Flexible scheduling isn’t just a perk for employees — it’s how they expect to work. To stay competitive, companies must go beyond simple remote work options to create flexible work schedules tailored to employees’ real needs. If you don’t want to risk losing talented, trained workers — or falling behind your competition — it’s time to gain a strong understanding of what “flexibility” means to employees.
Follow this step-by-step guide to create an effective flexible work schedule proposal for your workforce.
The importance of flexible work schedules
Offering flexible work schedules gives employers a real competitive advantage by boosting talent acquisition, employee retention and productivity. According to a recent Zoom survey, 43% of employees expect flexible work as a basic part of their job. What’s more, 70% would leave their current jobs for a more flexible one.
Beyond improving employee satisfaction, employers who champion flexibility also see better business outcomes. Gartner reports flexibility as a key factor in productivity, with 43% of employees saying it makes them more productive thanks to shorter commutes and accommodating hours. Offering true flexibility also encourages innovation by allowing different types of employees into the workforce, increasing creativity and diverse opinions.
Organizations that want to stay ahead by attracting top talent, keeping employees longer and supporting better business outcomes must learn to frame flexibility as a lever to drive outcomes — not a dangerous path toward looser standards.
Why flexibility matters to your workforce
Employee expectations are changing. Today, workers want the work-life balance, autonomy and opportunity flexible schedules afford. Having control over when, where and how they work supports employee mental health while boosting focus. Moreover, offering flexible schedules provides your organization with a more diverse workforce by offering opportunities to employees who may not be able to work a traditional 9-5, such as caregivers, neurodivergent employees and those with different chronotypes or sleep schedules.
Flexibility isn’t just about making employees happy. Flexible schedules also lead to more productivity and better performance, giving your company a competitive advantage beyond hiring and retention. When leaders look beyond the oversimplified question of remote work vs. return-to-office mandates and instead create an environment where employees do their best work in a sustainable way, employees and business goals both thrive.
Aligning flexibility with business objectives
Flexible schedules come with a mix of pros and cons for businesses, managers and employees. If you want to create a model that benefits both the organization and employees, aligning flexibility with business objectives is a must. This means mapping flexible models to key goals within your organization.
For example, do you want to maximize productivity? Use time-blocking or core-hour models to reduce distractions. Concerned with cost efficiency? Leverage part-time or compressed schedules to reduce overhead. Looking to improve customer service? Stagger start times or offer shift swapping to ensure better coverage for customer response teams.
Not all teams require the same level of flexibility, so think about operations, support, creative and development teams differently. Different roles or projects require different amounts of focus time vs. collaborative time, and some jobs may require in-office time or set hours while others don’t.
To successfully introduce flexibility into your workforce, you must demonstrate how structured flexibility can coexist with accountability, deadlines and team collaboration norms.
How to create a flexible work schedule proposal
Every organization is different, and you’ll need to tailor your flexible work schedule proposal to your workforce, industry and business goals. Here are eight proven steps for creating a strong flexible work schedule proposal.
1. Gather employee feedback
The first step is understanding what your employees expect and want from flexible work schedules, since they’re the ones who use them. This helps you define flexible work for your organization while getting employee buy-in.
Best practices:
- Create an anonymous survey to gather employee ideas.
- Ask for employee feedback during a town hall meeting.
- Hold small group discussions with employee resource groups.
2. Analyze job functions and workflows
Take a look at your current workforce, including individual roles and how teams work together. Find out where in-person collaboration or strict hours are must-haves and where projects or job descriptions allow for more flexibility. This is also a good time to find bottlenecks or other workflow issues to determine how flexibility improves current setups.
Best practices:
- Use data to analyze workflows objectively and understand where flexibility will help with optimizations.
- Ask managers to map out their processes and define job functions.
3. Define flexible work options and objectives
Next, determine why you want to introduce flexible options and what you want them to accomplish for your workforce. Have you been losing talented employees to competitors? Are employees disengaged or overworked? Find the right type of flexible work arrangement to match your industry, individual roles and business goals.
Best practices:
- Consider different types of flexible work models, such as asynchronous or “work whenever” schedules, four-day workweeks and flextime options.
- Map out how flexible options will align with business needs.
- Include possible pitfalls for flexible work arrangements and how teams will address these.
