Traditional operations research (specific quantitative methodologies) offers solutions for workforce scheduling, but does not necessarily address the flexibility workers require or regulatory restrictions. Implementing a flextime arrangement in a service-oriented company, where core activities are performed through the direct intervention of qualified employees, is a complex task, but can be simplified. In an environment of talent shortage, more and more companies manage their human capital strategically and employ flexibility as a competitive tool to meet their recruitment objectives. There can also be flexibility in performed functions, seeking to enhance employeesвЂ™ capabilities and skills as a favorable factor for their continuation in the firm.ДЇrom the employeesвЂ™ view, FWAs offer some degree of control over the context in which they work, improving work-life balance, providing job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, productivity and decreased absenteeism.ДЇrom the companyвЂ™s view, FWAs show that the employer is sensitive to its collaboratorsвЂ™ family needs and does not demand the prioritization of work over family.

How does Flextime work?ДЇlexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) are вЂњmutually beneficial arrangements between employers and employees in which both parties agree on when and how the employee will work to meet the firmвЂ™s needs.вЂќ They define when the workday begins and ends for each employee. Thus, its goal is to improve economic efficiency and thus, increase job satisfaction and retention. The minimization of hiring costs can be reconciled with employeesвЂ™ needs by using a mathematical model designed for cost optimization and applying it to the implementation of flextime. According to the International Society of Transdisciplinary Engineering (ISTE), вЂњtransdisciplinarity is a methodological approach, explicitly incorporating social sciences to gather information and to guide the implementation of engineering in practice.вЂќ The transdisciplinary approach offers a methodology to tackle this complex problem. The forthcoming article вЂњFlexible hiring personnel models to promote human satisfaction and business profit for service industriesвЂќ proposes a transdisciplinary approach вЂ“integrating concepts of optimization, organizational design and minorities inclusion- to reconcile the companyвЂ™s need to offer a satisfactory service over long working days with employeesвЂ™ need for work-life balance, affecting their motivation and concentration. For their part, employees look for new ways of balancing work and personal needs. This offers employees some degrees of freedom to work less than 8 hours per day and not necessarily have the same timetable every workday. Lately, this trend has changed, and some countries have started to allow work contracts with less weekly hours and flexible daily schedules. Until recently, labor contracts of 40 to 48 hours per week with equal daily schedules (8 hours per day) was the only way formal employees were hired in some countries. In the service industry, personnel performance is key to achieving business excellence. This is particularly true for the service sector where there is an opportunity to hire more people under a scheme of working days with limited hours, in order to increase operational efficiency without losing service quality, while offering part-time jobs to persons in need. This flexibilization of the workforce has gained traction during the Covid-19 global pandemic, since businesses have had to face considerable financial pressures to assure their sustainability, as well as health measures that have impacted value delivery conditions, such as on-site work and schedule restrictions. In this context, flexibility is interpreted as the firmвЂ™s ability to add or remove scarce and costly resources, such as hiring employees for their knowledge and competences to do highly valuable work. As is well known, one of the most efficient factors consists of flexible organizational structures. Businesses are always searching for ways to improve their operational efficiency.

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