Flexibility in the workplace is based on recognizing employee’s needs outside of work. The practice often includes altering the classic nine-to-five working hours into compressed workweeks and allowing remote working.
The implementation of a flexible business model has become a common occurrence ever since the pandemic outbreak. More companies and organizations adopt this system to maintain a stress-free environment and improve productivity.
Flexible businesses also continuously seek better methods to keep moving forward. That’s why these companies can grow faster than the more traditional work structure. Should you still feel a little skeptical about applying flexibility in your company, keep reading? This article will help you understand the five benefits of being more flexible in terms of business.
Increase Productivity
Maintaining your employees’ well-being is vital to boosting your business’s productivity. This is because the happier your employees are, the more encouraged they will be to perform better over time.
Workplace flexibility allows your employees to choose the best working hours and environments that are convenient for them. As a result, it helps lower stress levels and improves job satisfaction.
Here’s how you can implement flexibility to your business:
- Grant flexible scheduling. Your workers have errands to run, children to pick up, and doctor appointments to go now and then. Letting them set their schedule helps them meet their needs more conveniently.
- Offer remote working. Apart from reducing tardiness due to lengthy commutes, it helps you reach the best talents to help your business grow.
- Support term-time working. This is an attractive offer for working parents. With this, employees can take paid or unpaid time off during school vacations.
- Allow compressed workweeks. This means giving freedom for your employees to adjust the regular working hours. For example, your staff may choose to work four days a week with longer work hours each day or six days a week with fewer working hours each day.
By offering flexibility, your employees may feel less like robots. When you’ve successfully made them feel valued, heard, and appreciated, you can expect higher productivity and better results.
Be More Adaptable to Changes
Implementing workplace flexibility helps prepare your business for uncertain conditions. This is because business owners applying workplace flexibility are used to their employees working from anywhere in the world with multiple mediums.
For example, during the pandemic outbreak, consumers shifted to online shopping as it helped lower their out-of-home engagement. Suppose a company is too rigid to adapt to the new situation. Then, it can lose its potential customers to its competitors.
If you’re looking to expand your business to the digital world, invest in an excellent web hosting provider to host your website. That way, you can ensure stellar eCommerce site performance to attract your target market.
Achieve Better Competitiveness
Better competitiveness often follows improved company adaptability. The most flexible business strives to continue improving its services over time. This is to ensure it acquires the best brand positioning in the industry and improves customer loyalty.
Companies and organizations should be aware of the latest industry trends and see changes as an opportunity to keep their businesses relevant.
Responses to technological advancement can show you how flexible an organization is. The best ways to greet the change are by learning about it and evolving with it. Therefore, an excellent company will select the best trends that fit its values, then adapt and adopt them to make the most of its competitive advantage.
Improve Employee Satisfaction
The traditional office working hours and environments can be stressful for employees. It can leave the impression that they don’t have control over their own time. In the long term, this situation can lead to prolonged stress and burnout.
On the contrary, the laid-back atmosphere coming from the flexi-time work environment helps your employees relax. It also lets them afford work-life balance more easily. As a result, they can perform better and produce more excellent work that they’re more satisfied with.
Reduce Turnover Rates
An employee turnover rate shows the percentage of workers who leave a company over a period of time. It’s inevitable for people to leave organizations. Several reasons for this include retirement and migration.
However, unhappy employees may also quit their companies. If it happens too often, the company will suffer from high turnover rates. With it comes these negative effects:
- It’s costly. On average, a turnover may cost up to six to nine-month worth of an employee’s salary. If your employee’s monthly earning is $6,000/month, the replacement cost can be around $36,000 to $54,000.
- It impacts productivity. From offloading the work and recruiting to onboarding and training, the business’s productivity will inevitably suffer.
- It results in the loss of experienced talents. A company can lose its best leaders, problem solvers, and innovators as a consequence of high turnover rates. What’s more, it may be unable to ensure the continuity of knowledge transfer and succession.
With the above disadvantages, make sure to create a work environment that can encourage your employees to stay. Improving your flex-work policy is one of the best approaches to do that. By keeping your employees happy, they may remain a part of your company for years and possibly even refer their friends to apply.
Conclusion
Business flexibility is about emphasizing adaptability around the workplace. Throughout this article, you’ve learned that implementing flexible working practices benefits not only the employees but the employers as well.
From the employee’s perspective, flexibility helps them:
- achieve work-life balance
- enhance productivity
- improve satisfaction
From the company’s point of view, it leads to:
- better adaptability to changes
- reduced turnover rates
- faster business growth
Flexible businesses tend to be the leading organizations in terms of information and technology utilization. It helps them implement more efficient collaborative work, stand out from the competition, and evolve as time goes by.
On top of that, lower turnover rates help companies and organizations maintain a healthy expense. That way, they can allocate their money to more beneficial areas, such as research, advertising, and outsourcing.
On the final note, don’t hesitate to introduce flexibility to your business, as it brings numerous benefits for your overall company’s well-being. Good luck!
