Flexible Scheduling

Flexible scheduling allows employees to control some aspect of their schedule. This can include flex time, where workers set their own start and end times around a core schedule; flex hours, which allows banking of accumulated hours for future time off; compressed work weeks, such as working 10 hours per day for four days rather than five 8-hour shifts; and self-scheduling of shift work, sometimes used in nursing and manufacturing positions. Voluntary reductions in work weeks, such as temporary transitions to part-time or partial retirement for older workers, are also approaches to flexible scheduling (Golden 2016,Cochrane-Joyce 2010).

Expected Beneficial Outcomes: Improved health outcomes; Increased job satisfaction; Reduced absenteeism; Increased productivity. Other Potential Beneficial Outcomes: Improved mental health; Improved work-life balance; Increased sleep; Reduced stress; Increased well-being.

Evidence of Effectiveness: There is strong evidence that flexible scheduling improves employee health, increases job satisfaction and productivity, and reduces absenteeism. Overall, increasing employees’ control over their work schedules improves well-being, sense of community, and happiness. Self-scheduling of shift work has been shown to improve indicators of physical health, such as blood pressure and heart rate, as well as mental health and sleep-related outcomes for individuals in a variety of fields, including health care and law enforcement. Flexible scheduling may increase retention, improve employee performance, and increase employee commitment. Flex time has been shown to increase productivity and reduce absenteeism. Flex time and compressed work weeks improve employee job and schedule satisfaction and are associated with improved work-life balance and reduced stress. Availability of flex time may increase female labor market participation rates, and its use may increase life satisfaction for working mothers from dual earning families. However, some of these benefits may be reduced when workplace expectations include taking work home and being available outside of work hours. In some cases, flexible scheduling may also increase the likelihood that work and family interfere with each other, for example, when the scheduling is employer driven rather than employee-centered. Adopting flexible scheduling for selected workers may lead to decreases in productivity among workers without the benefit. Flexible scheduling options may increase profitability when implemented as part of an employee-centered strategy, but may decrease profitability if implemented only as a cost reduction strategy.