Some of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and both Business and Entrepreneurship. A major key to running any business or organization is recruitment and retention of talent. A major part of talent retention is creating an optimal work environment. This contributed post is thus entitled; How You Can Start Allowing Your Staff More Flexibility Today.
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Allowing your staff more flexibility can be a fantastic way to build a better company reputation, make it more enjoyable for your staff to come to work, get a higher quality of work, and much more. It’s far more modern to allow your staff to work flexibly these days, as we all lead busy lives and may have appointments to keep up with, or may want to work from home for whatever reason.
Flexible working doesn’t just mean working from home. It can mean making the most of the commute and working from there, coming in a little later and making the time up later on in the day, doing some work in a cafe, and much more. Working flexibly can mean different things for different people. It won’t suit all businesses, but it can definitely help a huge number of businesses to move forward and get better results. Below is a quick rundown of what flexibility can mean for different businesses:
• Flexible arrival and departure times
• Full-time work from home or location independence
• Choice and control in work shifts
• Part-time work from home
• Compressed shifts or workweek
• Opportunity for sabbaticals or career breaks (e.g., extended time off)
• Unlimited paid time off
• Caregiving leave
Staff who can work flexibly tend to take less sick days, feel happier and more productive at work, and become advocates for your business. They also feel more loyal to you and you should find you improve employee retention. Below are some ideas to help you implement more flexibility today:
Speak To Your Employees
Speak to your employees and see what they think about working flexibly. How do they think it could help and how would they like to do it? Getting their opinion will give you an insight into what they really want.
Start Using The Cloud
Using the cloud means your employees will be able to access data any time, anywhere. If you’re not currently using it, you’re already behind! What would you do if you lost important data, or there was a natural disaster? Cloud Migration Services can help with this, whether your employees want to start work on the commute or whether they’d like to do it from home.
Make Everybody Play By The Same Rules
Having flexibility in the workplace is great, but it can’t be one rule for one person and one rule for another. For example, you’ll find in many workplaces parents are allowed to leave early to pick up their kids, go to a school play, or take time off and have benefits for other family related things. Single people and those without kids should not be treated any differently! Have the same rules in place for everybody.
Allow More Flexibility Within The Workplace
Don’t have the mindset of ‘employees must be at their desks from the hours of 9-5’. Let them take breaks. Let them play games. Let them talk. Heck, even let them take naps. Make the workplace fun and flexible and you’ll seriously benefit.
Make A Gradual Transition
Do these things gradually so it’s not a shock to the system. What can you implement today to make the workplace more flexible?