Most employees and employers alike have been impacted by the changing economy. With the rising cost of living, employees are looking for ways to cut costs. Employers are looking for ways to work smarter while maintaining employee morale and satisfaction.
It’s not uncommon for employers to describe their company culture as “family-oriented” and try to help employees through this difficult time. After all, loyalty works both ways, and when the economy changes—which it eventually will—employers would hope that employees remember how they helped them through a difficult time.
For example, one of my customers, an employer with 100 employees, called and explained that a loyal, tenured employee’s husband lost his job. He found another job, but if was a different shift, so my customer’s loyal employee now had daycare issues. This is just one example of what employers around the country have to address currently.
Employers are getting more creative in this economy. That being said, there’s been a significant increase in the number of employers evaluating alternative work schedules as an option to help employees cope.
What are Alternative Work Schedules?
Oftentimes, alternative work schedules are referred to as flexible scheduling or compressed work weeks. There are several options, but more popular options include the following:
- 4/10s—Employees work 10-hour days 4 days a week and take the fifth day off.
- 9/80s—Employees work 9-hour days Monday through Thursday, and take the alternate Friday off.
- Telecommuting—Employees work from home or another convenient location that keeps them from having to come into the office.
- Flexible Scheduling—Employees are able to work the hours that fit their life, as long as they work a certain number of hours a day. For example, some employees might work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., while others might work 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Job Sharing—Job duties would be split between two employees. This is usually a good option for two part-time employees or mothers who want to go back to work.
- Part-Time Status—Instead of working full-time, employees would work part-time for less money.
Are Alternative Work Schedules Right for Your Company?
Before you implement alternative work schedules in your workplace, you should consider the following:
- What are you trying to achieve? Cutting costs? Help employees deal with rising gas prices?
- Talk to your executive team, managers and supervisors to determine what they believe employees want and need. What are their suggestions?
- Consider federal and state laws. For example, California has specific state laws regarding alternative work schedules. Some states also have meal and rest period requirements that may be impacted.
- Do you work in an industry that requires additional considerations, such as health care?
- Are you going to offer one type of alternative work schedule or did you determine it’s best for the individual departments to use their discretion in regards to what will work best for their employees? One program may not work for everyone.
- Determine which job positions or categories are eligible and ineligible to participate in alternative work schedules. If, for example, you determine that you are going to offer telecommuting twice a week to employees and the receptionist position is ineligible for telecommuting, consider morale issues. What will you be able to offer the receptionist?
- How will managers communicate with employees and manage performance expectations once these alternative work schedules are in place?
- What about shifts and coverage? Are you going to require “core hours” when everyone is at the office?
- How about overtime implications? Some employers have considered changing the work week, but can’t because then some employees would end up working overtime.
- How are you going to monitor and evaluate the program’s effectiveness?
- Do employees understand expectations? For example, while having an extra day off a week is attractive, 10-hour days can be difficult for employees accustomed to 8-hour days.
- Determine if existing policies need to be changed. For example, if you establish a 4/10s schedule or 9/80s schedule, how are you going to pay for paid time off (PTO—vacation, sick, personal) and holidays? For example, are you going to pay for time off at 8 hours or 10 hours? If you pay at 10 hours, some employees may feel they are “using up” more time than those employees working 8-hour days and being paid for 8 hours.
If you have made the decision to offer alternative work schedules, work with your Human Resources (HR) Department and/or an employment attorney to prepare a policy or an agreement for the employee to sign that establishes things like work hours, expectations of the employees and how PTO and holidays will be paid.
If you are going to offer telecommuting as an option, a separate agreement should be prepared to discuss the details of the arrangement, such as providing equipment to the employee, performance expectations, etc.
Success of an alternative work schedules program will depend on how carefully the employer designed and implemented it.