Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Flextime May Be Low-Hanging Fruit to Improve Employee Engagement


By Janelle Callahan, Principal Consultant, Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement, CPS HR Consulting


Flexible schedule, also known as "flextime," is a work arrangement allowing employees to decide their own start and finish times. Part of the workday is required (e.g., 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.), and the other hours are “flex,” when the employee may decide work times (e.g., 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.). Flextime employees still work the total hours required. The only difference is that they have some freedom of choice at the beginning and end of the day. For example, flextime can be helpful to employees who would like avoid heavy traffic during a commute. Employees who are care givers may also appreciate flextime to help meet those personal obligations.

In our national poll of public and private sector workers, we found that 40 percent overall say they have a flexible work schedule.* Private sector workers are more likely to report having this flexibility. Forty-four percent of private sector employees surveyed use flexible schedules, compared to only 37 percent of public sector employees.

Workers who have a flexible schedule are also more likely to be “fully engaged,” with an average score of 4 or higher (out of 5) on our employee engagement index. In the public sector, only 34 percent of those with no flextime are fully engaged, whereas 44 percent of those with flextime are fully engaged. Likewise, in the private sector, only 39 percent of those with no flextime are fully engaged, in contrast to those who have flexible schedules, where 50 percent are fully engaged.

This finding lends support to the notion that workplace flexibilities are likely associated with higher levels of employee engagement. Although flextime may not be feasible for all types of positions, our results suggest that offering flexible schedules when possible may be low-hanging fruit for an organization striving to improve employee engagement.

*Driving Employee Engagement: Results from a National Survey, 2016 Report. (In Press). CPS HR Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement: Sacramento, CA.

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