Flexible working

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Types of flexible working

There are different ways of working flexibly.

Job sharing

Two people do one job and split the hours.

Remote working and working from home

Working from anywhere other than the employee’s usual workplace. It can include working from home.

Hybrid working

A combination of working remotely and working in the employee’s usual workplace.

Part time

Working less than full-time hours (usually by working fewer days).

Compressed hours

Working full-time hours but over fewer days - for example a 9-day fortnight (an employee has a day off every other week and works longer hours on the other days)

Flexitime

The employee chooses when to start and end work (within agreed limits) but works certain ‘core hours’, for example 10am to 4pm every day.

Annualised hours

The employee has to work a certain number of hours over the year but they have some flexibility about when they work. There are sometimes ‘core hours’ which the employee regularly works each week, and they work the rest of their hours flexibly or when there’s extra demand at work.

Staggered hours

The employee has different start, finish and break times from other workers.

Phased retirement

Default retirement age has been phased out and older workers can choose when they want to retire. This means they can reduce their hours and work part time.