

How to introduce flexitime in your team

With the key stakeholders at your company, figure out what your main objectives are for wanting to introduce flexible working.

This can range from boosting productivity to supporting employee well-being.

Look at your business's operations and see if any tasks would be dropped if it was introduced. This includes looking at all departments, as in the interest of fairness, flexitime shouldn't be implemented if it can't be companywide.

It's worth looking into training on the expectations of flexitime so everyone understands the concept.

We'd also recommend implementing this on a trial basis, to see how it goes before adopting it fully.

Setting flexitime policies and guidelines

When implementing anything new, always develop documentation to go with it.

This helps to set expectations and guidelines for the policy and gives staff something to refer to when needed.

Creating clear flexitime policies safeguards against further challenges and potential pitfalls.

Policies must also share guidance around breaks and rest periods to prevent the risk of overtime or overworking. If there is anything you think your company needs to know to make flexitime successful, add it to your policy.

Make sure every employee reads and signs the document so you have full understanding.

Tracking flexitime

As we've mentioned, introducing flexitime on a trial basis is a great way to see how your team adopts it.

A big part of its success comes down to monitoring and tracking during the trial. We'd recommend either using task-tracking software that you already use (e.g. ClickUp, Monday.com, Asana) or researching to find one that fits your needs.

Make sure your team are adding their tasks to the platform, so you, as a manager, can review and ensure everything is on track. Without this visibility, it can be hard to check the progress of tasks and projects. In the beginning, it can be useful to understand exactly when your team will be working.

At the beginning of each week, ask your team for the hours they're planning on working and ask that they update you if that changes.

This allows everyone to know when they can reach their teammates so collaboration isn't stunted.

Other types of flexible working schedules

There are many different types of flexible working schedules. In the UK, all employees have the legal right to request flexible working, so if flexitime doesn't sound right for you, here are some other styles to consider.

Remote working and working from home

Remote work became the norm for most people during the pandemic in 2020, with many companies seeing its benefit and continuing it to this day.

Remote working sees employees working from home, or a remote location as opposed to the office.

It removes the time staff have to spend commuting and saves companies money that they would spend on an office space.

Hybrid working

Hybrid working combines traditional in-office work with remote work.

We're seeing a lot of companies make the transition to hybrid working as they see the benefit of remote work and office-based work.

With this style, employees still get to reduce commuting time on days they work from home, but still have the benefit of in-person collaboration.

Compressed hours

Compressed hours is another working style where contracted hours are completed in fewer days.

For instance, a typical 40-hour week might consist of four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days. This results in longer work days but a shorter work week, and one extra day free each week.

You can read more about that here.

Annualised hours

Similar to compressed hours, annualised hours look at the yearly total of contracted hours and allow employees to plan their working weeks to suit them, still making sure they're hitting their contracted hours.

During seasons of heightened workloads, like tax accountants during the end of the fiscal year, employees can choose to work additional hours, whilst reducing their core time during slower periods to level it out.

Staggered hours

Lastly, we have staggered hours, a system allowing different start, finish, and lunch break times within a team.

Businesses such as customer service centres benefit from the extended coverage that this style brings.

Conclusion

Flexitime has numerous benefits to both organisations and their employees, such as increased productivity, job satisfaction and work-life balance.

While implementing flexitime may require some adjustments and considerations, the rewards are worth the investment.

By allowing employees to have more control over their schedules, you can create a team that is more engaged and motivated.

With employees having the legal right to request flexible working conditions in the UK anyway, being one step ahead and offering flexitime to every employee puts the control back in your hands and makes employees feel valued and trusted.

This means you can attract and retain your talent and have a happier workforce, which is what we all want right?