Working time recording always includes a working time model. The most popular working time models all have their advantages and disadvantages, offering different ways of recording working time. In this article, we take a closer look at the most popular working time models.
The best-known working models
Many companies today have different working time models. This is partly due to the different everyday lives of employees. Not everyone wants to or can manage the 8-hour shift from 6 a.m. in the morning. Later start times, shorter working hours or completely different working models make it possible for every employee to get the right conditions.
Probably the best-known working time model is full-time. Employees work five days a week and therefore work around 40 hours. The daily working time is therefore usually 8 hours.
Full-time work has established itself over the decades because it offers planning security and involves little organizational effort. However, it is also very inflexible and therefore no longer up to date in many sectors.
For younger generations in particular, “life” comes first when it comes to work-life balance. This is also the approach of the timecard. We provide the means to record time. But time is not just money; time is life.
This is why part-time work is becoming increasingly popular. It is based on full-time work, but reduces working hours in certain ways. Either the daily working hours can be shorter or the days on which work is performed are fewer. This makes part-time work very variable.
A widespread working model is shift work, which works both full-time and part-time. The working days in the company are divided into shifts and all employees are assigned a shift. When one shift ends, another begins. This increases the total working time in the company and there is virtually never a standstill.
A variation of this is the staggered working time. Also divided into layers, but the transitions overlap. The shift change therefore does not take place at the end and beginning of a shift. For example, a shift ends one hour after the next shift has already started. This can be very helpful when employees need to update each other on the latest developments.
The hybrids of working time
More modern working time models rely on employees being able to organize their own time to a certain extent and thus work more productively. Many employees have other commitments in addition to their job, such as family. In addition, everyone has their own productive phases during the day.
A well-known working time model is flexitime, in which a core working time is set, but the remaining time is allocated by the employees themselves. For example, the core working hours between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. can apply to all employees and they divide the remaining working hours themselves. If someone doesn’t want to finish their tasks until 11 p.m., that’s perfectly okay.
Flexitime is also available with completely flexible working hours. This means that no core time is specified and all employees work when it suits them best. However, this only works in companies where communication with each other is not particularly important.
Not directly a working time model, but still worth mentioning is trust-based working time. Employers and employees trust each other to ensure that the negotiated agreements are mutually adhered to.
Employers therefore rely on their employees to adhere to the agreed working hours. Employees, on the other hand, trust that the employer will organize everything correctly so that the specified work can be completed in the agreed time. If this mutual trust does not exist, trust-based working hours cannot be implemented.
Conclusion
Which working time model is the right one for a company depends heavily on the industry. Hybrid models are particularly interesting in creative professions where a lot of work is done from home. Fixed working hours can hardly be avoided in production, for example, but they can be varied through part-time models.
Recording working time is important for all working time models. But there is also a suitable timecard.
