HR manager Ginny Priborsky kept fielding requests for flex-time from employees who had to be on fixed, strict schedules. Granting the requests looked impossible until she figured out an innovative approach.
Her story:
Our employees were always asking about the possibility of starting a flex-time program, but it just wasn’t practical for us.
Most of the jobs we have require that people be at their workplaces for set hours each day. So, as much as we wanted to use flex-time, the demands of business wouldn’t allow it.
We explained that to our employees, but they still grumbled a bit. A lot of them had families, and wanted the ability to modify schedules so they could make it to a daytime recital, ballgame or other similar event.
Maybe there was a way to accommodate them without having a full-blown flex-time program.
‘Flex 4′
There was. We called it “Flex 4.”
We gave each employee four hours to “play with” every two-week pay period. In other words, they could use four hours of flex time every two weeks, but they’d have to make sure they somehow put in the full 80 hours by the end of the two-week period.
For instance, if you left two hours early one day, you’d have to make sure you made up the two hours by the end of the pay period.
The system requires a little more tracking than we were used to, but it’s been well worth it. Our employees love it, and the system presents almost no disruption to our schedules.
(Ginny Priborsky, HR manager, Mac Tac Nellis, North Las Vegas, NV)
