Child Care Options for Flexible Schedules

You have secured your ideal schedule at work maximizing the amount of time you have available to spend at home with your children. However, you still need reliable child care for those hours spent at work. Unfortunately, flexible schedules can reek havoc on daycare arrangements which often require regular hours and full-time costs, regardless of mom and dad's schedule. Consider the following daycare options with regards to your own flexible schedule:

• Babysitters, Relatives, and Friends: enlisting the periodic services of a local teenager or someone you know can buy you a few extra quiet work hours at a relatively low cost. Such babysitters are paid hourly and can be hired to work a few hours here and there to extend your work day.
• Nanny or Au Pair: usually a young adult with or without a college degree, a nanny or au pair is generally hired to work full-time hours but can provide the flexibility of watching your kids in your own home. As full-time employees, some nannies may require you to also provide benefits including housing in a live-in arrangement.
• Child Care Cooperative: coops involve a group of parents who swap childcare responsibilities. Often involving a network of several families, coops will provide several options for care at varying times. The only cost is an exchange of equal childcare hours at another time.
  
• Family Child Care: in home care provided by a licensed provider can offer flexibility to working parents who work longer hours as in the case of a compressed work week. Since family child care providers work from their own home, a provider can watch your child as one of her own brood without interference into everyday activities.
  
• Child Care Centers: some centers offer part-time rates but usually require regular hours. For example, your child can attend a child care center for preschool only, but the daily class times are rigid, for example 3 hours each morning.
• After School Programs or Summer Camps: activities and camps can keep children occupied for a short few hours, again with a rigid schedule, providing extra hours to get work done.
  

Each of these daycare options may suit varying flexible schedules with mixed success. Finding your ideal daycare to match your ideal work schedule will be a constant exercise in balance and discernment.

To search local child care options visit the Maryland Committee for Children. For a nationwide search of childcare providers visit SitterCity (Don't forget Fido. SitterCity also has pet sitter resources).

What the Labor Shortage Could Mean for Flexible Benefits

By the year 2012 there will be 3.3 million fewer workers than jobs according to the Society of Human Resources Management. The impending labor shortage left by baby boomers exiting the workforce will leave employers scrambling for top talent. What does this all mean for employees seeking greater flexibility – an opportunity to instill in the workplace increased value placed on flexibility.

Employers will experience:

1. A Shortage of Qualified Candidates: Organizations will have increased difficulty finding qualified candidates for available positions, consequently, placing an increased focus on recruitment and retention of qualified employees.
2. More Expensive Recruitment and Retention Campaigns: The rising costs of recruitment and retention of employees will leave employers looking for ways to cut costs. Costly benefits packages could fall victim to corporate cost-cutting plans.
3. An Increased Need for Productivity: With fewer experienced employees, organizations will look for ways to increase productivity of current employees. Additional money will be spent on training and technology for the workforce.
4. A Greater Acceptance of New Motivators: As corporations look to boost, recruitment, retention, and productivity, new motivators will become more acceptable. Flexible working options offer a great benefit to employees' work life balance while remaining low cost to employers.

If flexible work options are not offered to you as a new employee, ask about their availability to employees. With the entrance of the millennials into the workforce, a new set of values will also be ushered in. Make sure you are able to take advantage of all the benefits coming in the wake.

Making Flex Hours Work

Flex scheduling is a popular alternative scheduling option among those caring for young children with various after school commitments and those caring for aging adults with multiple doctors appointments each week. Any schedule with hours that diverge from the standard 8:00 am to 5:00 pm can be considered flex hours, with most arrangements falling into one of two categories, standard flex time and daily flex time.

Flexible Scheduling Options

Standard flex time is an alternative scheduling option consisting of rigid hours that are none-the-less nontraditional. While a condensed work week would certainly fall into this category, standard flex time allows an employee to work for example, 6:00 am to 3:00 pm every day, or work 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Thursday, but 6:00 am to 3:00 pm on Fridays. This schedule, once established is constant from week to week.

Conversely, daily flex time allows an employee much latitude in scheduling each workday. Work hours are set according to the scheduling needs of that day, whether they be personal obligations or work requirements. Daily flex time will allow for a morning doctor’s appointment on Monday, soccer practice after school on Wednesday, and a long lunch with friends on Friday, while also accommodating for a conference call through lunch on Tuesday and a dinner meeting on Thursday.

The problem with flex time is that the nontraditional and variable hours can leave coworkers searching for you in an empty office and picking up extra responsibilities in your absence.

Making it Work

The keys to making flex time work are planning and organization, communicating your needs and plans well, and always respecting your coworkers.

1. Planning and organization: When possible, plan your schedule well in advance. Stay organized by scheduling all work and personal events and deadlines on one calendar so that you can constantly reassess if this week’s schedule will accommodate your obligations. Even if you work standard flex hours, keep track of any modifications you make to your schedule to determine if the hours you scheduled continue to address your time needs.
2. Communication: Communicate your needs and plans to your boss and coworkers allowing them to plan for your presence or absence. Consider posting your schedule somewhere in your office or sending a weekly email with your schedule to those who will be affected.
3. Respect: Respect the needs of those you work with. Consider working core hours at the office in order to tell customers and coworkers, I will be most available at work between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm. Pay attention to whether or not your schedule is leaving extra work to others in the office and possibly rework the division of responsibilities so that everyone can get their own work done while in the office.

Flex time is a brilliant strategy for juggling work and personal obligations. With a little respect for coworkers, careful planning, and great communication, flex time can be easy for everyone involved.