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Section 2, Chapter 8
Definition:
Alternative work schedules (also known as
variable work hours) are comprised of three different strategies:
flextime, compressed work weeks and staggered shifts.
Flextime—Employees work specified hours
each week, but are given flexibility on when they arrive to work,
take lunch and leave work.
Compressed work weeks—Employees work
more hours than typical but work fewer days per week or pay period.
Staggered shifts—Employees arrive and
depart work at different times in shifts. Shifts may be staggered
anywhere from 15 minutes to two hours.
Benefits
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Employer
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Employee
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Community
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- Reduces parking lot and entrance/exit congestion
- Less employee stress/better productivity
- Better employee morale/retention
- Reduces tardiness
Economical to provide
- Can offer flexibility needed for other Commute Solutions
- Staggered hours allow for more coverage because of extended
workday.
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- More flexibility for personal and work time
- Can offer flexibility needed for other Commute Solutions
- Often reduces commute time by avoiding rush hour traffic
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- Less traffic congestion during peak hours
- Better air quality from reduced congestion
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Challenges
- Developing
policies and procedures
- Diluting chances for ride sharing with
different schedules
- Making sure work duties are "covered"
when needed
- Monitoring employees who participate
Implementation Steps
Alternative work schedules are extremely
popular with most workers. ETCs have their work cut out for them,
however, since the programs work best with established guidelines.
Many employees are sensitive—and rightly so—about who
works when and how much and with what supervision. So the more the
ETC gets down on paper and communicates to employees, the less chance
for conflicts.
Managers also may fear alternative work arrangements,
because they can complicate how they monitor employees and how they
manage tasks and coverage of work duties. (See
Teleworking, Section 2, Chapter 7, for an expanded look at how
to address management concerns.)
Chances are, however, that most employers
already have programs and guidelines in place, since the diversity
of the information age has led to a need for customized work schedules
that don't fit the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. profile. Additionally,
manufacturing and production jobs have long experimented with staggered
shifts and compressed work weeks to meet other goals and increase
productivity.
So for the ETC, the goal may be to simply
ensure the employer is getting the most out of their alternative
work schedule programs and that they are supporting other Commute
Solutions options to the fullest.
1. Form a Team
Most Commute Solutions strategies require input from various people
or departments at an employer. But for alternative work arrangements,
the input is crucial. A lengthy and complicated list of labor laws
that vary from state to state make it important for the employer's
legal department or attorney to be involved and review policies
before finalizing them.
Additionally, human resources staff will
be implementing many of the changes, and therefore, should be involved
from the beginning. They also have more expertise in developing
personnel policies.
2. Decide Overall Objectives
The first step is to establish objectives for the alternative work
schedule program. Is it intended to promote other Commute Solutions
strategies like carpooling and vanpooling? Is the work site suffering
from too many employees arriving and departing at the same time?
Or are employees simply requesting more flexibility?
Once the employer establishes objectives,
the ETC can begin to examine which strategies or combination of
strategies will work best, and which job responsibilities are suitable
for the programs.
3. Pick Strategies
All strategies have defining characteristics that the ETC should
plan for and address.
Coverage
The time that certain employees need to be present and working.
For example, certain positions may require that the phones or reception
areas are covered during specific hours. Or additional customer
service personnel might be needed during peak hours.
Work Requirement
The number of hours or amount of work that must be accomplished
each day or week.
Work Hours
An employer's hours of operation. Remember that extending work
time to accommodate flexible schedules also can increase operating
costs related to lighting, heating/cooling, security, etc. However,
flexible schedules allow for longer coverage due to the staggered
schedules.
Choice
The decision on which positions and individual employees will be
able to participate, at what level of participation and whether
the participation is the choice of the employee or management.
Accountability
Making sure that employees follow schedules and/or work requirements.
With different employees on different schedules, it may be hard
to monitor who is doing what and if that's what they're
supposed to be doing. Time cards, logs or other systems can be used.
However, employee performance and monitoring tasks and productivity
are often the best measures for accountability.
Additionally, flextime and compressed work
weeks have their own defining attributes.
Flextime
Flextime programs are based on the following structures and definitions.
Core Hours
Most employers require a core period, a time in which all employees
must be present.
Gliding Schedule
Employees are allowed to pick their starting time each day, and
the departure time is simply based on when they have fulfilled the
required amount of work hours. A typical gliding schedule would
allow employees to arrive anywhere from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. each day,
then leave from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Flexitour
Employees can pick their starting time each day, but that time is
chosen for a mandatory period of time (perhaps six months or a year,
coinciding with other changes in other benefit plans).
Maxiflex
The ultimate in flexibility, employees can essentially work any
hours they want within a 24-hour period. Additional hours in that
period over their required work time often can be banked to shorten
future workdays or weeks.
Credit Hours
For systems that allow banking of hours, or if overtime is reached,
credit hours can be given that allow for reduced work time in the
future.
Compressed Work Weeks
Compressed schedules can be structured in a variety of ways, but
they usual by fall into the following two categories.
The 4/40 System
Employees work four 10-hour days and take the fifth day off.
The 9/80 System
Employees work eight nine-hour days and one eight-hour day with
the tenth day off.
Another common structure among manufacturing
companies is the 3/36, three 12-hour days with two days off either
in between or following. (Four hours are given as a reward for working
the long, extended days.)
Days Off
Usually compressed work week participant days off are divided, with
half taking Monday and half taking Friday, although any variation
can be used to meet the needs of employers. However, employers should
not feel that days off should be limited to Monday and Friday only.