4. Establish clear guidelines and expectations
It’s important to write down exactly what your flexible policy entails so employees, managers and leaders have matching expectations. You need a clear policy that’s easy to enforce and promote. Define what success looks like for your flexible schedule plan and determine how you’ll address issues.
Best practices:
- Set out exactly what flexibility entails for your organization, including where employees can work, when they’re expected to work and what tools they should use.
- Define what type of flexibility you allow for different roles, along with guidelines on how to gain more flexibility and when it may be revoked. (For many organizations, this happens when team members miss goals or aren’t responsive.)
- Map out what “success” looks like and how you’ll address issues as they arise.
5. Incorporate flexibility with equity
When employers create flexible work policies that promote equity, it increases employee satisfaction, reduces burnout and builds trust between employees, managers and leadership. While not every role can be fully flexible, organizations often find different ways to offer flexibility to meet different employee needs.
Best practices:
- Find ways to incorporate flexibility into every job role at some level.
- Expand flexibility to include options like career development, training or project choices for roles that require set hours and locations.
- Develop ways to empower managers to support employees in their choices of flexibility.
6. Organize a business case
Many managers and business leaders are skeptical of flexible work programs. Overcome their objections by clearly outlining the benefits of flexible work and creating a business case to support the program.
Best practices:
- Analyze flexible arrangements in other organizations in your industry, including competitors, to determine if your company lags behind industry norms.
- Leverage workforce productivity data to show how flexibility improves work for employees.
- Incorporate feedback gathered from employees to make a strong case.
7. Demonstrate pilot program success
Many organizations opt to introduce flexibility in small bites, such as offering a specific team flexible options or trying a set trial period. This method empowers you to find and address challenges of flexible work arrangements without disrupting business operations.
Best practices:
- Define the pilot program parameters clearly — which team or department to include, what the flexible schedules to offer, when the program will end and how you’ll measure success.
- Compare objective data on productivity, performance and other success factors before and after the program.
8. Engage stakeholders
Department heads, HR leaders and managers need to have a say in what flexible work looks like for their teams. In addition to asking employees for ideas, include stakeholders from all levels of the organization to build trust, generate buy-in and create a proposal that meets as many needs as possible.
Best practices:
- Create a flexible task force made up of leadership, management and employees to ensure diverse perspectives.
- Leverage existing groups such as employee resource groups or HR leaders to create an ongoing conversation.
- Incorporate feedback from stakeholders into your proposal and engage them at every step along the way.
Implementing and evaluating your flexible work schedule
Implementing a flexible work proposal isn’t a one-time switch you flip — it’s a full system overhaul. Leaders must approach implementation with discipline and data, just like any operational change. Here’s how to do it right.
Communicate the change
As you involve your workforce and stakeholders in the creation of your flexible work policy, ensure everyone is on the same page. A single email informing employees of the change likely won’t cut it. Set up town hall meetings to explain the changes to the entire company. Hold online Q&A sessions with HR. Encourage managers to hold small group discussions with their teams, and create a frequently asked questions page that lets employees explore the changes on their own time.
Provide training and support
Flexible schedules change many aspects of work, which means you need to prepare employees and managers. Provide training on subjects like tool usage, time tracking, time management, communication and more. In addition, train managers on how to address infractions or what red flags to look for if employees abuse the system.
Monitor and measure outcomes
Success requires measurement, and you need to know how your flexible work policy is doing to fix issues or change course as the workforce changes. Traditional workforce KPIs like hours worked and time tracking are less useful for flexible work arrangements. Instead, focus on more specific productivity metrics that focus on how effectively employees work rather than just when they’re working.
Build a smarter, more adaptable workforce with ActivTrak
Flexible work schedules give employers a competitive edge by increasing productivity, boosting employee retention and even helping with talent acquisition. To implement a flexible schedule effectively, you must create a flexible work proposal that tailors the policy to your organization. Best way to do that? Start with data, build iteratively and lead the change with transparency to ensure success.
Get the productivity data and insights you need to create a successful flexible work program with ActivTrak. Leverage before-and-after data on productivity and performance to substantiate flexible work programs and adapt them as needed. Spot trends on burnout risk, employee engagement and unbalanced workloads to support flexible arrangements. Request a demo of ActivTrak today to see how our comprehensive analytics suite supports flexible work schedules from implementation to adaptation and beyond.
