Flexible working hours

opportunity : Flexible Workplace :
Flexible working hours

Tips and Tools

Model administrative arrangements:
flexible working hours

Model administrative arrangements: flexi-place

Tips for working at home

1 Traditionally, organizations work with fixed schedules of operation and working hours. Staff members are expected to be at the office during the posted hours to permit supervision by their managers, to participate in meetings and to be on call for any work needs. At the same time, professional and managerial staff members often are expected to work beyond the posted hours.

2 This structured schedule poses a number of problems for both staff and management. Those working fixed hours deal with the constant stress of trying to arrive at, or leave, work on time if they are facing such problems as rush hour traffic delays or the need to care for infants, organize school transportation for children or meet other family obligations outside normal working hours. These difficulties in adhering to a structured schedule also lead to:

disruptions and inefficient time planning, or
lost opportunities for career development (e.g. when regular working hours conflict with available training courses).

The case for flexible working hours
3 CGIAR Center staff members are highly committed and typically work much longer than formally required. Nevertheless, many might be more efficient and effective if they modify their working hours to accommodate work, study and family commitments.

4 By the same token, Centers may find that fixed hours do not always synchronize with their global concerns. As international research organizations, Centers often must function well beyond eight-hour days. They need to communicate with partners in distant time zones or to provide services to scientists who need round-the-clock monitoring of laboratory studies.

5 Flexible working hours is an effective way to meet these concerns. With flexible working hours, a Center usually establishes a set of core hours when all staff must be at the office to attend meetings, undertake joint work with other staff and be on call for their input.

6 The Center then allows flexibility by expanding the hours at which staff may arrive at the beginning of the day and leave at the end of the day. In some cases, the total number of hours during which the office is open and services provided is extended, providing longer periods of public access or support for scientists who must work outside normal hours.

7 Determining eligibility for staff members to practice flexible working hours may depend on their roles. Cross-training may be needed to ensure that all essential functions are fulfilled throughout the work day. Good communication between supervisors and staff is important for identifying and resolving concerns that arise from the flexible working hours.

8 Flexible working hours and other flexible arrangements require managers to focus on evaluating staff outputs, rather than observation of work patterns.

Caution
Question your workplace practices
• does your workplace (supervisors and colleagues) evaluate staff members on their work outputs and demonstrated competencies? Or does it place more emphasis on being seen to work long hours?
• do flexible work practices seem non-viable because the workplace is reactive, rather than having well-planned operations?

Developing a policy framework for flexible working hours
9 The development of detailed practices for implementing a flexible working hours policy would normally be guided by the following basic principles.

Access to flexible working hours
10 Unless there are overwhelming reasons to the contrary, e.g. where staff members need to provide (or receive) direct supervision or are needed to provide essential services, all staff should have access to flexible working hours.

Focus of flexibility
11 Flexibility of hours should be provided at the beginning and end of the day and during the lunch break.

12 Center managers should determine earliest start times and latest finish times according to local circumstances. The earliest start and latest finish times can vary among duty stations within the same country.

Core times
13 Center managers should set core times when all staff should be on duty. For example, core times might consist of two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon with two hours of flexibility during the lunch period. However these periods should be determined by the individual Center and location, noting that the periods might differ in locations where extreme climatic conditions prevail.

Limits
14 The maximum excess or deficit of hours that can be worked should be specified (e.g. limited to 10 hours in any four-week period).

Operational issues
15 Staff and their managers should communicate pro-actively to ensure that staff members working flexible hours deliver the necessary outputs or services.

16 A staff member may request time off during core time, exchanging those hours with their accumulated surpluses of time worked. Such a request would require approval of the relevant manager.

17 All routine meetings should be scheduled during core hours. These meetings should neither start before, nor extend later, than core hours. Failure to meet this requirement by the meeting organizer undermines the Center’s flexible working hours philosophy.

18 Conversely, staff must recognize that certain meetings cannot be contained within core hours and require attendance outside core hours. Examples of these include major planning or review meetings, staff retreats and major presentations. Required attendance at these functions overrides general approvals for flexible working hours.

19 Managers should appraise performance based on output and demonstrated competencies, rather than observation of working patterns.

Record keeping
20 Employees shall keep a written record of the hours worked, indicating accumulation of excesses and deficits of working time.

Example of flexible working hours practice
21 A model set of administrative arrangements for flexible working hours appears in Tips and Tools. Note that these arrangements are intended only to be a model rather than a comprehensive plan. We recommend that they not be adopted until the Center has checked every paragraph in detail for acceptability and feasibility. There may be important local considerations not reflected in this model that should be incorporated into the final arrangements.