The Royal Commission for Riyadh City, in collaboration with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, has launched a flexible working hours initiative across six work zones in Riyadh. The program began on June 2 and aims to improve mobility efficiency, support traffic flow, and enhance quality of life in the capital.
Initiative Details
The initiative covers over 50 entities in six designated work zones: KAFD, Digital City, Diplomatic Quarter, Laysen Valley, Granada Business, and ROSHN Front. It extends the flexible hours window to four hours, allowing employees to stagger their arrival and departure times, thereby reducing traffic congestion during peak hours.
According to a joint statement, the initiative is expected to provide employees with greater flexibility in choosing their work hours, positively impacting their work experience and contributing to a more efficient and sustainable urban environment. The program applies to administrative positions with fixed schedules, while exempting sectors that require continuous operation, such as healthcare, public education, and field or operational jobs.
Expert Perspectives
Ali Aljumhour, co-founder of Value Executive Consulting, highlighted that extending the flexible window to four hours enhances employees' mental efficiency compared to the traditional fixed system. "Increasing the flexible window will shift the employee into a state of deep focus, as it allows them to align with their biological and family rhythms, thereby raising performance quality and peak productivity during working hours," he told Arab News.
Aljumhour emphasized that for flexibility to translate into greater discipline and productivity, executive management must reshape institutional culture and evaluation systems. He recommended a shift from evaluating physical presence to performance management based on results and smart outputs, such as OKRs and KPIs. "Productivity will be enhanced when an employee is measured by their impact and accomplishments, not by the hours they clock in. This also requires high digital transparency and the designation of shared core hours to ensure continued collaboration among work teams," he added.
Dhafer Al-Qarni, a member of The KPI Institute, noted that the four-hour flexibility window gives entities a practical tool that positively impacts employees' mental and physical readiness. He said it transforms flexibility from an individual privilege into an institutional policy for a larger segment of work environments. "This time window allows for scheduling workshops and training programs outside peak hours, which may contribute to increasing attendance rates and reducing disruption to task performance," he explained.
Al-Qarni, a former member of the Saudi Management Association, stressed that the initiative requires training leaders in managing flexible teams and results-based performance measurement. He also highlighted the need for employee awareness and training to utilize the initiative in ways that positively reflect on productivity, discipline, and sustainable professional development.
