Supervision problems:



Due to different working hours, managers may not be able to supervise their subordinates as effectively as before. This problem could be solved by having more overlapping work hours, but that would not be highly possible in the case of flextime. The employees could be asked to prepare a proper daily work report and send it to their managers before they leave. This can help the manager do better supervision and be aware of the work being done during his or her absence.

The last two problems of flextime are discussed in this concluding article of this series.

Inadequate Staffing:

This problem can occur if the company or the particular department is small in size. If there are less number of employees and the flextime program is implemented, there could be a shortage of employees during some hours of the day on some days. If the management is unsure of the success of flextime program in some departments/organizations, it could do a pilot or trial program over a month or so. After knowing the results, the program could be implemented on a larger scale.

Coordination challenges:

This problem can occur mostly in the case of daily flextime. With flexibility in work scheduling, employees come in to work during different times of the day. As there is always uncertainty about the timings of employees, scheduling meetings is difficult. If face to face communication is required and the timings do not overlap, it will be a problem. Similarly team projects could also slow down with daily flextime as coordinating between many employees can be a tedious task. Communication between colleagues is important, as a word here or there could cost the company a lot of money and time. Coordination problems can be reduced by having frequent meetings with flex staff and the regular staff. The employees should be encouraged to keep each other updated about the work over telephone apart from email. The company should draft some rules and policies and the managers must make sure that all employees follow the same so that the coordination problems don't crop up.

Conclusion:

Despite the various challenges, the benefits of flextime work arrangement outweigh the criticisms. Flextime work schedules have shown increased acceptance over the world. In the USA, the number of employees opting for flextime has increased over the years as per data given earlier. An organization can help its employees and itself if it adopts flextime work schedules in a proper way. It can help any organization to improve its productivity along with employee satisfaction. There are a number of problems, but those can be overcome. Finally the employees are the major assets for any company. In the Internet industry, already many employees have started working from home. This can get slowly replicated in other industrial niches as the usage of computers increases. Finally flextime work arrangement is how things will work in the future as a preferred choice.