Flexible working can help retain skilled staff, keep employees motivated and boost productivity, but what should you be doing to get the most out of it?
Firstly, you need to redefine how you judge employees’ effectiveness and productivity. With more and more staff working remotely, you cannot judge them on a bums on seats basis. You need to evaluate their work based on what they produce rather than the hours they put in.
For employers the key areas that need looking at to promote positive flexibility are:
- Ensure that requests for flexibility are managed on the basis of whether they are feasible for the company or team. Scheduling will need to be carefully managed, for instance, to ensure that not everyone in the team is working from home on a day when at least one member needs to be in the office to cover. However, flexibility implies being willing to think out of the box and collaborate with employees on ways around potential hurdles.
- Ensure your IT people are able to cope with the different demands of having multiple employees working away from the office. Remote employees may need to have access to IT back-up and not be reliant on their own resources.
- Keep the right to refuse a flexible work offer - some jobs are not possible, for instance, on a flexible basis.-
- Ensure managers are trained in how to evaluate staff performance based on productivity rather than hours worked. Ensure also that managers carefully and fairly evaluate what is possible, for instance, from part-time workers so that they do not end up working lots of unpaid overtime.
- Contact and communication – employees who work remotely must be involved in team discussions either through conference calls or regular face-to-face meetings. They should be included in social gatherings and have opportunities to catch up on office gossip so they are in the loop about what is happening. Ensure internal information is circulated to all employees.
- Try to cut down on duplication of technology if staff are working in multiple locations. A laptop which they can take from one place to the other, for instance, will cut down on costs.
- Health and safety – you must ensure that remote workers are checked to see that they have safe working spaces, for instance, enough space to work.
- Ensure employees who work mainly from home have some space at the office so that they feel part of the team.
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