How flexible working benefits your organisation
The idea of flexible working is that it gives employees more control over their work-life balance which in turn drives organisational productivity – employees choose (to a reasonable extent) how many hours they work, which days of the week and whether they’re in the office or at home.
Many organisations have taken note that workers are requesting flexible working hours more often. Whether that is a flexible work schedule, a shorter week, or any other flexible arrangement, these requests are becoming more frequent to make balancing life and work as easy as possible.
In fact, a new survey conducted by Remote on over 2,000 workers revealed that over 75% of employees want flexible working hours. Perhaps to reduce on childcare duties which incur costs, or to juggle other life responsibilities like caring for parents – ultimately giving employees more control over their working hours can help reduce the stress associated with things outside of the office.
How flexible working benefits your organisation
1 – Can Boost Performance
According to the Gartner 2021 Digital Worker Experience Survey, 43% of respondents said that flexible working hours helped them achieve greater productivity, and 30% of respondents said that less or no time commuting enabled them to be more productive.
2 – Job Satisfaction
Allowing workers to work more flexibly gives them more autonomy over their working lives which then leads to a sense of job satisfaction and loyalty.
This leads to the next reason.
3 – Retention
With £3000 the average cost to recruit new member of staff in the UK, and this figure is likely to rise in today’s current talent shortage, the importance of employee retention is ever more important.
Due to the job satisfaction flexible working hours provide, flex workers are more likely to stick around and repay the favour when the going gets tough.
4 – Talent attraction
With an increasing number of companies all competing for a much smaller talent pool and offering new and different benefits from unlimited holiday to 4-day working weeks, recruiting talent can be hard. This is where offering flexible working hours can help make your business stand out and open it up to a much wider talent pool.
This is especially prevalent in millennial workers who place a lot of importance on flexibility – According to Deloitte twice as many under-35s want permanent flexible working post-pandemic, compared to over-55s.
5 – Reduce stress
Better productivity within the workplace can sometimes stem from something simple like a peaceful working environment.
Flexible working makes for an easier work life balance, resulting in reduced stress levels and higher productivity outputs.
If you are looking to understand how flexible working benefits your organisatio, hr inspire Hertfordshire’s leading HR consultancy can help. Get in touch with our expert team today for further guidance and information.
