Planningify

Here is a case study regarding traditional office hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.), the evolution of schedules towards more flexibility and teleworking, and how to manage this with the Planningify App.

For several decades, traditional office hours were set in stone, presence from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. sharp, Monday to Friday with an hour’s unpaid break at noon, and two short 15-minute breaks in the morning and afternoon. .

This has evolved significantly for some time, especially since Covid 19, these “strict” schedules are now giving way to more flexible schedules, both for personal reasons such as picking up children from school, or to cope with a surplus of professional activity.

Condensed (Packed) working hours

Condensed working hours (a possibility offered by more and more companies in France, Spain and Sweden) offer employees more flexibility to reduce their working week from five to four days.

With this work model, there are still disadvantages because the working days are longer (ten hours per day instead of 7 or 8) to compensate for the time lost, and there are fewer breaks.

But the advantages are much more numerous: Fewer meetings (see reunionitis syndrome, which consists of being “in meetings all the time” without justification), less time not worked but “unpaid”, but above all it allows the employee to benefit from a break in the middle of the week (for example Wednesday for children), or even better to have an extended Weekend of 3 days each week (from Friday to Sunday, or from Saturday to Monday, depending on the company).

Extended weekends will be particularly appreciated by travelers. Professional level, the company will have a greater range of hours per day, and more involved employees.

Flexible hours

Several companies have already been offering the modulation of working hours for a long time, which allows for greater face-to-face hours for the company, and employees who can arrive earlier or leave later, while respecting the number of obligatory hours.

For example, a parent who has to bring their children to school in the morning may come later in the morning, or leave earlier to pick them up.

“Early risers” and “night owls” all find what they’re looking for. Those who wish to do a sports session between midday can have a 2-hour break between midday, and finish the day later to compensate.

In general, this makes it possible to respect both the personal schedule of employees and the needs of the company.

Hybrid teleworking / home-office

Most teleworking-compatible companies have switched to hybrid teleworking mode.

Exit full-time teleworking during the covid era, and also 100% face-to-face work, now most companies have switched to hybrid mode: 2 days of teleworking and 3 days of work in the office in person.

This allows you to have the advantages of teleworking (tranquility, possibility of concentrating on a particular project, avoiding disturbances), and of face-to-face work (team cohesion, creativity, exchanges between colleagues).

Teleworking also makes it possible to reduce travel time (especially in large cities like Paris): Less travel time, less time lost in transport, more peace of mind, and also less pollution due to transport.

Work/life balance

Some companies have abused their employees’ rest time. Now respecting the separation of professional life and private life is becoming more important these days, especially since the establishment in France of the Right to Disconnect (Labor Code 2016) which applies to all employees, especially in large companies: employees are not required to respond to emails outside of their office hours, nor to answer the telephone.

The advantage for the company of respecting this balance is to improve the morale of the employee, he will be more productive at work and in his professional and private life. This will be dedicated solely to work and to his family and his hobbies/passions during his free time.

In addition, employees who are happy in their company will try to “surpass themselves”, will promote their company and reduce “turnover”!

There are all the same (relative) disadvantages

Except for “longer days” if working 4 days instead of 5 days, good team communication must always be maintained between employees, colleagues and managers. Above all, everyone should not take the same day off, or work hours should be completely staggered.

In addition, for teleworking, it is generally obligatory to stay in the same country, or at least to stay in the same time zone…

A recommended solution to this problem is to set up a “Team Chat” (e.g. Google Chat or other solution) so that colleagues can communicate easily with each other.

Another problem concerning people in contact with Customers (especially Sales Representatives), this will necessarily have to adapt to the schedules of customers and prospects.

How to optimize work schedule management with Planningify

To help manage these varied work schedules, the Planningify app is an essential tool.

This app is quite easy to understand and use and allows users to note and manage their work schedules simply and efficiently.

The app allows you to stay organized at a professional/personal level, to easily write down your planned office hours, actually carried out, to manage teleworking days (adding an icon, a particular color and a comment), overtime and modulation hours.

How to download the Planningify App

To download the App, simply search for “Planningify” on App Store and Google Play, or click on the following link to get the official download links and user manual in PDF format: Planningify.