4. Select Types of Participants
Once the ETC understands which strategies will be beneficial and
feasible, it is time to start defining which positions are suited
for alternative work schedules and which positions might be eligible.
The selection ultimately will help define who gets to participate
in what type of program.
For example, a combination of flextime and
compressed work weeks may work for an accounting department that
handles ongoing payable and receivable functions. However, a call
center with customer service representatives may only be able to
work compressed work weeks with alternating days off for participating
employees. Extended customer service hours would be a benefit of
flextime that extends the working hours, although flextime might
also deplete the number of needed representatives at certain times.
5. Develop Policies
Once the objectives are matched with the proper strategies, and
the proper strategies with the job descriptions, the ETC can work
with a team to develop written policies. The policies may be detailed
and rigid, or flexible to fit the needs of different departments
or managers. The key is to have something in writing, because arbitrary
or inconsistent policies lead to disputes.
When developing policies, be sure to cover the characteristics (work
requirements, work hours, coverage, etc.) and the specific attributes
for each type of strategy, as well as other typical considerations
(See below).
6. Examine Other Considerations
Part-time vs. Full-time Work
How work requirements, hours and other characteristics may differ
for part-time and full-time workers.
Holidays
Policies for how holidays are handled need to be taken into consideration.
Some government agencies have rules defining exactly what hours
can be "missed" because of holidays, which may affect
those who have extended work days.
Cross Training and Rotating Participants
Some employees that appear ineligible may be able to participate
if the employer cross-trains co-workers to provide coverage. Different
employees can rotate to help cover for needed duties.
Pilots and Trial Periods
ETCs can encourage managers who are unsure of starting alternative
work schedules to try a pilot with a limited number of employees.
Additionally, employees considering such programs may want to have
a trial period of a couple weeks to see if the new schedule works
for them and their manager.
Allowing for Special Considerations
Mandatory programs for compressed work weeks and staggered shifts
can create problems for some employees who have schedules to accommodate
for ridesharing, children, medical needs, relatives, etc. If the
employee didn't sign on with the employer under the arrangement,
it may be unfair to impose it on them, and special consideration
may be needed to allow them to continue their existing schedule.
7. Support Ride Share, Transit and Bicycling/Walking
Both flextime and compressed work weeks can offer benefits for promoting
other Commute Solutions options. Flextime particularly helps transit
and bicycling/walking, since a flexible schedule can accommodate
additional time needed to get to work. Compressed schedules may
let Commute Solutions participants run errands in their cars on
their days off.
Flextime also can hinder carpooling and vanpooling.
For example, an open or maxi flextime lets vanpoolers and carpoolers
pick schedules that accommodate their pools. But a set flextime
(core time) outside that schedule might not. If an employer sets
a flextime schedule of starting from 6:30-8:30 a.m., that won't
help someone who's wants to vanpool with a group from another
area employer that arrives at 9 a.m.
Similarly, compressed work weeks also can
create a problem for rideshare, since they extend the working hours.
So a group of carpooling employees on a compressed 4/40 week may
not leave until 6 p.m., leaving the worker without a compressed
work week unable to meet that schedule.
The problems usually occur at larger companies
when different managers set different requirements for who can participate
in flextime and compressed work weeks and what the rules are for
core hours or arrival/departure times.
The ETC may consider a separate survey of
department heads to gauge rules and procedures if they differ throughout
the work site. At that point, the ETC can strategize on how to best
coordinate different ride matching attempts and may even be
able
to standardize policies in some situations.
Finally, using alternative work arrangement
perks as benefits can leverage Commute Solutions options. For example,
if compressed work week participants are required to divide into
two camps for days off (most likely Mondays and Fridays), Commute
Solutions participants would get the first choice on which day to
take off.
Cost / Savings
See the Cost Savings Calculator (Section
5) to find out how much money employees can save with alternative
work schedules (mainly reduced trips from compressed work weeks).
For the employer, compressed work weeks--if
structured properly--also can result in significant savings from
reduced parking needs.
Resources
Variable Work Hours: An Implementation
Guide for Employers
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
www.deq.state.or.us
503-229-5696
Variable Work
Hours: An Implementation Guide for Employers (PDF)
Case Study
The ability to vary start times or work
the longer days of a compressed work week are a way of doing business
at the Frank Russell Company, a financial services business based
in Tacoma, Washington. The company relies on a mix of flextime,
compressed work weeks and telework to extend coverage into earlier
and later hours for clients, and to boost employee morale and satisfaction
with the work environment.
Flextime helps because an earlier start or
a longer day increases telephone communication with international
staff. In addition, since Wall Street opens at 9 a.m. in New York,
traders on the West Coast need to start by 6 a.m.
Another group, which provides desktop computer
support, finds four 10-hour days make it easier to accomplish some
tasks before or after employees need to use their computers. The
large consulting department offers compressed workweeks to administrative
staff. One administrative assistant, for example, works five eight-hour
days one week and four 10-hour days the next to receive one day
off every other week. She is part of a team of four administrative
personnel who jointly support a work group of four executives.
Increasing the hours of coverage, plus the
idea of cross-training and shared work, results in less overtime.
The biggest benefit to Russell, however, is happier employees and
low turnover. So long as coverage is adequate, staff can change
days off from one pay period to the next.
In the end, management asks two questions
when making decisions about work options requests: 1) Will it improve
overall employee satisfaction or job performance? and 2) Will it
hurt performance of duties in some way that is not acceptable or
is not offset by other improvements?
Source: Washington State University Cooperative
Extension Energy Program
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