Flextime: what are the gains when implementing it on remote work?

Traditionally, the Brazilian laws regarding the labor journey (CLT - Consolidated Labor Laws) establish 8 hours of work a day, being the commercial work hours from 8 am to 5 pm or from 9 am to 6 pm. However, other possibilities have come across due to the labor market changes, one of which is flexible working hours. Remote or hybrid work were one of the aspects that contributed to make this practice more popular..

In 2017, ManpowerGroup, a Human Resources consultancy, carried out an international survey that compared working preferences among professionals from many countries. Regarding the Brazilian scenery 41% of the interviewed people value flexible hours when starting and finishing their work, while 31% considered flexible hours a fundamental aspect in terms of decision-making in their careers.

The post-pandemic scenery showed us that not only time flexibility has become relevant but also the possibility of being able to move around geographically, which means working from anywhere.

In the Liven organizational work environment survey, our collaborators highlighted the way we provide time flexibility here, being a great differential and having a 4.9/5 on the assessment scale.

Thus, in this article, we are going to share perspectives on how to implement flexible working hours in a remote culture and the gains for both the company and employees.

How to implement a time flexibility policy?

For the successful implementation of any internal policy, it is important to have a strong cultural alignment between the proposal and the practices that are already in practice in the company. In other words: the implementation plan must make sense to the business reality, organizational culture, and values.

Culture of trust

In the case of flexible working hours in a remote work scenario, the first point to be considered is the culture of trust and transparency. The need to control small activities because of the belief that without supervision there is no delivery (Micromanaging teams) harms the policy implementation.

That is why stimulating horizontal working relations between leaders and employees based on autonomy is fundamental. Making agreements, constantly setting expectations, and asynchronous communication records contribute to developing this culture when working remotely.

Support programs for Collaborators

During the process of making the work journey flexible, it is common to encounter some difficulty in self-management and creating a routine. Throughout our lives, in most cases, we were not taught how to be self-aware to understand what works or not in terms of time management.

For that reason, providing support programs, content, and materials that help collaborators to organize and potentialize work-life balance can be a great differential for talent retention and people development.

Thus, the implementation of a time-flexible policy in remote working will only be efficient alongside other solid complementary cultural practices.

What are the gains for companies and collaborators?

Increasing work-life balance

Time flexibility brings as a consequence the possibility of practicing other interests beyond the working journey, such as exercising, hobbies, personal care, studies, and so on.

Moreover, the flexibility allows people with kids to better adjust their working routine to the need for parenting care. Having commercial hours for this increases work-life balance directly related to a better possibility to handle career and personal life.

More productivity and respect for individualities

Understanding what routines work better or not, each collaborator has the autonomy to manage their work journey, being able to focus during peak performance periods.

It contributes to respecting individuals' characteristics, in which a night owl, for example, has the freedom to focus on working in the evening and not too early in the morning.

Therefore, collaborators can focus on quality delivery and optimize their execution time, since this is not about adapting to a pre-set working time.

In general, time flexibility in remote working has gained more importance inside organizations, especially, post-pandemic. It allows us to explore our potential as individuals and collaborators. It is important to keep in mind that it only excels if the organization's culture is aligned with the policy conceptualization.