8 x 5 employee monitoring vs flexible employee monitoring – Which is better?
For decades, the 8-hour fixed work schedule, which is typically nine-to-five, has reigned supreme in offices across the globe. Regardless of someone’s schedule, commute, or other difficulties, employees have faithfully punched in at 9AM and packed up for the day around 5PM.
This quite old fashioned work schedule is no more effective these days, and the demand for a flexible work schedule has been building up for many years, following the constantly increasing pace of life. Also when it comes to productivity during work, it was thought that the 8-hours-a-day for 5-days-a-week schedule was the best way to be productive. Even during work at office, when employees were being constantly monitored by their managers, often it was seen that many employees failed to perform their best due to various stress factors that they had to deal with.
Today, the work-schedule has changed dramatically especially in the corporate landscape. With the rise of women in the workplace, decline of manufacturing, and with the acceleration of latest technology, it has become less necessary for everyone to work the same fixed hour shift. Indeed, with much work now being technology, application, software and email-based and majority of the companies using cloud computing, it’s infinitely easier for employees to perform tasks at any hours of the day, without the need for a fixed time physical office. Management of the companies are also realizing that simply working for straight eight hours does not guarantee productivity.
Today’s employees know how to work efficiently and effectively even if they are not working fixed hours. The commitment towards the company and their job remains the same while the timing has changed to a flexible module. The smart bunch of employees want a better work-life balance and are more willing to look for the right company to offer them flexibility. A flexible work schedule allows employees to work at their peak when they are most productive and gives them the ability to perform best.
A flexible work schedule encourages workers to work at their highest productivity and provides them with the best performance. However, to accelerate successful business and maintain employee commitment, it is clear that business organizations will need to enforce certain policies to track their remote workers and their flexible working time. That is why companies are dismantling a fixed 8-hour working day and taking on flexible working hours.
What Is A Flexible Schedule?
An alternative to a conventional 9 to 5 working days is known as a flexible schedule. Often, it’s a 40-hour week option. A flexible schedule helps employees to change between entering and leaving. We use the word also for homeworkers. The word refers to being able to differ with the beginning and completion of work for a teleworker.
Instead, it gives workers the chance to choose their time that suits best all day, this ensures there is no strict schedule that is the same for everyone. The job is still the same and the output level remains the same or, in most cases, higher.
What Are the Benefits of Flexible Work for Companies?
A flexible work schedule is often working hours that are agreed on by the employee and employer, however, a full-time employee who is working on flexi time is also required to work full-time hours or more. Through a daily flexible work schedule, employees usually have the below preference:
- Some employees prefer to start early and finish early
- Some prefers to start working late and stay on duty late
- Some may take extra time during their lunch break which they later adjust
- Others prefer working during the night
- Mainly employees take flexible weekends, flexible hours depending on their situation and workload
Above components of workplace flexibility aren’t as straightforward as they might seem, companies often found that there can be ways where employees tend to get distracted or fail to deliver their task timely due to too much liberty.
How To Make a Flexible Work Schedule Work for Your Business?
We already know that flexible schedules will help businesses keep valuable employees and attract top talents. Many job seekers want more flexibility than any other advantage, a flexible working schedule is certainly beneficial for both employers and the workers. That is why businesses provide flexible schedules for the recruitment of top talent.
But how do you handle a full hybrid team that works and is still profitable according to their own flexible hours?
Fortunately, technological developments have given employers the opportunity to resolve the request for a flexible work schedule using powerful modern tools to manage the work of an employee entirely and monitor time during work.
By using employee monitoring software such as CloudDesk you can easily monitor all of your employees’ working hours, even if they start and complete work at different times. You should establish a schedule for several workers to ensure that various forms of conflict do not exist.
The software ensures that each employee has access to the most up-to-date schedule and can make an amendment if required, take a flexible pause and return to work whenever necessary. Though flexible employees operate under control tools, managers are automatically updated to see how long and which projects employees work on.
All that sounds like a dream comes true for managers who seek to provide flexibility for their workers as they need and also to get the tool they need to track and succeed in their business. And most significantly, managers will also be able to perform all of this and many more within a few minutes from your cell phone.
