The term flexibility is heard often now in conjunction with work – people want a more flexible workplace and of course employees are entitled to make flexible working requests.
We know flexibility at work reduces burnout, allows for a better work-life balance, promotes health and wellness, boost productivity and improves morale. It can also cut down on costs and increase employee retention.
Many people thing flexibility at work is around flexible hours or working from home, but flexibility covers a whole range of options.
Essentially workplace flexibility means employees are given the opportunity to do their job in a way that suits their lifestyle and responsibilities. The important thing is the work gets done well, not that it gets done within a prescribed timeframe or environment.
Flexibility at work could include:
- Flexible work shifts
- Variable arrival and departure times
- Part – time options
- Job sharing
- Remote or homeworking
- Unlimited paid time off
- Family or medical leave
- Caregiving leave
- Sabbaticals
- Career breaks
There are so many different ways of working, no employer could offer them all – you’ll need to consider your industry and size of business, but the main thing is to come up with some options that meet your needs and those of your employees. It’s worth brainstorming this with your team to find out what their pain points are, before seeing if you can work out a way to try and take them away.
Flexible Hours
Flexible scheduling allows people to fulfil responsibilities outside of the workplace and potentially opens up a talent pool that would otherwise be excluded from the office 9 to 5. One way to promote flexible hours is to become deadline oriented – instead of monitoring start and finish times, be more interested in the work being delivered on time.
Remote or home working
If you can do your job just as well from another location, why not? According to LinkedIn, people who work remotely are 24% more likely to be happy and productive. Of course, not every task can be completed remotely, and you may want to introduce a hybrid approach. LinkedIn reports that companies who allow remote working can have up to 35% lower employee turnover rates too.
Compressed work weeks
This doesn’t mean working less, it just means carrying out more hours over less days (or less hours over more days) and can work really well where employees want a longer weekend for example.
Other options
Caregiving leave – allowing time off for family care in times of illness or reasonable need. Employees already have a statutory right to time off for dependents, but why not have a policy on how many days they can take for each instance, whether you’ll also allow time off for non-emergencies, and whether this time will be paid or not.
Term-time work – this can be a great way of employing parents – employees remain on permanent contracts and balance out paid and unpaid leave during school holidays.
Job sharing – why not consider two employees sharing one job and both being able to work part time.
Unlimited paid time off – a highly attractive offering for employees as it gives them peace of mind if they need a sick day.
With costs increasing across the board flexible working options are a great way to offer additional benefits which are attractive to existing and prospective staff and are generally cost neutral for your business.
Do you have questions about flexibility?
Give us a call at CUBE HR on 01282 678321, we’ll be happy to advise you and we have policies and templates available to meet every HR need.
Why not check out our blog on a similar topic Why is Flexibility Important in the Workplace?
We also have a YouTube channel with loads of handy videos
