How companies can use flexible scheduling to recruit, retain essential talent

Scheduling plays an immense role in job satisfaction.

Regardless of job function, the structure of how and when work gets done makes an outsize impact on whether employees excel or burn out. But what sorts of scheduling arrangements are workers seeking after enduring so much pandemic-era suffering, unpredictability and angst?

To find out, Paychex spoke with more than 1,300 employees across a range of roles about the flexibility they’ve been offered at work—and how it’s affected their satisfaction and stress.

The findings include:

A matter of competition, productivity and profitability

According to Yamile Haibi, an HR and DE&I specialist with Paychex, addressing employees’ scheduling concerns is an urgent matter of productivity—and profitability. “Keeping an engaged and talented workforce is one of the most effective ways employers gain business advantages, including profitability, in the marketplace,” she says, adding that flexible scheduling is an easy way to retain and attract key employees, and to lift overall employee productivity.