Since the pandemic hit, many offices found that they had to spend so much money on adjusting everything to suit the new rules and guidance. It was something so many businesses had to implement and struggled with. This resulted in many businesses losing money, laying off staff, and even having to close. So one of the most important things to make sure you have in your work life is a good amount of flexibility in all aspects of working life. Life is full of different stresses and problems, so having flexible working as part of your work life can help reduce stress, which is a great task as stress affects everyone and can negatively affect people.
It has been proven that working length doesn’t determine the productivity and quality of work. So overworking your employees and yourself doesn’t equate to better business growth and success. Long, 8 hour days end up having people just feeling exhausted with no work-life balance. Schedule flexibility into the working hours. It can help you and your employees feel more motivated and productive and enticing new people work for you. You will be offering what they are after while currently resenting their current work environment with long hours affecting their life in many negative ways. Flexible working is something many people look at when looking for new jobs; it helps them work around childcare, their families, and any other commitments they currently have. Trusting your employees and showing by leading and being a great example is by working more flexibly, but when you are working, making sure you are working hard, productively, and efficiently.
With flexible working, it opens your company up to many women looking to work in a flexible environment. A lot of the adaptations still tend to fall on the women in the family, so when they are due back to go to work, they need to make sure they can still care for their children, drop them Too and from school as well, as being able to look after them in the school holidays. By offering term time positions, you can have people work for you that fits completely around school hours and days. Offering these types of roles leads to delighted and appreciative staff. Happy staff tends to work a lot harder as they are more motivated and raring to go.
Flexible working now paired with the pandemic also ties into many remote working positions, letting people work from home. With this, you need to make sure they are set up correctly to work from home but still be comfortable and safe throughout the day. If you are having people work from home, it is still important to make sure they don’t have any issues further down the line. First of all, they will need a computer or laptop. Laptops are more mobile, so if you have someone that may need to travel or visit different locations, a portable computer is much more suited. It can be quite costly to buy laptops for all of your staff, so laptop rental options are great to consider. You will also need to make sure they have all the information to sit correctly at their desk, top of the screen at their eye-line, a comfortable seat that is adjustable to suit them and their needs. There are also some smaller things like keyboard cushions, glasses, and a footrest. If you have someone who spends most of their day on their computer, getting their eyes tested regularly is important.
Remote working isn’t the only option; many workplaces are now considering a more hybrid working approach. This means you will set up an agreement for spending some time in the office and some time at home. It could mean you work a few days in the office and then a few days at home or even 2 weeks in the office and then 2 weeks at home. This is the beauty of it; it allows you to be really flexible but then having them in the office for a period of time means you can schedule meetings and catch-ups around that.
By implementing a more flexible working plan into your business, you are showing that you realize that life is more than just about work. You work to live, not live to work. It shows you concern and consideration for staff and knowing that most people have a hectic life outside of work, especially when children are thrown into the mix. It helps people meet their goals and be happier in their work, and personal life has a much better work and life balance. Increasing morale at work for companies can seem like a never-ending task, and really hard to get people feeling excited to come to work on a Monday morning after a weekend relaxing. This is how more flexible working opportunities can help. When people are more in control of their workday, how it fits with other things they need to and then prioritize when they are working, they will feel happier and more positive when starting their working day. This contributes to increased motivation and productivity when at work.
Another bonus for your business is that this way of working tends to have less employee turnover. This means you can hire more from within and promote with people who already know the business and ethics. It helps reduce costs on training and recruitment, which many businesses waste so much money on as they aren’t meeting their employee’s needs, so after a while, they leave. It really helps give you a better company image, offering a family-friendly workplace will help attract more people looking for work to you than other workplaces.
The benefits for the employees are huge, which is why they tend to work harder and quicker when they are working as they are so much happier. It gives them more time to meet their personal and family needs. So many parents have missed parent and teacher meetings or their children’s part in a play simply from work not being flexible. It increases job satisfaction which is why there is less turnover. When working flexibly, employees will have a clearer set of guidelines on what is expected of them and what tasks they need to do. This, in turn, increases confidence and job satisfaction.
The disadvantage of flexible work is that sometimes people will take advantage, it’s less common, but it happens. Although it does happen, the benefits far outweigh the issues that can arise as they can be dealt with quickly and efficiently. So make sure you have flexible working policies, show you care, and you’re a top and popular place to work. When people are looking for work, they will come to you; flexible working is a big part of many people’s job searches these days. Especially with the pandemic and spending a lot of time at home, people re-evaluate their lives and what’s important to them. You will be able to work out quite quickly when this happens as the quantity and quality of their work won’t be up to scratch.
