If you’ve been paying any attention to trends in business, then you’ve likely noticed that flexibility has been an increasingly insistent demand from the workforce across the board. This change was already happening before the COVID pandemic, but there’s no denying that it strapped a rocket to the trend and shot it into high gear. If you want to make sure that you don’t fall behind and lose your team, then you might be looking into creating a more flexible workplace. But what does that mean? Here, we’re going to look at a few of your options.
Flexibility in where they work
When you think of work flexibility, then your thoughts might immediately go to the fast-spreading trend of remote working. Offering your team the opportunity to work from home, even if it’s only for a part of the week, can be a very attractive option, indeed. However, it also requires careful management. You have to ensure that you have the tools to keep in touch with them to communicate with them, the remote working software that allows them to work seamlessly with resources and other members of the workplace, and clear expectations for working times, objectives, and the like.
Flexibility in when they work
While remote working might be the first thing that comes to your mind, there’s already a flexible working trend that is already a part of many a workplace: flexible schedules. Now, care has to be taken to ensure that you’re able to manage the work-life balance of team members with a flexible schedule, and rota auto scheduling tools can make sure that you’re not overscheduling them or leaving them very little time between shifts, for instance. It might also require there to be more flexible supervision to make up for different work periods throughout the day. Or, you can combine remote working and flexible schedules to allow your team a lot more freedom to do work when and where it suits them best.
Flexibility in how they work
The tools and methods that your team uses to complete their tasks can be offered just as much flexibility. Allowing them the freedom to work in the ways that suit them best can allow them a sense of ownership over their work that helps them feel much more motivated and engaged with their role. What’s more, you can adopt the best methods found by your team thanks to the flexibility that you afford them, and then systematize the process so that, when you have to teach a new hire to do it in the future, you can teach them using the optimal methods found by those who had the freedom to find them out in the first place.
In many cases, there may be no avoiding it. You need to offer your team flexibility if you want to keep hold of the people that you have. Hopefully, the options above help you see your options more clearly, as well as what you can do to make sure that they work.
