Flextime System
Flexible(Selective) Working Hours
What is flextime?
- Only the total hours are fixed; you decide when to work
- Requires work rules and a written agreement with the worker representative
- Core time design decides whether the system succeeds
What this system really changes is the baseline for attendance management. Before, the test was whether someone arrived by 9 or completed 8 hours that day, but under flextime the unit of management shifts from the day to the settlement period. Even if someone worked 5 hours yesterday and 11 today, as long as the total stays within the settlement-period amount, it is neither overtime nor lateness. The key point is that the 8-hours-a-day yardstick does not apply within the settlement period, so unless the attendance approval chain and the overtime calculation logic are changed together, the system never gets traction.
The settlement period is generally capped at one month, and extends to three months only for new-product and new-technology R&D work. If it is set longer than one month, employers must guarantee 11 consecutive hours of rest between the end of one working day and the start of the next, and must pay premium wages for hours above an average of 40 per week in each month. Workers aged 15 to 17 are excluded. The key difference from the easily confused variable working hours system is who sets the times. Under the variable system, the company allocates weekly and daily hours in advance, but under flextime the company sets only the total and employees decide the schedule. It also differs from systems that replace time measurement itself, such as deemed working hours for off-site work or discretionary work.
The most common failure in practice is core time. If you set 7 hours, such as 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., as mandatory, there is only an hour or two of slack on either side, so it is effectively a staggered-hours system. If you also require team leader approval for 'I'm coming in late today,' the system turns into a de facto permission system. There is legal risk too. If you run it on a work rules notice alone, without a written agreement with the employee representative, the system is not recognized, and overtime pay may have to be recalculated retroactively on an 8-hour-day basis. Conversely, treating a shortfall in total hours over the settlement period as unauthorized absence goes beyond the settlement method written in the agreement and invites disputes. Requirements and limits can be amended, so check current law before adopting the system.
Hwi KimCEO of HRDIST & Talent Development Systems Consultant
Jongmu KimSpecialist in corporate talent development and job competency buildingKorea's Labor Standards Act provides for a flexible working hours system (Article 52). Eligible employees are set in the work rules, and a written agreement with the employee representative sets the settlement period, total working hours, and core and flexible time bands.
Consider a hypothetical example: Company A, a B2B software developer with 240 employees. It introduced flextime two years ago but set core time at 10 a.m.–5 p.m., so in six months only 7 of the 90 people in the development division had actually changed their start times. In exit interviews with employees raising young children, 'a policy in name only' came up three times in a row.
- The head of HR pulled six months of attendance records and found that 83 of the 90 people in the development division started work between 9:55 and 10:05 a.m., and an internal norm had set in: 'to come in late, get your team lead’s approval.'
- The head of development laid out four weeks of meeting schedules and found that all-hands meetings were held only on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. On that basis, core time was cut to three hours, 1–4 p.m., and all remaining hours were opened up as flexible time.
- In the written agreement with the worker representative, the settlement period was fixed at one month and total hours at 'scheduled working days × 8 hours,' and the team lead’s prior-approval clause was changed to 'mark it on the calendar by the previous day,' turning approval into simple notification.
- The CTO wrote in a company-wide notice, 'If your seat is empty at 1 p.m., note a reason just for that time; no one will ask why you were not at your desk at 9 a.m.,' which shut down managers’ habit of applying subtle pressure.
- Hours beyond the settlement period are paid as premium pay in the following month’s salary, and HR set a rule to meet with the team lead once cumulative monthly overtime exceeds 40 hours; over three months, five teams were flagged for these meetings.
- Six months later, the number of people in the development division using the system rose from 7 to 61, start times ranged from 7:30 to 10:00 a.m., and voluntary resignations among employees with young children fell from 4 to 1 over the same period.