Four strategies to boost an environment that is flexible for work

Flexible work environments are in great need. In fact, a study by Apollo Technical found that 72 percent of workers prefer flexible work environments over working from home.

The companies are seeing tangible benefits. The productivity has increased by 47 percent and higher performance of employees ( 40% lower risk of a defect in the quality of work), and profitability (with the average of $11K savings per year for a half-time remote employee), make flexible work appear more of a necessity than an employee perk.

If you're considering how to design flexible work options or how you can improve the ways you can get your team to work remotely, then you're at the correct spot.

In this article, we'll look at some of the important components of flexible working, the changing employee expectations, and some suggestions on how to future-proof your organization using video-powered tools.

What is flexible work?

Flexible work arrangements allow workers to pick which locations and hours they will work. Research by SHRM shows increased employee flexibility provides a host of benefits including higher retention and engagement, reduced overhead, and improved work-life balance.
There are two kinds of flexible work:

Location flexibility

Location flexibility allows employees to work from a main office or designated workplace. A few common kinds of flexibility include remote work, hybrid work, and telecommuting. A 2021 survey by SHRM revealed that 30 percent of employed Americans would prefer having the possibility of working from home or doing something remotely, and if their present employer does not offer this alternative, they'd look to find a job that has it.

Schedule flexibility

Schedule flexibility centers around employees' capacity to plan their schedules outside of the traditional five days a week 9-5 work schedule. The most common types of schedule flexibility include:

• Workweeks compressed
• Shift work
• Flextime
• Job sharing
• Part-time schedules

The way we do business is evolving

It was reported that the US Labor Department reported that more than 47 million Americans left their jobs in 2021, a record-breaking massive worker migration.

From dentists' offices to fuel stations, the shortage of workers is forcing employers to reconsider how we see the work environment. 64 percent of the workers who took part in the recent Pew survey felt uneasy returning to work and 57% opted to work from in their home because of COVID-related issues. In the Harvard Business Review reported that 36% of workers surveyed would search for alternatives if they were not offered the option of a remote or hybrid, and 6% would be willing to leave regardless of whether a new job was lined up.

The uncertainty in the economy, coupled with the competitive labor market and shifting employee expectations are forcing businesses to consider how and where people can work.

Recent research shows that flexibility at work can boost hiring, retention, satisfaction, as well as productivity. Gartner found 43% of respondents in the Digital Worker Experience Survey said flexible working hours made them more productive, and 30% said the time saved by not having to commute boosted their productivity.

4 ways to create an environment that is flexible

The workplace is evolving and the workplace evolves, onboarding, education, management teams, as well as enablement need virtual communications, training and engagement tools to support their organization.

Here are four tips that will help you establish an effective flexible workplace for your employees . These tips will set your team up to be successful.

1. Engage employees

As your workers don't gather frequently as they would in a traditional 9-5 workplace, you have to find other ways to increase the engagement of your employees. 74% of employees say that they're more productive working because they are heard. 88% of employees at industry-leading companies feel heard, while only 62% of employees in financially struggling companies feel heard.

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Boring town halls are bad, but glitchy live streams are worse. An investment in high-quality video can yield enormous benefits in alignment of teams, employee engagement, productivity as well as connection, which can help create a more flexible and cohesive workplace.

"We will not go back to the way it was. Video isn't COVID-19-based but a contemporary solution for the new work place."  
 Peter Strella, Director, Communications & Creative Media Services at Rite Aid

2. Create a virtual onboarding process and training processes

As work transitions away from offices, training has also been undergoing a change in tandem. Despite remote working and perhaps due to it, onboarding and education have become increasingly essential. 97% of employees have been onboarding via virtual sessions, and it's up to the organization to create streamlined and effective programmes.

"Technicians don't always want to make the trip to our learning centers, it's not a "one-size fits all" approach for our diverse population of learners...What we started to do was take the same great educational content from the classroom and put it on the internet."   Steve Hamaday, Virtual Training Manager at Axalta

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3. Communication both external and internal

"With  our platform, we created a bi-weekly live broadcast for all of our clients, in the midst of an epidemic, and it took just weeks and not months. We handled the entire operation using the platform, working online with our team members as well as our agency. We went live several times per week in a variety of languages."   Alvin Mudun, Senior Web Product Manager for Zendesk in EMEA

4. Make investments in remote collaboration

When your workers have to travel across different locations and time zones, your tools could determine the team's efficiency and motivate.

Offering more options for using video has a tangible influence on the team.  The State of Workplace Communication report revealed that employees who are video-oriented have a 75% higher percentage of employees reporting high engagement, and they are more effective at team collaboration. Collaboration refers to communication between colleagues, and using video makes communication better and more inclusive.

• Better employee engagement
• Increased productivity
• Unlimited content available anywhere and at any time
• More Transparency
• Libraries for training that are easy to use and have resources

  The was originally created by Clara Wang and updated by Bianca Galvez on July 26, 2022.