Flexible Working Hours

Making use of flexible working hours, many Indian employees are finding more time to spend with their loved ones and many are even embracing daily fitness regime, says a survey. Moreover, less commuting time in reaching the work place is also helping employees to set apart more time for spending with the family members. Spending time with family has become the priority of at least 85 per cent employees surveyed, provided they are trying to minimize the travel time to reach office, according to flexible work space solutions provider Regus. This was followed by devoting time for exercising and getting fitter by 83 per cent of employees surveyed and 72 per cent of respondents said they would work more.

Importantly, in India, where 70 per cent of New Delhi inhabitants report traffic is a key obstacle to work or school performance, workers reveal that the time saved on commuting would be spent on maintenance of health and well-being activities such as getting fitter at the gym and spending time with members of family. The survey noted that a 51% of respondent are being provided with an option to work from locations other than their company's main offices for at least half a week helping them reduce the overall time spent on commuting from home to office. Interestingly, the study said that 72 % of employees surveyed would also work harder, benefiting the company, if they could reduce their time to commute.

The study also reveals that if businesses were to extend flexible working practices for their staff, not only would employee health, morale and loyalty improve, but also overall increase in productivity as staff would work more. The survey was conducted among over 6,000 professionals in India.

An Indian study published in the IITB Management Review of March 2011 says that Indian women IT professionals can achieve a fine work-family balance by setting priorities in their work and personal lives and by having support systems both at work, formally through HR policies and programmes, and informally through supervisor and co-worker support and at home. The IITB study found that such interventions would go a long way in enabling women to perform better at work, be more committed to the organisation, and ultimately contribute to the growth of the economy and positively impact society as whole.

Khaitan launches Flexitime, Work from Home, etc:

Khaitan & Co is one of India’s oldest and full service law firms comprising over 530 fee earners and consultants including 115 partners and directors. The firm has launched a new leave policy that features flexible work hours and an option to work from home, among other new introductions.

With effect from November 1, 2018, the new work hours at the firm are 9:30 am to 6:30 pm from Monday to Friday, with weekends off. Khaitan has introduced Flexitime for all members of the firm, giving its lawyers the option to work flexible work hours. This subject to the overall working hours in a day not being less that 9 hours. Physical presence in office is mandatory from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.