The Flexible Working Period.

The most conventional flexible working period has been a "four week month".  Increasingly, however, the period connects to the Flexible Working Arrangement that is agreed with the individual – so the span could then be for any number of weeks. For example a job sharer might only work two weeks in a month. Therefore in that case the Flexible Working Period agreed could be for an 8 week span and so forth.

Taking the more conventional example of a flexible working period of a "four week month", a company currently working a 35 hour week would set a target of 140 hours for that four week period. (Sometimes organisations prefer to work on a calendar month basis instead.)

What if people don't put in exactly 140 hours, in that example?

It's most unlikely that employees will work exactly 140 hours and for this reason, companies allow a credit or debit of up to, say, 10 hours to be carried from one month to the next.

This credit time is taken at a convenient time during the next month. It's interesting to note that in practice the average number of hours carried forward from one month to the next is about 3.5. Fears that employees will get behind in their time prove unfounded.