Flex Time Key Terms

Educate yourself on flex time terminology to determine if it is right for your company
By Emily Lugg Flex time and flex place policies can afford your employees more flexibility as well as reduce your overhead costs. Telecommuting and compressed work weeks can help you have happier employees as well as increase production by offering some flexibility throughout the work week. Many companies rely heavily on technology and therefore can allow their employees to work from wherever, or whenever, they prefer.
 

Core hours

Core hours are the hours that all employees are required to work. Even with flex time, many companies have restrictions on when the flex time can be taken and require set core hours employees must work.
Try: The U.S. Office of Personnel Management explains the details of how core hours fit into flex time policies.

Flex place

In addition to flexible work hours, it is also possible to offer flexibility with where the work is done, which is called flex place. As long as the work is being completed, with flex place, the actual place where the work is done is not important.
Try: Cornell University details its policy on flex place.

Telecommuting

Telecommuting provides your staff the flexibility to work from home or to report in on the phone or on the computer. In this day and age of rising technology, telecommuting can offer a company flexibility in combination with flex time.
Try: Columbia University explains its telecommuting policy.

Overhead

Overhead is the amount of money spent for necessary business functions to keep the office up and running. Overhead includes office supplies, equipment, office space rental fees, utilities and all other costs related to keeping the office open. The appeal of flex time is often that a company's overhead can be greatly reduced.
Try: US Legal details the specifics of company overhead.

Bandwidth

The bandwidth places some parameters on when employees can use their flex time. It defines the beginning and end of a work day to use as a starting point for employees to schedule their flex time.
Try: The Community and Public Sector Union uses the term bandwidth in context.

Compressed work week

A compressed work week is one type of flex time schedule. This happens when employees work a full 40-hour work week in less then a typical work week, often within three or four days. Although these days are long in length, it reduces the number of times the employees need to report to work.
Try: Womans-Work explains the specifics of a compressed work week.