We are eight weeks into lockdown and many people are embracing the benefits of a flexible working strategy – not because they choose to but because of the circumstances. All of a sudden, the cat is out of the bag! Flexible working works, it is simple to set up and use and the flexibility it provides will help us with the “New Normal”.
As a provider of flexible working solutions, it is something we have used, and even evangelised, for many years. The connectivity and collaboration tools needed for flexible working are available and they have consistently shown that they contribute to productivity.
It is true that many businesses have already embraced flexible working and there are those businesses, who are often time poor, where it is always on the “To Do” list. The last seven weeks, however, have brought this to the top of the agenda – and if it isn’t top of your agenda now, it needs to be.
As businesses start to prepare for returning from lockdown, a few things are becoming clearer. Due to social distancing requirements, businesses will have to examine their on-site practices; they will need to examine the issues that the “New Normal” will bring, and many of these issues surround home working or flexible working.
- Hot desking and workspace proximity will be an area for concern due to shared workspaces, or work areas
- Shift patterns may be needed to help keep people at safe working distances
- The daily commute will see reduced passenger capacity – will we be able to have enough employees travelling to their place of work?
From an Employer point of view, we will have seen how well people have worked flexibly and remotely and we are now in a position to have that one-to-one conversation with them, to ensure we go forward together as a team. It is important that it is a one-to-one discussion as the solutions needed are as individual as we are.
We need to discuss how management can support the individual with the right tools. We need to understand that each person may need different levels of support.
- Is the home working environment a good fit? Working at home with a laptop and a mobile phone may work for the odd day here and there but for longer periods of time the requirements may differ.
- With the lack of office peer support, how does this affect the individual? Use of collaboration tools such as audio and video conferencing with the ability to screen share and replay call recordings etc. can be a great asset for people.
- Office workers will fall into a number of types – those that need to be in the workplace full time, those that can work between the office and home and those at home full time. That can also be split into full time workers, part time workers with set hours or indeed part time workers with flexible work patterns.
There will be many options, but the tools are available for both employee and employer to benefit from flexible working and, if we don’t embrace this now, when will we?
I think we can safely say that one thing the future will bring us is change – your ability to change with it for your customers and staff will be key.
If you would like to see some of the options available to you, we at Qudo have recently hosted a webinar “Home Worker and Team Worker – What are my options?” Please click on the link to view the webinar, it may help you with your decision-making process.
