Dear Ammar,
I am a technical manager at XYZ Inc. an IT firm based in Jordan. XYZ has strict rules when it comes to working hours. Any tardiness is deducted form employees’ vacation time. Our employees come and leave exactly on time. It is amazing how deserted the company looks only five minutes after departure time. I always joke with other managers about the “stampede” at the front doors at exactly 6 pm. Even if urgent work was not done, it will have to wait until the next day. If we try to convince someone to stay later, people start making excuses like “my cousin is getting married” and “my uncle is sick”…etc. I noticed that employees at a supplier organization of ours are totally the opposite. They have much more commitment. They act as if they own their assignments and work late hours if necessary to “take care of business” so to speak. They implement a “flex hours” system and seem to be doing very well with it. Their employees give them better performance and seem to be much more content and loyal to the company. We decided to give flex time a try at XYZ.
XYZ’z experience with flex time turned out to be a complete disaster; people started abusing flex time left and right. They came late and left early, taking leaves for the silliest reasons and not making up for lost time. Abusers, when confronted, would give me the line: “it does not matter how many hours I put as long as I do a good job.” Finally, management including myself, decided to reverse flex time and go back to strict work-hour rules. Employees were disgruntled; they felt management betrayed employees and does not trust them. Morale is down again and performance is suffering.
Where did we go wrong? Is flex time the way to go? Or should we stick to the traditional strict hours? What are the best practices in this regard?
Regards,
Mohammad
Dear Mohammad,
Sorry to hear about the bad experience with flexible time at XYZ. Do not despair. Many organizations struggle with change, and this is part of “growing pains” for organizations who are determined to continuously improve their business. Nonetheless, flex time actually works. About 30% of American workers are on flex time, and the number is on the rise as more companies are implementing strategies providing more flexibility in the workplace.
Flexible (or flex) time was first introduced by Hewlett Packard in 1973. It allows employees some flexibility in choosing their working hours, within certain constraints. Organizations implementing flex time are reporting improvements in job satisfaction, morale, and productivity. Flex time enhances employee recruitment and retention. It also encourages creativity and reduces absenteeism. Flex time moves employees and management away from a “card punching” mentality to focus more on improving organizational performance.
Flex time is not for all organizations. Some organizations are better off with standard work hours. Examples include restaurants, retailers, and production plants. Flexible time would be disruptive to such companies. Imagine a plant waiting for a machine operator to show up before work can start. Also, within the same company, some roles cannot adapt to flex time. These can include receptionists, customer care representatives, and network administrators.
There are factors that can improve the chances of an organization in successfully implementing flex time. Organizations must set the right expectations. Flex time should be communicated as a privilege not a right. Each employee has to work with his supervisor and HR to see if flex time works for her role. Then, organizations must clearly communicate the flex hours rules and their importance. Team members must understand that the flex time privilege can be withdrawn from abusers of the system. The Human Resource Department (HR) must provide supervisors with weekly information on working patterns of team members; time in, time out, hours worked, etc. Monitoring should be at the macro, not micro, level.
In your specific case, I do not think the problem is with flex time, but more with the way it was implemented. There is no need to go back permanently to standard time. However, clearly communicate to team members why flex time was stopped. I advise you to reinstate flex time, but this time after carefully designing it with management and employees’ involvement. Use lessons learned from the previous experience to avoid pitfalls and build a more robust system that handles abuses more firmly and effectively. Then, communicate the new flex time rules to all employees and solicit their feedback before making it formal. Once formalized, ensure supervisors and HR are working together to make the system work and to deal promptly with abuses. The most important thing is to keep communication channels open. Make everybody feel that they are one team working together for what is best for the organization and its employees. Look for win/win solutions and do not make control a goal by itself. Good luck.
Regards,
Ammar