Changes in the market and, ergo, in customer needs, technological advances and the economic crisis facing our countries, increasingly demand that, in addition to acquiring technical and operational skills, professionals also improve their behavioral skills within the work environment.
When a collaborator cares about this and puts the proposal below into practice, he ends up excelling in the market where he operates, guaranteeing the company a greater capacity for innovation and development, both in its activities and in its products and services, thanks to the satisfaction of your employees with the work environment.
In this article we will talk about a vitally important skill that helps professionals and companies to perform with excellence, achieving extraordinary results, such as work flexibility today. Keep reading!
What is the current scenario of labor flexibility in companies?
It is not recent that the corporate world has been trying to transform the traditional workday, which requires the presence of employees, usually from 8 am to 5 pm. When this workload model was implemented, it was believed that the employee would do his best during office hours, but that did not work for everyone.
As we mentioned earlier, each of us has different organisms. Therefore, using the entire workforce at the same time means that each one of them will not be able to obtain the same performance, which affects the quality with which the activities are carried out. This is one of the reasons many companies embrace job flexibility.
According to an article by Great Place to Work (GPTW), of the 150 best companies to work for in 2018, 132 have already implemented flexible travel and 91 have encouraged their employees to fulfill their home office tasks. This means a big change in business mindset, a very positive one.
In fact, companies follow the trend of a digital corporate environment, where employees connect with the company from anywhere and at any time thanks to the Internet. And slowly, we notice the migration towards a workday that will be governed by the era of Industry 4.0.
What are the advantages of job flexibility?
One of the main trends in human resource management is the question of flexibility in the place and working hours that they provide to their collaborators.
These days, people are looking for more than just a good salary in a new job. Flexible hours and the ability to work from home, for example, are increasingly considered issues when choosing where to work, especially in megacities.
Rigid work schedules have been left behind and companies must adapt to changing trends in the labor market, as well as the preference of employees and “future employees”. In addition, the younger generations are asking for greater flexibility, and this is a very striking characteristic of young people entering the labor market, such as millennials, for example.
The application of a flexible work system to your business has many advantages, among them the retention of talent that will really make a big difference in the growth and expansion of the business. Check out some more benefits that we list below:
Autonomy
Giving more flexibility at work means offering autonomy so that professionals can have the freedom to work with less bureaucracy. In this sense, many employees tend to feel more satisfied, comfortable, and even creative when carrying out their daily activities.
Practicality
When it comes to flexibility in time and workplace, it is easy to associate it with practicality. If the employee needs to carry out a certain activity at a specific time, and this would cause him to be late to the company, wouldn’t it be better if he could have that time and make it up later until the completion of his working day? Wouldn’t it be more advantageous for both the employee and the company?
And the jobs that are not face-to-face, why not bet on the remote model (which we call home office)? These different models of labor flexibility do not represent a decrease in employee productivity, but, in fact, several studies show that these models have a positive impact on the performance of these professionals.
Preference
This kind of flexibility makes life easier for many employees, and even most people prefer it.
According to the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), 75% of Brazilian workers want flexibility in their working hours, with the ability to adapt their entry and exit schedules to their needs.
Higher talent retention
By giving your employees the flexibility of working hours, you tend to increase talent retention. This is because, as we saw at the beginning of this article, professionals increasingly prioritize companies that are less “plastered” and more flexible to work with.
Once you realize an employee’s way of working, the employee will be more engaged and more dedicated to the brand. In fact, Monday will not be scary, and the arrival of Friday will continue to be celebrated. After all, the week will go by with less stress and more fluency.
Increased employee motivation
When the company gives employees the opportunity to personalize their working hours, their motivation for services changes completely as employees become more satisfied, and their job performance increases when they can choose where and when to work.
It is as if the company gave a vote of confidence to the maturity and responsibility of its employees. In return, they do their best within the rhythm and time of the highest physical and mental disposition.
Higher productivity
Productivity is another important advantage of labor flexibility, and a consequence of the previous advantage. Employees who are satisfied with their duties and work routine tend to concentrate better on their activities.
Happier to be able to set and stick to their own schedules, and to avoid wasting time and calm in traffic, they are more enthusiastically committed to delivering results. And that positively impacts productivity.
How to start?
To move from the traditional management model to a more flexible one, the first step is to understand what the opinions of all the managers are on this change and if they all agree with this openness. The organizational culture will be of great help in the way in which the activities will be managed and how much it will benefit the company.
From there, a good way to start alleviating working conditions in your company is by offering the possibility of arriving late or leaving work early, if these hours are offset at some point.
For this, adopting a time bank practice may be the best alternative. There are already thousands of time-by-activity tools that help in this process, which also help with home office adoption, allowing time spent on tasks to be marked even outside of the office and seen by everyone.
The implementation or not of flexibility will depend, basically, on the profile of the collaborators, the nature of the activities and the needs of the company. If you choose to make work in your organization more flexible, it is important that you know the key time models, which are:
- Fixed variable: the company suggests different shifts and the employee chooses the one that best suits his needs and interests.
- Variable: the employee defines his arrival and departure time and must comply with it daily.
- Free: here the employee chooses his work schedule with total autonomy, being necessary to comply with the workload that the company establishes daily or weekly. In other words, the professional does not have a fixed time of entry and exit, he only needs to comply with his workload.
Avoid defensive attitude
One of the main problems of inflexible people is that they are always on the defensive, thinking that all the changes that occur only serve to damage them.
Therefore, when you detect this type of behavior, it is better to avoid it by trying to make the employee see the positive changes that work flexibility can bring to their routine. This will open your field of perception and will also foster positive attitudes that can help the employee and the company grow.
Do your job in different ways
Another highly efficient tactic to become a more flexible professional that you can adopt in your work routine is to perform your tasks in different ways. During the week, when you have a task assigned, think, and analyze what measures, actions or strategies you can implement to carry out this activity as you have never experienced before.
By doing this exercise on a daily or weekly basis, you will challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone, cope better with changes, adapt to them, even if they come as a surprise. This way you stimulate your creativity and innovative capacity, which are two essential characteristics to stand out in the current job market.
Would you like to know more about labor flexibility? Are you thinking of implementing this practice in your business? Be aware of the changes this will bring to the business, and if that sounds like a good idea to you, keep going! Innovation is part of growth!
