Four ways to supercharge a flexible work environment

Flexible work environments are in great demanded. Indeed, a report by Apollo Technical found that 72 percent of employees would prefer working in flexible environments rather than a full return to office.

And organizations are seeing measurable advantages. Increased productivity by 47 percent, higher employee performance ( 40% lower risk of a defect in the quality of work) and increased profits (with an average 11,000 dollars saved per halftime remote employee), make flexible work appear more of a necessity as opposed to a benefit for employees.

If you're considering how to create flexible working options or enhance the way your employees can collaborate remotely, you're in right place.

In this article, we'll look at some of the most important aspects of flexible work. We'll also discuss shifting expectations of employees, as well as some suggestions on how to ensure your business is ready for the future with video powered tools.

What's flexible?

A flexible work arrangement allows employees to decide where and how they work. Research by SHRM indicates that flexibility in employees provides a host of benefits like higher engagement and retention as well as lower overhead and more time for family and work.
There are two types of work flexibility:

Location flexibility

Location flexibility allows employees to work from an office, or a specific working location. The most common forms of location flexibility include remote work, hybrid work, and telecommuting. An 2021 SHRM survey found that 30% of employed Americans would prefer having the option of doing any type of remote work in the event that their employers don't offer that option would search to find a job that has it.

Flexible scheduling

Schedule flexibility is based on employees' capacity to plan their working hours in a way that is not the traditional five days a week 9-5 work schedule. Some of the most popular types of flexible schedules are:

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

The way we do business is evolving

According to the US Labor Department reported over 47 million Americans were laid off in 2021, a record-breaking massive workforce exodus.

From dental clinics to gas stations, the shortage of workers is making employers rethink how we think about the traditional job. 64 percent of the workers who took part who participated in an earlier Pew survey felt uneasy coming back to their workplaces and 57% chose to work at in their home because of COVID-related issues. The Harvard Business Review reported that 36 percent of the workers who were surveyed would search for an alternative if not given the option of a remote or hybrid, and 6% were willing to quit outright regardless of whether a new job was lined up.

Uncertainty in the economic climate, a shifts in the labor market and changing expectations from employees is forcing employers to consider what and where employees can work.

Promising data shows that flexible work can boost recruiting, retention, satisfaction, and efficiency. Gartner found 43 percentage of those who took part in the Digital Worker Experience Survey said flexibility in working hours helped them be more productive. 30% said the time saved in commuting improved productivity.

Four tips for creating an environment that is flexible

The workplace is evolving the onboarding process, training enablement, and leadership teams need virtual communications, training, and engagement technology to support their organization.

These are the four steps to create an effective flexible workplace to your employees. They will also prepare your team for success.

1. Engage employees

Because your employees aren't gathering more frequently than in a traditional 9-5 workplace, it is important to come up with other strategies to prioritize employees' engagement. Seventy-four percent of workers say that they're more efficient working in a workplace where they feel valued. The majority of employees in industry-leading companies feel heard, but only 62% employees of companies with low financial performance feel heard.

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Boring town halls are bad and shaky live streams are worse. The investment in quality video will yield exponential results in alignment of teams as well as employee engagement, productivity as well as connection, which can help build a cohesive and flexible workplace.

"We won't return to how it was. Video isn't just a COVID-19 option, it's a modern solution to the changing work place."  
 Peter Strella, Director, Communications & Creative Media Services at Rite Aid

2. Design a virtual onboarding and training process

While work is shifting away from offices, training and education is also changing with it. Even with remote work or maybe because of it, onboarding and education have grown increasingly important. Nearly 97% of employees have been onboarding by virtual meetings, and it's up to the organization to develop efficient and efficient programs.

"Technicians don't always want to make the trip to our learning centres, and it's not a 'one-size-fits-all' for our diverse class of learners...What we started to do was use the same excellent educational content from the classroom and put it on the internet."   Steve Hamaday, Virtual Training Manager at Axalta

A must-read guide for online trainings

Increase the size of your remote team quickly with this in-depth instruction.

3. Communication both external and internal

"With  the help of bi-weekly live broadcast for all of our customers, during the outbreak, which took only weeks and not months. We managed the whole process using the platform, working online with our team members as well as our agency. We went on air several times throughout the week, in several different languages."   Alvin Mudun, Senior Web Product Manager for Zendesk in EMEA

4. Make investments in remote collaboration

When your workers are spread out across locations and time zones, the tools you use can make or break team performance and even motivation.

Introducing more ways to use video could have an measurable influence on the team. 's State of Workplace Communication report discovered that video-oriented employees have a 75% higher percentage of employees reporting high engagement and are better at team collaboration. Collaboration means communication with teammates, and video can make communication more effective and more inclusive by:

• Better employee engagement
• Improved productivity
• Anytime, anywhere.
• Greater transparency
• Libraries for training that are easy to use and have resources

  The was originally created by Clara Wang and updated by Bianca Galvez on July 26, 2022.