Flexible working- is it right for you and your staff?
Workplace policies and culture can have a huge impact on work/life balance for employees and their families. As an employer, you need to know about flexible working. Almost all employees with at least 26 weeks' service have the right to ask for flexible working.
Workplace flexibility is more important to employees than employers might think. Market Insights 2017 report found from 1,752 employees; 13% view workplace culture as an important factor when considering a job role with 10% saying flexible working, 16% of these respondents stating the need for an increase in flexible working.
There are many benefits to flexible working for you as an employer:
- An increased employee morale, productivity and commitment to your company.
- An increased ability to attract talented staff to your company
- Reduce employee turn over
- Higher employee attendance
Disadvantages of flexible working:
- Employees taking advantage
- Employers are unable to ‘keep an eye’ on what their staff are doing in their work time
- Arranging times when employees are in work to arrange face to face meetings.
- Having to adjust to a new management style
Managing director at GCS Recruitment David Bloxham, states;
“The workplace is ever evolving, and it is up to employers to keep up with shifts in sentiment and strike the right balance between the wants and needs of employers, and employees. The modern workplace should be fair to both sides, with employees trusted to control their own workloads but employers also feeling they are not being taken advantage of.”
“Flexible working is an obvious quick win, but there are grey areas which can cause a headache if not properly implemented and given defined parameters. For instance, do employees need to give notice of working from home or can they decide on the day; and if they did, would this throw off in-office plans such as meetings?”
The advantages of flexible working mostly outweigh the disadvantages and a good employer will be able to effectively manage these disadvantages. Flexible working has become part of what existing and potential employees are looking for in their Employee Benefits Package.
Increased morale, productivity, commitment and best of all your staff loving you? What do you as an employer have to lose?
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