Definition

Part-time work refers to the arrangement in which employees work reduced hours on a regular basis. Part-time employees normally work less than 35 hours in a week and include those who work half-days all week or only some days per week. Typically, organisations employ part-time employees to achieve flexibility of cover, for example, peak workloads or when work needs to be done only at particular times. Increasingly, employers are offering opportunities to women to return to work on a part-time basis after maternity leave or allow employees to work on a part-time basis leading up to retirement.

Part-time employees exclude temporary staff who work the normal hours, casual workers who work ‘on and off’, as well as employees on a compressed workweek or flexi-time schedule.

There are 4 common types of schedules used for part-time arrangements:

• Work shorter days

Under this arrangement, employees continue to work a full workweek, but work shorter days, e.g. half day.

The management and employee have to come to an agreement on whether the new hours will be based on the organisation’s peak hours, employee’s selected hours, or a combination of both, etc. In addition, the management and employee should also decide if the start and end times of each work day will be the same or if they will differ based on business needs.

Due to the shorter working hours, part-time employees may sometimes have shorter lunch breaks. In other cases, employees may have revised rest hours and work during lunch breaks to ensure a continuation of operations.


• Work fewer days weekly

Under this arrangement, employees work fewer days per week than a full-time staff, although they cover the same work hours on each day (as a full-time staff).

If there is only one part-time employee, he or she would usually work on peak days where the volume of work is higher. However, in most organisations, there would be two or more part-time employees. In such cases, the management can pair employees up so that both employees can work alternate days, e.g.



To avoid misunderstanding, the management should clarify issues related to specific day(s) of work, e.g. public holidays. In most practices, specific benefits are often only related to days of work, i.e. if a public holiday falls on a day the employee does not work, he or she is not awarded a day off. Likewise, if it falls on a day of work, he or she is entitled to the public holiday.


• Work during weekends (to cover high-volume periods)

This arrangement is usually adopted by companies that function all seven days a week or companies with peak periods during weekends, e.g. food and beverage outlets, retail outlets, etc.

The main concern for both employers and employees is usually remuneration:
A) Weekends = Higher hourly wage
B) Weekends = Same hourly wage

When deciding between A and B, management has to also consider issues such as dissatisfaction from co-workers versus the need for manpower during weekends, and justify their decision based on organisational needs.


• Combination

It is also common for organisations to adopt a combination of the above approaches to suit the organisation’s and employees’ needs.

Benefits to Employers

• A wider pool of expertise and talent to tap on – including women and mature employees
• Retain valued employees who may think of quitting after maternity leave or seek early retirement
• Flexibility for management to match staff hours with workflow requirements
• Reduce hiring costs (in most cases)
• Reduce costs of office space (in some cases)
• Reduce absenteeism when employees can combine part-time work and with personal responsibilities

Benefits to Employees

• Allocate more time to personal commitments and still grow professionally
• Enable the mature workers to transit from a regular full-time job to part-time job and finally to retirement
• Ease new mothers back into the workforce after maternity leave