The working world has changed rather a lot in the UK compared to the way it was 20 years ago. In today’s world, both employees and employers take greater care over achieving a sense of work-life balance and with the help of governmental changes, a flexible working option has now become a mainstay in many job roles. In fact, all employees now have the right to request flexible working as soon as they reach 26 weeks of employment, and the organisation has to reasonably consider it.
The term ‘flexible working’ covers a range of working arrangements, from job shares to working remotely and has grown in modern popularity, boosted by an increased adoption from the worlds most influential organisations, such as Google and Apple. One of the greatest changes we have seen, particularly amongst the younger generations, is the rise of people working from home.
The true impact of home working on the business world is yet to be measured, but there does seem to be some obvious benefits to letting your employees work from home, either full-time or as part of their working week.
Increased Productivity
Productivity usually increases when workers are allowed to work from home for at least some of the working week. Whilst productivity is harder to monitor remotely, employees who are more easily distracted by an office environment will often be more productive if left to complete a task in their own workspace.
The removal of presenteeism also often leaves team members feeling the need to prove their productivity and so they may actually go the extra mile, increasing their output slightly to prove that they are being productive at home.
Larger recruitment pool
There are many people in the workspace who require a more flexible way of working, whether this be due to childcare responsibilities, disabilities or perhaps living in another location.
Allowing flexible working means having access to this pool of potential employees who may not have otherwise been able to apply for the role. This gives an organisation a potentially wider set of skills and experiences, or access to employees who are located closer to their actual clients.
Employee retention
Allowing your team flexibility to work from home means they can have much greater control over their lives and achieve a better work-life balance, ultimately leading to healthier and happier employees. As discussed in our most recent blog post, employees who have greater control over the workspace tend to show higher levels of engagement.
People with childcare responsibilities are more likely to continue working for a company which allows them to fulfil both aspects of their lives. Likewise, people with disabilities are able to be part of a team without being restricted by building accessibility, and are able to work in an environment perfectly suited to their own needs.
Lower investment in office space
With more people working from home as part of their week, businesses no longer need to provide enough desk space for full-time members of staff. ‘Hot desking’ is becoming very popular, meaning there may only need to be one desk available if five people are sharing it throughout the week. Likewise, businesses can be more flexible about recruiting people with physical disabilities if they don’t necessarily need to adjust wheelchair accessibility in every part of the office building.
Fewer sick days
Research has shown that sick days are reduced when organisations introduce more flexible working. This is because employees tend to feel as though they could actually still perform their job from the comfort of home, compared with on-site workers who may not feel well enough to make the commute into work. We also tend to find that employees with a greater sense of work-life balance are usually healthier and happier, leading to fewer bouts of illness.
So what are the cons of flexible working?
Of course, when there are this many benefits to employers, there will also be drawbacks or risks. One of the greatest risks from an employer perspective, depending on the nature of the job, is that they have less control and ability to monitor the productivity of someone whilst they are at home. Of course, we all want to work in a world of trust and autonomy, but this is very often dependent on the individual in question.
Communication and team morale is also at risk when you have teams which spend more time working remotely. They become more dependent on technology to stay in touch and may spend more of their day communicating, via emails or Skype. Without easy and simple communication, there is a chance of staff morale dropping as the team spend less time together and potentially communicate less effectively.
Flexible working at Brighton & Hove Council
Previously, Brightstone worked with Brighton & Hove Council, an organisation which has fully adopted flexible working opportunities for their employees. BHCC offer flexi-time, job sharing, compressed hours, term-time only option, and working from home options to employees who need it, and the results of their staff surveys truly reflected the benefits of this scheme. 95% of those surveyed expected to still be working there in 6 months time (an extremely positive retention rate) with 85% reporting that they don’t just come to work for the money! These opinions were recorded as a result of 24-month change improvement plan following an internal culture review, where the results improved amongst the Library Services team for every question asked. Read more about this project with Brightstone here.
Whilst offering flexible working for employees is a statutory requirement, Brighton & Hove Council have adopted this way of working into their culture and truly stand out as a local organisation who cares about work-life balance and their employees well being. Brightstone can help you to adapt your culture in this way too, just give Richard a call and see how he can help.
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