For many workers, particularly at universities, nonprofit organizations and government agencies, summertime means long weekends that begin after lunch on Friday. For the rest, summer hours remain a relatively rare perk from their employers. . .

However, a number of organizations coming to terms with permanently high oil and gas prices are reconsidering flexible work arrangements.

"Rising oil prices are hitting budgets hard, including school systems and city governments, resulting in some entities deciding to cut back to four-day work weeks [...] to save fuel and energy costs," All Headline News reported last month.

Companies are also responding by offering compressed work schedules, telecommuting and even gas cards. A recent survey from executive recruiter Robert Half International, for instance, found 44 percent of workers have in some way adjusted their work arrangements because of high gas prices; 26 percent of them reported working fewer days per week.

The most common flexible-work programs include four nine-hour days and one four-hour day per week, permitting an additional afternoon off (usually Friday) every week. Other variations include employees leaving work between noon and 4 p.m. on Fridays or "bonus Fridays" off — working longer four-day workweeks and having three-day weekends. Some businesses have their employees generally working four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days.

Besides cutting down on employees' commute costs, workplace consultants say summer work arrangements can be a popular and efficient way for employers to boost employee morale and attract and retain workers with little or no additional cost — as long as the work gets done and schedules are coordinated among staffers.

While it's easy to see the benefits summer hours bring for employees, the benefits for employers may be less apparent.

Among the reasons why employers might want to reconsider embracing flexible summer work arrangements:

• Reduce Employee Stress — Longer weekends allow employees more time to recharge; studies have already shown that rested employees are also productive employees.

• Reduce Employee Absenteeism — A few additional hours of free time will offer employees more flexibility to schedule things like medical appointments.

• Reduce Recruitment Costs — Human resources managers have deemed summer hours to be influential for recruiting and retaining talent.

"Flexible work arrangements have become increasingly popular programs among employers because they are both highly valued by employees and relatively inexpensive for employers to implement," Carol Sladek, principal in Hewitt Associates' Work-Life practice, explained earlier this year.

According to HR Magazine in 1995, 40 percent of companies were offering some type of compressed workweek, even if only for summer hours. An additional 30 percent of companies were considering some type of flexible-hours schedule.

Today, according to Hewitt Associates' Flexible Work Arrangements 2008 survey, 46 percent of the 90 North American companies surveyed already have summer hours in place, or have plans for them.

At the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference & Exposition last month, the organization highlighted its recent poll showing that companies are increasingly offering flexible schedules and telecommuting to help workers cope with pump pains. Among businesses, 26 percent are offering a flexible schedule to help employees with high gas prices, a SHRM survey in May found.

Summer flexibility does not have to be a dramatic change for a company to make, but it could have dramatic effects on employee morale and company loyalty.

And employers have options to consider. There are many variations of flexible work arrangements during the summer, as laid out by Hewitt Associates, including these:

• Flextime — varying the start and end time of a standard day around core hours, either on a regular basis or adjusted daily;

• Compressed Workweeks — working a full-time schedule in fewer than five days per week or 10 days over two weeks; and

• Summer Hours — typically a compressed workweek offered between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Already, this summer has seen a big jump in "Summer Fridays," along with telecommuting and four-day weeks, Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John Challenger said in an Associated Press report last month.

These types of flexible work schedules are more than short-term fixes, according to Challenger. They are the beginning of "a revolution in the office" that will shift the central value of work to productivity and the work getting done, rather than the number of hours employees put in.

"The idea of a set workday or a five-day workweek doesn't make sense," Challenger tells Workforce Management. "It's not about the time you put in. It's about the work you do."

This summer, Utah will institute a mandatory four-day workweek for most state employees, joining local governments across the nation that are altering schedules to save money, energy and resources. The governor's office estimates that 1,000 of 3,000 state buildings will be closed on Fridays, affecting about 17,000 employees (approximately 80 percent) of the state workforce and cutting energy costs by about 20 percent.

Resources

Four-Day Work Week Gaining Popularity To Save Energy
by Linda Young
All Headline News, June 16, 2008

Fueling Change
Robert Half International, May 29, 2008

Compressed Weeks Fill an HR Niche
by Dominic Bencivenga
HR Magazine, June 1995

Flexible Work Arrangements 2008
Hewitt Associates, 2008

Time Off on Friday is a Popular Perk
by Mercedes M. Cardona
The Associated Press, June 2008

Gas Price Crisis Could Revolutionize U.S. Workplace
by Mark Schoeff Jr.
Workforce Management, June 23, 2008

Most State Workers in Utah Shifting to 4-day Week
by Larry Copeland, USA Today
USA Today, July 1, 2008