Flexible Work & Scheduling

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Here you'll find a range of potential approaches to flexibility for working parents. To learn more about each area, download the complete Guide to Family-Friendly Workplaces in Florida.

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Flextime

A flexible work schedule allows employees to choose when they work, as long as they put in their hours every week.

Benefits to Employers¹

• Increases productivity
• Improves the bottom line
• Improves recruitment
• Increases retention, reducing turnover costs
• Reduces employee absenteeism
• Improves relationships with co-workers
• Increases morale, loyalty, commitment
• Increases overall job satisfaction

Benefits to Children²

• Improves physical and social emotional health, through parental stress reduction
• Reduces obesity
• Improves education, through increased parental engagement

Benefits to Parents/Families³

• Improves health
• Increases happiness and job satisfaction
• Reduces stress
• Allows employees to care for sick or elderly family members
• Improves family economic security
• Workers are more likely to remain in the workforce, increasing family economic security

A significant amount of research indicates that flexibility in all forms is one of the most beneficial policies to help employees balance family and work. 

Working from Home/Telecommuting

Telecommuting allows employees to work from home or some other remote site some or all of the time.

Benefits to Employers⁴

• Increases productivity
• Reduces real estate and overhead costs
• Increases retention, reducing turnover costs
• Increases employee loyalty
• Employees can work more hours before experiencing work/family conflict
• Reduces employee absenteeism
• Saves money during emergencies and weather- related disruptions

Benefits to Children and Parents/Families⁵

• Saves employees time
• Increases job satisfaction
• Reduces reports of physical and mental fatigue
• Offers large benefits for disabled or temporarily disabled workers

Research suggests that telecommuter job satisfaction is maximized when telecommuting occurs at moderate levels — about two days per week. However, each employee is unique, so employers should work with individuals to find the right fit.⁶

Job Sharing and/or Part-Time Work

In a job share, two or more employees share a single position, each working a portion of the necessary time. Job sharing allows employees to hold a position and still have time to spend with children or take care of other family responsibilities. A full-time employee might be allowed to shift to part-time — either as part of a job share, or simply as a reduction in working hours — and still continue in the same position. This shift can be temporary or permanent.

Benefits to Employers⁷

• Increases productivity
• Increases net worth
• Increases retention, reducing turnover costs
• Increases job satisfaction

Benefits to Children and Parents/Families⁸

• Increases job satisfaction
• Provides more time to meet family needs

Predictable Scheduling

Predictable scheduling involves ensuring that employees have some control over their scheduled working hours, not changing work schedules without employees’ consent, and/or giving employees advanced warning about changes to their work schedules.

Benefits to Employers⁹

• Increases productivity
• Increases retention, reducing turnover costs
• Reduces employee absenteeism
• Increases morale, loyalty, commitment

Benefits to Children and Parents/Families^{10, 11}

• Allows employees to plan for child care, school activities, health care visits, and transportation
• Leads to better child development outcomes because of more stability for child care arrangements, which improves cognitive and behavioral outcomes and language development
• Lowers stress for parents and improves overall healthy behaviors
• Increases family economic security, due to predictable pay
• Allows employees to care for sick or elderly family members

Parents with fluctuating or nontraditional schedules, which encompasses about half of low-wage workers, have difficulty accessing high quality, affordable, licensed child care. Child care providers are typically unable to accommodate last-minute scheduling changes or variable hours and are much less likely to operate during evening and weekend hours.¹²

Footnotes

1. North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. “The Research Basis for Family-Friendly Workplaces.” June 14, 2018. https://files.familyforwardnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/NCECF_FFNC-policyfactsheet-061418.pdf.
2. North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. “The Research Basis for Family-Friendly Workplaces.” June 14, 2018. https://files.familyforwardnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/NCECF_FFNC-policyfactsheet-061418.pdf.
3. North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. “The Research Basis for Family-Friendly Workplaces.” June 14, 2018. https://files.familyforwardnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/NCECF_FFNC-policyfactsheet-061418.pdf.
4. North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. “The Research Basis for Family-Friendly Workplaces.” June 14, 2018. Retrieved from: https://files.familyforwardnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/NCECF_FFNC-policyfactsheet-061418.pdf
5. North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. “The Research Basis for Family-Friendly Workplaces.” June 14, 2018. Retrieved from: https://files.familyforwardnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/NCECF_FFNC-policyfactsheet-061418.pdf
6. Shockley, Kristen. “Telecommuting.” Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. 2014. http://www.siop.org/whitepapers/scientificaffairs/telecommuting/telecommuting.pdf.
7. North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. “The Research Basis for Family-Friendly Workplaces.” June 14, 2018. Retrieved from: https://files.familyforwardnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/NCECF_FFNC-policyfactsheet-061418.pdf
8. North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. “The Research Basis for Family-Friendly Workplaces.” June 14, 2018. Retrieved from: https://files.familyforwardnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/NCECF_FFNC-policyfactsheet-061418.pdf
9. North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. “The Research Basis for Family-Friendly Workplaces.” June 14, 2018. https://files.familyforwardnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/NCECF_FFNC-policyfactsheet-061418.pdf.
10. North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. “The Research Basis for Family-Friendly Workplaces.” June 14, 2018. https://files.familyforwardnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/NCECF_FFNC-policyfactsheet-061418.pdf.
11. Human Impact Partners Center for Popular Democracy. “Scheduling Away Our Health: How Unpredictable Work Hours Affect Health and Well-Being.” July 2016. http://www.humanimpact.org/wp-content/uploads/Scheduling-Away-Our-Health_rev3.pdf.
12. Ben-Ishai, Liz; Jodie Levin-Epstein, and Hannah Matthews. “Scrambling for Stability: The Challenges of Job Schedule Volatility and Child Care.” CLASP. March 2014. https://www.clasp.org/sites/default/files/public/resources-and-publications/publication-1/2014-03-27-Scrambling-for-Stability-The-Challenges-of-Job-Schedule-Volat-.pdf.