Summer Hours

Have you heard a version of this recently from your employees - Can we have summer hours? What about flexible workdays? Let’s close the office on Friday afternoons.

I’m certain these are familiar words to many of us- supervisors, managers and Human Resources people alike. So what’s your answer?

It’s an understatement to say owners are operating in a different manner in these economic times. Of course they are. With that in mind, think about creating a change in your work environment with multiple benefits. Summer Hours might be a benefit to the bottom line; work hours and schedules could be reduced on a reasonable basis to provide the off time employees want with significant cost savings benefits. There are other advantages in such a seasonal change including stress reduction, improved productivity and improvements in overall morale.

First and foremost investigate the possibility from the perspective of running the business and not from an employee’s point of view. Is your business people/labor intensive? Can the hours be altered or adjusted to permit flexibility? Second, is this really a perceived benefit that the majority of your workforce wants or is this just “seasonal talk”? If you have read this far and decided it could be a likely win-win proposition for all, there’s still additional factors for your consideration.

The possibility of adjusting hours and creating a new environment will prompt further discussions and require other decisions before moving forward. These include defining the actual program, policies as well as helping supervisors learn to manage the workplace flexibility.

Give us a call - we have experienced Human Resource professionals who understand these issues and can be a tremendous asset in design and successful implementation of programs addressing summer or other forms of reduced hours for your employees.

http://www.wolinassociates.com/