Find your Flex

The term flexible working is a really broad term, the truth is it can mean different things to different people. So let’s break it down. 

Flexible working arrangements with your employer can either be formal or informal. With a formal agreement, your work pattern is outlined within your contract. With an informal agreement is where your employer is open to adjusting your hours on an ad hoc basis in response to your needs. For example, occasional remote working or shift swapping. 

It’s worth considering the three aspects of the working day that are within our control. The three W’s; the WHERE, the WHEN, the WHAT.

Where:

Can you work from home? Either fully or in part? Whilst clinical work can’t be carried out from home for obvious reasons, there is no reason why paperwork, phone calls and emails cannot be carried out from home. Or would working from a different branch on a certain day make your day more straightforward? Ie it’s closer to the gym or childcare setting. 

When:

Can your hours be compressed into less days? A recent global trial of a 4 day week found that employees had greater satisfaction, improved productivity and improved health. Can you personalise your start and finish times to accommodate things that are important to you? And would this align with a business need? (early appointments allowing for owners to be seen before work? Would working out of hours only work for your lifestyle?

What:

Would you like to continue to work full time or would you like to reduce your hours? This could be a job share, a zero hours contract or simply fewer days or shifts per week than the full time equivalent. 

Did you know that there are 15 recognised working models for a permanent employee? And you can even personalise it further. 

• Full-time
• Part-time
• Job sharing
• Compressed hours
  • working full time hours but over fewer days
•  Flexitime
  • employee chooses when to start and end work but works certain ’core hours’
• Term-time work
• Out-of-hours
• Working from home
• Annualised hours
  • certain number of hours over the year need to be worked, but a level of flexibility applies; there are sometimes ‘core hours’ which the employee regularly works each week, and they work the rest of their hours flexibly or when there’s extra demand at work
• Staggered hours
  • employee has different start, finish and break times from other workers
• Specialised caseload
• Self-rostering
  • employee puts forward preferred times; once staff levels and skills are accounted for, shift pattern is drawn up to match employee preferences as closely as possible
• Shift-working
• Phased retirement
• Teleworking

But which type of flexible working would work best for you? Find your flex with our free, fun quiz. Start here!