by Ruth Belena

Created on: September 20, 2010

There are several ways to find flex-friendly jobs and to enjoy the flexibility of being able to set your own work schedules. Flexible work policies are defined and set by individual flex-friendly employers, but there are other options to be considered if you want to arrange your own work schedule. These include outsourced jobs, remote employment for people who prefer to work from home, freelance jobs for self-employed workers, part-time work and short-term temporary jobs.

Some companies now display a Flex-Friendly Certificate on their website, and this is one of the best ways to identify an employer offering flexible work hours, or at least willing to negotiate a flexible work schedule. This is a growing trend for companies across all employment sectors, from small businesses to large organizations.

• Flex-Friendly directories

It is easy to find flex-friendly companies listed in online directories designed for listing employers who happily allow flexibility in their work arrangements. Some of those companies have fixed workplace policies on flexibility, others are just willing to accept flexibility when an employee needs to find a practical solution to their own personal situation.

A workplace flexibility directory will only list companies that allow flexible working hours, and the directory publishers do carry out checks to ensure flexible work options are available to all employees. Flex Pages is one website publisher that will verify an employer before adding company information to its flex-friendly directory.

• Flexible work at home

An increasing number of employers are becoming aware that it costs less to use home-based workers, that it would cost them to employ traditional office workers. Employer can, for example, outsource home workers to provide customer services and save as much as 20 percent on the same service provided by a call center or using office workers.

Some of the best flex-friendly jobs that can be done from home are those that involve working as a virtual assistant, a call center worker, a transcriptionist, an administrator or in customer services. Job search sites and freelance job sites are the best places to look for companies that offer legitimate jobs online.

• Self-employment and freelance flex-friendly jobs

Self-employed people can arrange their own flexible work hours when they set up an online business or become involved in affiliate marketing online.

Freelancers are self-employed people who work according to their own personal schedule when they are accepted to complete assignments for one or more clients. Some freelancers register with sites like Elance and Odesk, to find jobs in administration, customer service and data entry, while others search classified job listings at Craigslist or Gumtree to find local clients. Freelancer.com is an international outsourcing marketplace, where some skilled freelancers find flexible work that can be done online or from home.

Now all you have to do is decide which would be the best employment option to suit your individual needs, whether you want to do a job search and find a flex-friendly employer, or perhaps you would prefer to work from home, become self-employed or work as a freelancer.

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