Flextime allows employees to choose their start and end times as long as they work the required daily/weekly hours. It offers flexibility that helps balance personal and professional lives. Potential pitfalls include communication issues if employees work different hours, but setting clear expectations can mitigate this. Employers do not have to offer flextime but it has benefits like increased motivation, satisfaction, and retention as employees feel valued and trusted. Flexible options include job sharing, alternate workweeks, remote work, and different start/end times. Clear goals, responsibilities, communication guidelines, and availability hours are needed to implement flextime successfully. Electronic timesheets can track flexible hours and overtime rules still apply.

1. What is flextime?
Answers to most common questions about flextime

2. 1. What is flextime?
• Flextime is a flexible work hours policy where employees are allowed to
choose when their workday starts and ends, as long as they achieve the
daily, weekly or monthly hours set by the employer.
• There are several variations, but the core principle is the same – to provide
employees with more freedom and flexibility in making their own work
schedule.

3. 2. What’s so good about it?
• Flextime offers employees a real opportunity to find a good balance between their
professional and personal lives:
Some people have children they need to drop off and pick up at school.
Others have classes or a second job.
Many rely on public transportation to get to their workplace and heavily depend on
train or bus schedules to be there on time.
• These and many other things that are usually so difficult to deal with when you’re
working the traditional 9 to 5 become a non-issue with flextime.

4. 3. Any hidden pitfalls I should know about?
• There are, but they can be mitigated with the right approach.
• When you have multiple employees on your team all working different hours
communication could take a big hit.
• To avoid that, as an employer you need to be absolutely clear about the results
that you expect from your team, and when you expect them.
• Don’t worry about being too strict, because otherwise some employees might get
tempted to try to do less work and have more time for slacking off.
• Which in turn could lead to costly gaps in service and upset your customers.

5. 4. Do I need to offer flextime as an employer?
• No, but it would be a mistake not to try.
• By offering flextime to those of your employees whose personal needs clash with
their regular work hours, you show them how valuable they are to the company
and how much you trust them.
• Being valued and trusted motivates them to be more dedicated and productive,
increases their satisfaction and decreases absenteeism and turnover.
• It fosters a happier workplace environment overall.
• One where employees are so grateful for the privilege of having flexible hours,
that they tend to be a lot more invested and work harder to hold on to their perfect
schedule.

6. 5. What options do I have?
1. Job sharing: two part-time employees work half hours both comprising one full-time employee. In
order to make this one work, all tasks, roles and responsibilities need to be well coordinated and
clearly communicated to ensure optimal productivity.
2. Different work hours: allow employees to work different hours, which usually means coming to
work earlier (or later) than their colleagues. For example, instead of working 9 AM to 5 PM,
employees on flextime can work 8 AM to 4 PM, or 11 AM to 7 PM.
3. Alternate workweek: allow employees to alternate between working a four-day week and then a
five-day week. Or they can work ten days straight and then have four consecutive days off. Or, they
can work four ten-hour days and then have three days off. The possibilities are limited only by what
you think can work for your company.
4. Remote work: if the kind of work employees do does not require them to be physically present at
the workplace at all times, or if their work environment is too small or noisy, they can work
remotely, from the comfort of their home or their favorite coffee shop.

7. 6. How do I make it work?
• Make sure that your goals for flextime employees are absolutely clear. They need to be
specific and measurable.
• Ensure that everyone on flextime knows their exact role in the company. Every person
must know their own responsibilities, as well as those of other employees. Every person
must know exactly who does what and who answers to whom.
• Set some guidelines regarding the frequency and mode of communication that you
require from your flextime folk. The amount of control and contact that you want from your
employees is entirely up to you and your management style.
• Establish regular hours for your employees working remotely. Make sure they outline a
specific time when they’ll be available via phone or email, and set a period when they
need to be physically present at the business location for a certain amount of time.

8. 7. How do I track flexible hours?
• There are literally dozens of different electronic timesheet solutions
available.
• They allow you to easily capture your employee’s work hours (flexible or
otherwise), and present that information to you in a digestible and easy-to-
read format.
• Systems like actiTIME feature a special report designed to provide you
with a closer look into your employees’ flextime, and show you how their
reported time stacks up against their daily, weekly or monthly hours.

9. 8. Okay, what about overtime?
• When it comes to overtime, there is no real difference between employees
working regular hours and their flextime counterparts.
• The same rules still apply – if a person works more hours than what they’re
required over the course of a single workweek (or a single day, in the case
of California), they must be compensated for that extra time.