With time management becoming one of the main 'management' challenges today, Indian employers are slowly getting ready to give the nod to time management strategies long employed by their British and Dutch counterparts. They have realised the benefits of encouraging flexible work schedules for their employees, realised that allowing flexitime ensures that employee time is concentrated where the business actually needs it.
What is flexitime? Flexitime allows you to select working hours while keeping in mind the organisation's need to maintain work cover. It means that you as an employee can choose working hours which are convenient with public transport timetables, thus easing out the stress of commuting to work.
Kinds of flexitime Flexitour You select the starting and stopping time for work independently and adhere to these timings regularly.
Flexitime You must be at work during specified core hours, but can make up the rest of your hours as you wish.
Gliding schedule You must meet the basic requirement of eight hours a day and 40/ 48 hours a week. Within that, you can opt to change your arrival and departure time every day.
Variable day You must meet the basic requirement of 40 or 48 hours (depending on the organisation) a week but can vary the number of hours you work each day.
Maxiflex You decide: This kind of flexible work schedule contains the least number of core hours and offers maximum flexibility.
Advantages of flexitime In Marketing Prudential ICICI has introduced a system where the entire sales department's timings have been shifted from 9 am - 6 pm to 11 am - 8 pm. "There is no point in calling employees at 9 am" says Vasant Sanzgiri of the Human Resources Department of the organisation. "Their work depends on customer convenience and actually begins only at 11 am. This way a lot more work gets done than by sticking to the 9 - 6 schedule."
Creating goodwill Sanzgiri claims that the employee benefits are tremendous too, especially since most of the personnel in this department are female. "The staggered timing lets them avoid the rush hour and commute in comfort," he says. "And the late hours give them the flexibility to complete their housework before coming to work."
Srikanth Karra, general manager, HR & Operations, Aztec Software Technologies and Services Ltd, encourages flexitime in keeping with the organisation's culture of 'trust and freedom' at work. "By giving leeway to employees, a strong bond is invariably created between employ and employer," he says. "This helps in retaining our best employees."
In media and advertising In the world of media and advertising, flexitime has always been the norm rather than the exception. A large number of public relations firms allow flexitime in India - many of which have nothing contractual to legitimise the system. One of these is Prahlad Kakker's agency, Genesis which has been following flexitime for years now. Kakker says that although the official time to start work is 9.30 am, very few of his employees come in before 11.30 am. "My office has people coming and going at different times of the day," he explains. "Each employee has his own individual responsibility to fulfill, for which he/she chooses his/her own time of working. I attract talent by maintaining flexibility. I have no objection to their schedules as long as they deliver the goods as and when I want."
In education Colleges like the SNDT College at Ghatkopar, Mumbai, require teachers to put in six hours every day, according to their convenience, any time between 8 am and 6 pm, giving a leeway of four hours. (Naturally, the actual lecture hours form the core hours when they must be around).
"Since I prefer coming in late, I try to keep my lectures in the afternoon. So I can clock in from 12 noon to 6 pm," says Madhumita Sarkar, a sociology teacher at the college. "Many of my colleagues prefer to come in early and leave early."
In conclusion? Flexitime, though practiced in small sectors of the industries, and by select companies, needs attention from the hardcore corporate sector, since many professions look upon extra hours as part of the job, especially at the senior level. In such places, employers would necessarily stand to lose if flexitime became an option. But wherever practicable, it does remain an incentive to attract and retain employees with family responsibilities in particular. And to ensure a better quality of life in general.
