Research has shown the value that flexible working can bring to organisations, and the positive effects it brings to productivity, morale, recruitment and retention. However, some organisations are still reluctant to introduce flexible working practices or extend them more widely throughout their staff.
Flexible working is more than just working from home. It’s about working from wherever you need to be, whether that’s from a well known coffee chain, with a client, a customer’s HQ or during your commute.By making best use of technology such as audio and video-conferencing, instant messenger and mobile internet this can be achieved while strengthening collaboration and enhancing a sense of community between colleagues – even if employees aren’t physically in the same place.
There are benefits that flexible working brings that are less obvious than those mentioned above, but should still be taken into account when considering whether to introduce or extend your flexible working scheme.
Knowledge Transfer
Employees whom are regularly out of the office can have a positive effect on the team. The responsibilities and skill sets they require are more likely to be shared across the rest of the team, and skill silos actually decrease. This gives employees the opportunity to take over tasks they might not normally handle, allowing them to grow their skills and giving them a more varied work life, which can help boost morale.
Spreading skills and knowledge across a team also helps to ensure that productivity does not drop in periods of staff turnover. However, to encourage cooperation in an office, it is important that all employees are given an equal opportunity for flexible working. Allowing some staff to work remotely but giving others no flexible options can create resentment, making it far more challenging to create an environment in which workers are willing to share their knowledge and skills.
Cost Savings
As most businesses are seeing rapid increases in the cost of office space and business rates, these businesses need to maximise their office usage. On average office occupancy in the UK is at 45% meaning 55% of the office investment is wasted. In the current economic climate, (where on average an office cost per employee is £6k per year) and where businesses are being forced to make tough decisions around cutting costs without affecting their services, this cannot be ignored. Structured home working, combined with hot-desk facilities, improves the efficiency of the office and reduce overhead costs, whilst still increasing productivity.
Diversity
Offering flexible working is one of the key ways in which organisations can build a more diverse workforce. Employees with different lifestyles, family responsibilities or long-term health conditions usually find it difficult to manage a 9-5 office-based job, and flexible working is vital for them. Diverse workforces have a broader mix of skills, knowledge and experience, giving an organisation more creativity and flexibility to overcome challenges. It has also been proven that increasing diversity leads to better staff retention.
Improving the Environment
According to the Office of National Statistics, the typical carbon footprint of an office worker is 1.5 tonnes of CO2 per year, compared to the 865 kg footprint of a home worker. That’s a 42% saving, roughly the equivalent of 100 loads of laundry. Even if it’s not possible to offer full-time remote working, encouraging employees to work some of the time from home and use telephone or video conferencing rather than travelling to meetings can all help reduce their carbon footprint.