How to Offer Flexible Working Hours to Increase Job Satisfaction and Workplace Efficiency

Despite the continuation of flex and hybrid work models, not all employees feel they have the opportunity to influence their working hours. A recent survey by a Danish union found that 29% don’t think they have good opportunities to go to the doctor during working hours if they can’t do otherwise. Fifty percent of respondents also said their workplace is not working on initiatives to provide more flexibility and influence over working hours.

While some companies may balk at giving employees more choice, feeling as if flex or hybrid work models offer enough freedom, offering flexible working hours is actually very valuable to employers.

Why Offer Flexible Working for Employees?

Flexible working hours can help create better balance for employees and reduce the pressure of juggling work and personal responsibilities. This can help reduce stress, which as Robert Half points out in a recent article, is critical.

Recent reports by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Robert Half illustrate why:

• Work-related stress, anxiety, or depression accounted for 50% of all work-related ill health cases in 2023/2024
• This led to an average of 17.3 days of sick leave per employee
• High rates of burnout are one of the top five concerns around retention of valued employees in 2024

And according to Ellie Clutton, Practice Manager at Robert Half, the importance of flexible working is in its ability to lower stress levels and “promote a healthier, happier, and more productive workforce.”

Moreover, other data has found that when employers offer flexible working opportunities, productivity actually increases. For example, in 2023, The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)’s survey found 38% of British employers reported increased productivity due to remote and hybrid working arrangements.

5 Benefits of Offering Flexible Working for Employees

Some of the key benefits of flexible working hours include:

1. Reduced stress and burnout
2. Increased employee productivity
3. Improved mental health and healthier workplaces
4. Greater job satisfaction and reduced turnover
5. Better chances of attracting and hiring top talent
6. Lower operational costs due to reduced needs for office spaces
7. Higher employee morale

You may notice the connection between employee flexibility and happiness as well as the connection between flexibility and productivity.

How to Accommodate Flexible Working Hours?

Not every company is able to increase flexibility for employees. Some roles will require specific hours and being in the office, but for many workplaces, it’s possible to offer flexible working hours to employees a few days a week  (or all the time) with proper workspace management tools in place.

What do flexible working hours mean for employees?

Before we share how to offer flexible working hours, let’s quickly look at what this can mean for employees.

Also called flextime, flexible working hours means a work schedule that allows employees to vary their start and end times, and to adjust to accommodate personal commitments such as daycare, school pickup, and doctor appointments. Flexible working hours for employees can be offered as an agreed upon schedule, be a temporary adjustment, or be part of an employer’s general practice to allow grace for unplanned events.

There are also different types of flexible working schedules.

• Flexitour: Allows employees to choose their arrival and departure times within a set range of hours, and employees must stick to their chosen schedule until they can discuss another with their employer
• Gliding: Allows for flexible start and stop times and can change them daily, but employees must still work the agreed hours per day and be present for a core time period each day.
• Variable Day: Allows employees to vary daily work hours within (start and finish work at different times each day), while still completing their total weekly hours within the workweek.
• Variable Week (Alternative Workweek): There are two types of variable or alternative workweek schedules. With a compressed work schedule, employees can work longer days but fewer days per week. With a flexible work schedule model, employees can simply adjust their arrival and departure times during the week, but they must still work the total required hours and all required work days.
• Maxiflex Schedules: Allows for flexible start and stop times, with the ability to complete the biweekly 80-hour work requirement in less than 10 workdays. This is often used by employers who do Monday through Thursday work weeks.

How to Offer Flexible Working Hours

With options available, it’s easy to implement flexible working hours as part of your workplace so long as the correct workspace management tools are in place.

Once you choose the flexible work hours model that fits your workplace and industry best, we recommend also investing in the following tools and strategies to help maximize workspace efficiency, further reduce operational costs, and ensure employee collaboration and productivity can excel:

1. A meeting room and workspace management solution to account for employees who may be in and out of the office at different times. This solution can help you ensure enough workspaces are provided and avoid unnecessary operational spending.
   
   
2. Using a hot desking arrangementis ideal for flexible work models as it helps to optimize space utilization, promote collaboration, and accommodate a more dynamic work environment.
   
   
3. A web-based group calendar that syncs with employees’ Outlook® can help keep teams informed, up to date while on-the-go, and enhance teamwork and innovation.
   
   
4. Using workplace analytics to get actionable insights about your workplace, including what spaces are being used (or not), workspace utilization patterns, and how specific resources are used, can help reduce overhead costs, identify sustainability and efficiency opportunities, and reduce waste.  

Flexible working hours can be a simple thing to offer, and with the right tools, one that most employers can accommodate to the benefit of both the business and employees.

Still not convinced on how to execute a flexible or hybrid workplace with flexible working hours? Read this article next: Navigating the Hybrid Office: Strategies for Remote Productivity and Collaboration.