Who doesn’t love comfort? From a kid to a senior citizen, from a boss to an employee, from a student to a teacher and literally everyone. You know about those comfort seats that are flexible enough to adjust yourself the way you want, right?
How it perfectly fits us in it and even makes us want to stay a little longer in it! Exactly this is what flexible working hours and remote jobs are doing for us. They are making us feel comfortable in our job and increasing our desire to stay longer in the job.
Let’s know more about how flexibility in our professional lives has changed the dimensions and priorities of work culture over the years.
Table of Content
How do we define a flexible work culture?
Flexible work culture can be defined as a relief to an employee in a layman language. Flexible work culture promotes the ideology of “working from anywhere but being productive”. But if we talk professionally, it widely includes,
Benefits of Flexible Working Hours
This whole idea of professional life has transformed completely. A report by Deloitte finds that 94 per cent of the respondents from the survey say that they would benefit from work flexibility, with the top gains being less stress/improved mental health, and better integration of work and personal life.
Remember the time when pandemic hit the world? Were we going out? No. How did we manage our jobs? Exactly. Suddenly everything was online. And from there, my friends, we got comfort in flexible professional life.
Let’s see why we need flexibility in our careers.
- Reduces stress: Imagine sitting at home in whatever chair you feel comfy in and sipping a hot tea and doing your work. Sounds great, right? This is a kind of human psychology that when you are working at your designated location, that is your office, these are the given tasks and you aren’t supposed to leave your desk until you finish them, these things can make you feel stressed because you are supervised. Flexible work nature will get this stress out of your mind.
- Increases productivity: Lower the stress, higher the productivity. Many people prefer working from home or flexible working hours because they tend to work efficiently when comfortable. There will be less absenteeism, hence, higher productivity.
- Maintains work-life balance: A flexible workspace encourages the employee to focus on their personal life while working at home. They can spend more time when they are free for a few hours with their loved one. This concept somehow ensures a healthy mind of the employee.
- Elevates employee retention rate: Flexible work culture establishes a sense of mutual trust between the employee and the employer. By having what they want, employees are convinced. This ensures their loyalty and dedication towards their work, and they stay for long in the company.
Effects of flexibility: An Employer’s point of view.
Till now, we have known enough what a flexible work culture is and why do we need it. But that was all from the point of view of the employee.
An employer also enjoys the benefit of flexibility in work culture. Confused, huh?
Okay, let’s consider a situation.
There is an opening for a content writer in the company. You see you can’t afford more than two employees to come to the office and work. This will increase the cost. In this condition don’t you think that you can offer a remote job to the employee as per their job role? This will help you to maintain your costs and space in the office.
From a very long time, we as a company has faced an issue regarding the attendance management of the employees. Thanks to flexible professional careers we are now able to balance employee productivity, satisfaction and especially their attendance.
Employees can choose their own working hours from their favorable location instead of a strict 9-5 job from the office. This versatility enhances the employee’s willingness to work daily.
How can employers ensure transparency while offering flexible work hours?
In this era of automation, organization must consider implement effective attendance management system with Geo attendance features for real-time monitoring.
Take a look on this report by McKinsey & Company. As per the report, the attendance rate dropped significantly after the pandemic in different parts of the world. But when the same employees were given an option of flexible work opportunities (hybrid and remote jobs), attendance increased drastically.
Of all the survey respondents, 37 percent go to the office every day. An additional 56 percent have hybrid work arrangements and thus spend one to four days per week in the office and 7 percent work fully remotely.
Summing it up
In this fast-paced and exclusively competitive world, you must stand out as a commendable employer to your employees who are not just a boss but a human being, they can consider a friend. Flexibility has significantly brought changes to the way the corporation works today.
I hope we enlightened you with some interesting facts and great knowledge. We’ll keep bringing in more for you. Till then Keep Reading, Keep Thinking and Keep HRing!