What work arrangement allows employees to set their own hours while being accessible during specific core hours?

Flextime is a work arrangement that provides employees with the flexibility to choose their own working hours around a set of predetermined core hours. This arrangement typically allows employees to start and finish their work within a range of hours, as long as they are available during specific times that are essential for collaboration or communications with colleagues and management.

This flexibility can enhance job satisfaction and productivity, as employees can tailor their working hours to better fit their personal lives and peak productivity times. For example, one employee might prefer to start early in the morning and finish in the early afternoon, while another might choose a later start and end time, as long as both are present during the core hours.

In contrast, telecommuting generally refers to employees working from a location outside of the traditional office, which does not inherently define specific hours of work. A compressed workweek allows employees to work their total hours within fewer days, but it does not provide the same daily flexibility around start and end times that flextime offers. Outsourcing pertains to delegating work to external parties and is unrelated to employee scheduling practices.