Workplace flexibility and Remote Working

What is workplace flexibility?

Workplace flexibility is a measure of emotional salary , but it is not a concrete measure since it can be implemented in many ways. For example, it can be time flexibility, workplace flexibility, or full flexibility. Within the flexibility of the workplace, we have the option of working from home or remote work.

What is remote working?

Remote working is work that is done from a place other than the company headquarters or office, a place chosen by the worker, and that is carried out through the use of computer media and systems.

What are the benefits of workplace flexibility?

As we can imagine, labour flexibility is used for many things, above all to give freedom to our team. With emotional salary measures like this we are giving our team an advantage over other companies and, in addition, we improve their quality of life and increase their motivation.

Flexibility is intended to make people feel happier and more invested in the company, that they feel comfortable and that work is not an obstacle in their professional or personal development.

In this way, not only does it have a positive impact on the team, but the company also benefits. A motivated and fully invested worker develops a feeling of belonging that makes them more engaged and also more productive .

If, in addition, they are given the possibility of having autonomy in decision-making, they can find solutions and improvements that make the company more profitable or more efficient .

Let’s take an example: let’s imagine that our company is a gym in which we want our customers to feel comfortable and not like that going to the gym is a punishment for them, but instead just one more activity in their free time. For this, we will need our staff to transmit that atmosphere of familiarity, of feeling at home and, for this to happen, our team must feel it too, they must feel valued and that the company trusts them. If we give them the freedom and autonomy to organise work rotas between themselves, that they organise the classes that they must teach or that there is a distribution of tasks, among other things, and always with clear objectives set by the company, they will be more motivated when going to work and it will be reflected in the form of increased motivation and an improvement in the development of their work which, in turn, will have a very positive impact on customers.

Why should I implement flexible working or remote working in my company?

Despite the fact that this work model was already present before the Covid-19 pandemic, many companies were forced to implement it with during lockdowns and restrictions. Now we must think about adapting our company to a new reality in which labour flexibility is already a common measure.

One reason to implement workplace flexibility measures is that spending more hours in the office does not mean working more or being more efficient, and we should be aware of this. In reality, it is possible that the lengthy hours, day after day, end up demotivating our team because nobody is happy when they are unable to find the balance between their professional life and their personal one.

In the first instance we will be more attractive as a company in the face of the current recruitment and labour market, therefore, we will interest the best profiles; in addition to that we will be able to retain the talent of our company and reduce the turnover of personnel.

Furthermore, our workers will be able to better combine their work and personal life, their motivation and productivity will increase and we will be promoting coordination and communication between our workers.

How to implement workplace flexibility and remote working?

There are many ways to do this, but we are going to give several examples of how to gradually implement workplace flexibility.

We can offer a flexible timetable, such as delaying or bringing forward the start and finish times for work. For example, we can start by giving a margin of one hour for entry and exit times and increase that margin depending on the salary level or seniority within the company.

For someone who has been working with us for a long time, we can offer the possibility of this flexible timetable or for a person who has more seniority, we can offer advantages in terms of the flexibility of workplace or give them the option of remote working a percentage of their hours.

All options that come to mind can be valid, since what we seek is to improve the quality of life of workers so that they can reconcile work and private life.

Another option is to ask our workers what changes they would like to see or what measures they would like to see taken towards that goal: being able to find a balance between professional and personal life.

The key may be in giving benefits to our team, for example, to people who are progressing in their professional career within the company or to those who have been with us for a long time. In this way, in addition to increasing their motivation, we will be communicating a message of confidence in them and their abilities, and that we value their work and their involvement with the company.