Employers are constantly on the lookout to attract and retain talent.  Recruitment and training are a challenging and expensive process. Moreover, building chemistry within the team takes time and requires employees to feel engaged and committed to the company.  Money aside losing key employees affects morale and may also unsettle other members of the team. Therefore, employee satisfaction is considered one of the key factors for sustained success. Today’s employees want a healthy work-life balance. They will favour a job that gives them flexibility to schedule personal appointments during work hours or tend to family matters when the need arises.  Such a need is not satisfied within the traditional 9 to 5, 40-hour week.

Modern organizations have found that offering flexible work schedules has proven to be a successful incentive that not only increases employee satisfaction but also provides a competitive advantage during the recruitment process.  Such an incentive can be offered through flexible work hours policy.  Traditionally such an approach would be limited to allowing employees to start an hour earlier in the morning to gain an extra hour after work.   However, a more desirable and meaningful approach could be to enable employees extended flexibility to pick and choose when and how to allocate their hours of work.  Management must create policies that ensure the needs of the company are met whilst extending the flexibility of the employee. Such policies typically require employees to work a prescribed number of hours per day and be present during a daily ‘core time’   

Flexibility can be further enhanced by enabling full time or partial teleworking.  Productivity should not be measured by the number of hours worked. Rather it should be based on quantity and most importantly the quality or work provided.  Implementing and managing a remote workforce can be challenging.  Often Employers are hesitant to offer flexible working schedules due to a lack of understanding of how employees can benefit from such incentives and how to implement such policies. 

 The company must invest in the necessary tools and resources to enable employees to work from home as well as for managers to effectively manage their team.  Managers must also acquire new skills that enable them to gauge performance based on set daily and longer-term objectives. Senior management must identify the right metrics that allow them to see whether their expectations and company goals are being met.

Here are some useful tips that help ensure the transition to remote working is successful:-

Start Slowly – Rather than immediately enabling employees to work from home, start slowly and begin to introduce the concept to your teams. For example, start by offering a flexible Friday and then extend the flexibility to other days before working your way up to teleworking gradually.   In this way both employers and employees can learn this new way of working and propose ideas based on experience to ensure policies are formed around the real needs and expectations for both sides.

Trust – Feeling trusted and empowered are key factors that determine employee satisfaction.  Employers should worry less about what time the employee punched in and out and more about the value and quality of work delivered.

Accountability – Establish agreed upon metrics that enable performance to be measured and hold people accountable when they are not met.  However, do not immediately take drastic measures that restrict their flexible work schedule.  Explain to the employee where s/he needs to improve and allow them to identify ways to raise their performance level.

Praise – Recognize and highlight team accomplishments. Teleworking may increase productivity, but if people are on different work schedules, they may not see it.  Praising an employee’s work raises morale not only for the individual but also for the team.  Ensure that everyone sees the potential and benefit that can be gained though the incentives being offered.

Inclusivity – Try not to restrict teleworking to specific segments of the company.  As much as possible ensure policies and incentives are offered in ways that satisfy the needs of each department.  Where this is not possible try and think of different fun ways for the remaining employees to benefit from other forms of incentives.

Communication – One common disadvantage of flexible work schedules is that employees are less frequently together at the office.  This may hinder teamwork and lead to some becoming disconnected from the company.  This can be avoided by implementing modern collaboration tools that allow employees to

• Communicate using chat,
• Share ideas on discussion boards,
• Share files easily and easy access to company shared resources.
• Hold videoconference meetings on demand.
• View and edit personal and team calendars.

It is also useful to hold regular meetings with all the team present were everyone is encouraged to share what they are working on and challenges they are facing.  This enables employees to gain appreciation and understanding for the work done by their colleagues and encourages teamwork.  More over managers are able to ensure employees are progressing on their assigned tasks and is able to resolve and challenges that may be hindering that progress.  Such meetings can be held as often as required but usually recommended at least once per week.