How
Common concerns and how to deal with them
4. Some people will abuse flexibility.
Whatever the workplace condition or benefit, there are always some employees who will take advantage. This is also true of flexibility – there may be a few employees who abuse flexible work practices in the same way that they would abuse working regular full-time hours (eg by taking extra long lunch breaks).
You can minimise the risk of abuse by communicating your organisation’s commitment to flexibility, the importance of mutuality, setting clear performance goals, and having a process to regularly review the arrangement.
At the basis of effective implementation of flexibility, however, is trust.
If flexibility is implemented in a culture of low trust, this is likely to encourage other negative behaviours, such as a lack of commitment and poor quality customer service.