Four strategies to boost the flexibility of your workplace

Flexible working is in high need. Actually, the study conducted by Apollo Technical found that 72% of employees prefer flexible work environments rather than working at the comfort of their homes.

Companies are experiencing tangible positive results. Productivity has increased by 47 per cent and improved performance for the employees ( 40% less faulty work) of their work) and higher profits (with an average in the range of 11,000 dollars savings each year when a remote worker is half-time.) Flexible work can look more like a necessity as opposed to a benefit offered by an employee.

If you're considering ways you can create flexible working opportunities or enhance the way your employees are able to communicate remotely, you're at the right spot.

In this post, we'll look at several of the key aspects of flexible work and the changing expectations of employees and also some suggestions for how you can prepare your organization to meet the demands of the future using video powered tools.

What exactly is flexible work?

Flexible work arrangements allow employees to decide where and how they work. The research by SHRM shows that flexibility in employees provides many benefits, including greater engagement and retention and lower costs and more time to spend with families and work. There are two kinds of flexibility in work:

Location flexibility

Location flexibility allows employees to work from home without the need for an office, or a certain workspace. The most common forms of location flexibility include remote work, telecommuting, hybrid work and more. The 2021 SHRM study found that 30% of employed Americans like the option to do something remotely, and if their present employer doesn't offer this alternative, they'd look to find a company that offers this option.

Flexible scheduling

Flexible scheduling is determined by employees' ability to organize their schedules outside of the typical five-day week work schedule that runs from 9-5. Most common forms of flexibility in schedules include:

• Workweeks that are compressed
• Shift work
• Flextime
• Job sharing
• Part-time schedules

The way we do business is shifting

As per the US Labor Department reported over 47 million Americans were laid off in 2021 in an unprecedented massive workforce shift.

From dental offices to gas stations, worker shortages are forcing employers to rethink the way we see the job. 64 percent of workers of the most recent Pew survey reported feeling uneasy returning to the office and 57% opted to work at in their home because of COVID-related issues. In the Harvard Business Review reported that 36 percent of the respondents are willing to search for alternatives to work if given the option of working in a hybrid or remote, and 6percent would prefer to quit regardless the possibility of a new job was planned.

The uncertainty of the economy as well as a rapidly changing labor market and changing expectations of employees is forcing employers to rethink the way and location workers are placed.
 
  Recent research has shown that flexibility at working hours boost employee recruiting, retention, satisfaction, as well as productivity. Gartner found 43 percent of respondents that took part in the Digital Worker Experience Survey said flexible working hours made them more productive. Thirty percent said that the time they spent commute time improved their productivity.

4 ways to create an environment that is flexible for work

As the workplace evolves the onboarding processis changing, so do the training management teams, as well as enablement , will require virtual communication, training and engagement technologies to help the organizations they work for.

Here are four steps that can assist you in creating a workplace that is flexible for your employees . These tips will ensure your employees are set up to succeed.

1. Engage employees

As your workers don't gather more often than they would in a traditional workplace It's time to look for other ways to boost the level of engagement among employees. Seventy-four percent of workers report that they're more efficient in working because they are heard. 88% of workers working for top companies are heard but only 62% of those working for businesses with poor efficiency in their financials are heard.

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Town halls that are boring can be a problem however, problems with live streams can be much more difficult. A decision to invest in video that is of the highest quality means exponential returns on the alignment of teams, employee engagement efficiency, and connectivity for establishing a cohesive and an empathetic workplace.

2. Develop a virtual process for onboarding and training processes

When work shifts away from work in the office, the training is transitioning along with it. In spite of remote-based work or possibly due to it, education and onboarding become more crucial. 97% of workers are being getting on board via virtual training. It's on the shoulders of the business to create streamlined and effective training programs.

"Technicians do not always wish to attend our training centers, it's not something that can be a "one-size for all" approach for our diverse class of learners...What we began to think about was how we could take the top educational materials from the classroom and made it accessible on the internet." Steve Hamaday, Virtual Training Manager at Axalta

A must-read guide for online trainings

Get your remote team easily with this comprehensive instruction.

3. Communication both external and internal

"With the platform we have, we created the weekly live stream that we offered to our customers across the world, in an epidemic, and it only took weeks, not months. The whole operation was managed using the platform, working online with our team as well as an agency, and streaming several times per week across a range of languages." Alvin Mudun, Senior Web Product Manager for Zendesk in EMEA

4. Make investments in remote collaboration

In the event that your team members are spread between multiple places and time zones, the equipment employed will impact how well your employees perform and also their motivation.

Utilizing more ways to use video has a tangible effect on the team.  The State of Workplace Communication report revealed that those who use video are 75% more likely to have a percentage of people who report high levels of engagement in addition to better group collaboration. Collaboration means the communication among team members videos can help make communication more effective and more inclusive.

• Better employee engagement
• Productivity increases
• Anytime, anywhere.
• More Transparency
• Training libraries that can be easily used and contain tools and resources

    Originally written by Clara Wang and updated by Bianca Galvez on July 26 2022.

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