The Benefits of Offering Flexible Work Schedules for Student Employees

By Garth Brunner on January 26, 2025

College student employees have a very different schedule from you and potentially other members of your team. Their schedule needs to be much more flexible to accommodate their class load. Now, that flexibility can mean varied or staggered work hours,  hybrid work, or fully remote opportunities. A flexible schedule isn’t always one size fits all, so you should decide together what flexibility means for you both based on the benefits and how your employees can get the most out of your flexibility. Now, what benefits does a flexible work schedule for college student employees offer? Let’s dive in.

via Pexels

Less Stress

One of the major benefits of offering a flexible work schedule to your college student employees is that it will lower their stress levels. Whether you have been a college student or not, put yourself in their shoes. Between work, class, and any extra clubs or sports, their schedule is pretty packed. With a non-flexible schedule, they may have to run right from class to work or vice versa, while stressing about whether they will be on time or not and they will constantly worry about their classwork while at work if there is no wiggle room to allow them to work on more important assignments.

If your employees all have to work a certain amount of hours each week or meet a certain quota, it may not have to be done all at the same time. It can mean these students don’t have to stress over arriving late one day because they’ll simply stay later. On the other hand, they may want to leave early to attend another club, but they will make up that time another day. If remote, encourage your student employee to clock in after regular working hours as maybe that is when they are most productive. Remote work greatly decreases stress as your employees do not have to stress through rush hour or miss their bus.

Increased Productivity

College student employees may be productive at different times during the day. While students may be infamous for pulling all-nighters, some students find that hours late into the night are when they are most productive. Instead of forcing your employees into work when their body is most tired, allow flexibility so you have them at your best.

Plus, since students’ stress levels will already be lower, their productivity will increase. Their minds will not be running wild as they fret over assignments, and can instead focus on their task at hand: working!

Increased Work-Life Balance

As previously mentioned, college students have a very packed schedule. Making and hanging out with friends is an important part of the college experience, as they can make connections to use further down in their lives. By offering flexible work schedules for college student employees, their work-life balance is much more equal. It is not all work, it’s not all play, but instead, they can meet in the middle and get the most out of their college career.

When your company has a poor work-life balance, employee turnover rates are incredibly high. If this scale is more skewed towards work, your employees won’t hesitate to find a job that gives them that flexibility and lets them do fun college activities outside of work. If you keep schedules inflexible for college students, you will lose them and have to fill their roles again.

Job Satisfaction

By allowing this flexibility, employees are much more satisfied in their careers. This relates to their work-life balance as they do not feel burnt out after work since they can work on their own time and schedule. At the end of the week, they are satisfied with their job and do not crave to find another one.

Professional Development

Consider that your college student employees will get what they put into the job. If they use a flexible schedule to their disadvantage, that is their own loss. Those who are truly motivated will work even harder when on their own, have a flexible schedule, and develop their career.

There are many valuable skills to learn when working on a flexible schedule such as communication and leadership, time management, and professionalism, just to name a few. While you can learn these in a traditional working environment, they are even more important when flexible. They need to communicate their schedule or availability, manage their time between work, school, and friends, and remain professional even when working remotely or arriving late.

Due to the nature of flexible work, these students will feel like they learned these skills on their own, rather than having someone tell them what to do, and this will increase their confidence as they move forward in their careers.

All of these benefits are incredibly important to college students navigating the real world for the first time and will help increase their happiness and skills while studying.

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