Four ways to supercharge a flexible work environment

Flexible working is in high need. In fact the study by Apollo Technical found that 72% of workers favor flexible working environments over working from home.

The companies are seeing tangible positive effects. The productivity has increased by 47 percent and higher performance of employees ( 40% less faulty work) of work) and increased profits (with the average of 11,000 dollars savings per year for a half-time remote worker) Flexible work can look more like a requirement than an employee perk.

If you're thinking about how to create flexible working options or improve how your employees can collaborate remotely, you're in the right location.

In this article, we'll look at some of the most important aspects of flexible working, the shifting expectations of employees, as well as some tips for how you can prepare your company for the future with video powered tools.

What exactly is flexible work?

Flexible work arrangements allow employees to decide where and how they work. Research from 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 without an office, or a specific workplace. Some common types of location flexibility include remote work, hybrid work, and telecommuting. An 2021 SHRM study revealed that 30 percent of employed Americans prefer the ability to do something remotely, and if their present employer does not offer this alternative, they'd look for an employer that does.

Flexible scheduling

Schedule flexibility is based on employees' ability to organize their work hours outside of the traditional five days a week schedule of 9-5. Most common forms of schedule flexibility include:

• Compressed workweek
• Shift work
• Flextime
• Job sharing
• Part-time schedules

The way we work is shifting

According to the US Labor Department reported over 47 million Americans were laid off in 2021 in an unprecedented mass workforce migration.

From dental offices to gas stations, worker shortages are prompting employers to rethink the way we see the job. 64 percent of employees in the recent Pew survey said they felt uncomfortable going back to the office and 57% opted to work at in their home because of COVID-related issues. According to the Harvard Business Review reported that 36 percent of those surveyed would search for an alternative to work if given an alternative that was hybrid or remote, and 6% would be willing to leave regardless of whether a new job was scheduled.

Uncertainty in the economic climate, a competitive labor market and shifting expectations from employees is forcing employers to rethink the way and location employees are employed.

Recent research shows that flexibility at working hours boost employee recruitment, retention, satisfaction, and productivity. Gartner found 43 percentage of those who took part in the Digital Worker Experience Survey said flexible working hours made them more productive. Thirty percent said that the time they saved in commuting improved productivity.

4 ways to create a flexible work environment

As the workplace evolves the onboarding process, training management teams, as well as enablement need virtual communications, training and engagement technologies to help their organizations.

These are the four steps that will help you establish a successful flexible work environment for your employees . These tips will ensure your team is set to be successful.

1. Engage employees

Since your workers aren't congregating more frequently than in a traditional 9-5 office environment, you need to find other ways to boost employee engagement. Seventy-four percent of workers report that they're more efficient in their work when they feel heard. 88% of the employees working at leading companies are heard but only 62% employees of companies with low financial performance are heard.

Everything you need to be aware of about town halls

Learn to live stream the next town hall.

The boring town halls can be a problem however, live stream issues can be even more frustrating. A decision to invest in video of high quality means exponential returns on team alignment, employee engagement, productivity, and connection to help establish a cohesion and flexible workplace.

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

2. Create a virtual onboarding process and training processes

As work transitions away from office work, the training is transitioning along with it. In spite of remote work or maybe because of it, onboarding and education are becoming more important. 97% of employees are now onboarded through virtual training sessions. it's up to the organization to create streamlined and effective training programs.

"Technicians don't always want to go to our training centers, it's not a "one-size fits all" approach for our diverse class of learners...What we began to think about was to take the best educational content from the classroom and made it accessible on the internet."   Steve Hamaday, Virtual Training Manager at Axalta

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Get your remote team with ease using this thorough tutorial.

3. Internal and external communication

"With  our platform, we created a weekly live stream for our global customers, during an epidemic, and it took just weeks, not months. We handled the entire operation through the platform, co-operating remotely with our team and agency, and going live multiple times a week in a variety of different languages."   Alvin Mudun, Senior Web Product Manager for Zendesk in EMEA

4. Make investments in remote collaboration

When your workers are scattered across multiple locations and time zones, the equipment you employ will determine team performance and even motivation.

Incorporating more methods to utilize video has a tangible effect on your team. 's State of Workplace Communication report discovered that video-oriented employees are 75% more likely to have a percentage of employees reporting high engagement as well as better group collaboration. Collaboration refers to communication between team members, and video can make communication more effective and more inclusive.

• Better employee engagement
• Productivity increases
• Anytime, anywhere.
• More Transparency
• Libraries for training that are easy to use and have resources

  Originally written by Clara Wang and updated by Bianca Galvez on July 26, 2022.