10 Reasons to Offer Flexible Work Hours

Time tracking sucks. It’s arbitrary and counterproductive. A couple of years ago, PRPL shifted focus to a value-based structure and dropped the timesheets, and last year, we put summer Fridays (alternating between off-days and half-days each Friday) into effect. Time for test runs came and went, and it turns out having flexible work schedules and curbing the “hours” talk puts productivity back at the forefront.

Flexible scheduling, to us, means allowing employees to modify the time or place they complete work, whether that’s fitting 40 hours in four days, starting and ending workdays at varying times, or working remotely. Sometimes, you just gotta break for a breakthrough.

I’d like to arm you with my top 10 reasons to adopt a value-based attitude in the workplace. It may take some convincing, but boy, is it worth it.

1. Improved mental health

Stress. Seems we’ve all got it in these fast-paced environments. Being able to take time when you need it, or even sleep in, can make lower those cortisol levels. And three-day weekends are decidedly good for mental health. Everyone handles their load differently, so giving people the space and means to do so lessens the drama and dread in the office.

2. More autonomy over work-life balance

Pshh. What work-life balance? It’s a decreasingly practiced concept, and not often by choice, but more than half of the men and women in a recent study by Accenture expressed work-life balance as the top indication of career success—ahead of even money and recognition. Technology makes us accessible day and night, so since the lines are blurring anyway, give employees a little more sovereignty over their schedules.

3. Morale boost

You know that fuzzy feeling you get around midday Friday? The sun shines a little brighter, your inbox feels a little lighter. Well, imagine that feeling on a Thursday. Mondays feel like Tuesdays, a three-day weekend is on the horizon, and you think to yourself, “I just might do something extra nice for someone today.” That person should be your boss.

4. Cost savings

On those days fewer or no people are in the office, that inevitably equals savings, especially for small and mid-sized businesses. Shutting the office down once a week cuts costs from energy down to paper towels, and employees pocket the cash they’d have spent on gas or a mediocre deli sandwich from that crowded lunch joint.

5. Shift of focus from presence to productivity

Considering this perpetual accessibility, face time in the office pulls less weight. Enacting summer hours or flexible schedules is still seen as a privilege among most employees, which pushes the priority from watching the clock tick away to watching deadlines. Lose the timesheets and just do good work on time.

6. Good for the Earth

More people working from home or shifting work hours means less people congesting the commute and our ozone. With the average American commute time being 25.5 minutes each way, companies allowing just one remote-working day a week could theoretically see that much more productivity, and the Earth delay destruction. Cue the minute-long daily dance parties.

7. We’re already mobile

These days, many workplaces are going mobile, and Millennials are a less structured breed in the business environment. According to a Deloitte study, 80% of Gen Yers indicated they could be inclined to stick around with a more flexible working schedule, and 89% with a more mobile working schedule. We’ve obtained both by dishing each of our employees a laptop to unleash them from desk shackles and provide an option to change up the scenery.

8. Business continuity

Mother nature doesn’t always take client deadlines into consideration. Snow days and tropical storms can put any 9-5 business on a hiatus, but with aforementioned mobility and the precedent of working under varying conditions, flexible companies have a leg up on relentless timelines. And the competition stuck offline.

9. Timesheets suck

It seems impossible to imagine life without them, but now we can’t imagine life with them. Time is not a great indicator of results, and these pieces of last-minute guesswork take up quite a bit of time, themselves. With more relaxed arrangements, they become a thing of the past. Now, we use a homemade project management platform, called Profit, to track our resources, progress, and cash flow.

10. Pay tribute to the childhood meaning of summer

What’s summer without a few days off? Now’s the time to be active outdoors, and maybe even allow time for some coworker bonding under the sun. And according to a study conducted by Ultimat Vodka (go figure), only 12% of the workforce enjoys these end-of-week treats. Closing shop on Fridays gives employees a little taste of their childhood dream, and that’s the next best thing to living it.So there you have it. Losing the 9-to-5 vibe can be a big step, but it's one that helped us become one of the "Top 10 Coolest Companies to Work For in Orlando"—and beyond, in my humble opinion. May the other 88% of you soon find solace in flexible schedules. Because once you find it, you may never want to leave (your house, that is).