Time Request

Do your homework and make a plan. If you're going to offer flexibility, start by investigating the options. Ensure communication. Monitor the success of flex, then update your plans. Be fair, but also firm. Set a good example.

A flexible work schedule is an alternative to the traditional 9 to 5, 40-hour work week. It allows employees to vary their arrival and/or departure times.Alternative work arrangements such as flexible work schedules are a matter of agreement between the employer and the employee (or the employee's representative).

It may make your team more productive. Flexible work hours allow everyone to create a schedule that works best for their own internal clock. A Boston College study showed that 70 percent of managers and 87 percent of employees reported that flex time had a positive or very positive impact on productivity.

Flex time. Reduced hours/Part-time. Compressed work week. Telework/Working Remotely/Telecommuting. Job sharing. Banking of Hours/ Annualized hours. Gradual Retirement. Leaves and Sabbaticals.

Flextime is an arrangement that allows an employee to alter the starting and/or end time of her/his workday. Employees still work the same number of scheduled hours as they would under a traditional schedule.

Flex time refers to a working schedule with a flexible set of starting and ending hours. Whereas a traditional schedule is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. per day, a flex-time schedule allows employees to arrive, for example, at a.m. one day and 10 a.m. the next.

Flextime is a work schedule that allows employees to choose their working hours, within limits. A compressed workweek is when the required 40 hours is achieved in less than five days.