Huge strides have been made in the last few years, and both employees and employers are viewing the working day—and working week—through different eyes. Solution: The true benefits of flexible working can only be … Telecommuting refers to a job that’s performed remotely only part of the time. This could include considering the operational requirements of the job, the need to attend meetings in person, how those with direct reports would manage staff and the role of an individual’s performance history in making a decision to grant a flexible work request. Today’s flexible work trends are the opposite of the trends of the 80’s and 90’s that emphasized efficiency and cost cutting: six-sigma, just–in–time, out–sourcing, the great moderation, and leverage buyouts. 3. Before rolling out a new flexibility initiative, the company participated in an Australian documentary following six men, including two Mirvac employees, as they attempted to adopt flexible work arrangements. It … November 20, 2013. by Dana Kennedy. She says there are ways to combat this, however. When the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) wanted to hire specialist staff, it knew it was up against private firms offering bigger salaries. For example, one clever Tweet can reach millions of people, while thousands of mediocre Tweets can fail to ever be read. What’s more, flexible working can also give rise to unanticipated consequences—both good and bad. This can leave little time for family, decompressing, and creative work — especially stressful for introverts. This might have had a time and a place, but not today. learn more about the Future of Enterprise IT, 6 Things You Need To Be Successful At Data Science. The Challenges of Flexible Work Trends 1. Each person’s performance has to be more accurately measured. Different options for Flexible Workplace Arrangements can include: Research that we have conducted here at Cranfield School of Management, for instance, highlights that employees with flexible working arrangements often deliver better performance than those employees who work in more traditional ways. It is important to talk with your employees about how to talk with their spouse and families about what having a flexible work schedule means. We know everyone is juggling a career with priorities outside of work, and COVID-19 has made this even more of a challenge for many. Handing schedules may become a huge problem:. In her presentation, Annie explained that flexible work doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. People will think you aren’t working:. Today’s companies are filled with engineers, designers and programmers instead of non-technical workers. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Issues range from: spouses automatically assuming that their significant other is available for a doctors appointment or too watch the children, to getting upset that their spouse is lazy because they are sleeping until 10am and in the same day mad that worked until 10pm — workaholic! What does the Post COVID-19 Landscape in business look like? If you can work from anywhere any time, you need to set aside time to think, build deep relationships and just get away. If anything, it’s gaining speed and employers who consider how remote work and increased flexibility fit into their organization and how they can meet the challenges of managing a more complex, hybrid workforce position themselves for success. Sometimes, these are serious enough to create tensions, or adversely affect employees’ work-life balance—the very thing that flexible working is supposed to nurture. Sutton Fell and other workplace experts suggest considering flexible arrangements when doing workforce planning, particularly if you face these five common recruitment challenges: 1. Companies need to create an environment were users are encouraged to understand and explore technology and how it can be used. You can’t find, or can’t afford, specialized talent to close your skills gap Difficult for office-based staff to work as effectively with telecommuting staff Co–workers, managers and... 2. The increased need for social distancing, as well as challenges created by school closures, quarantines, and increased absences to care for dependents, present opportunities for us to be proactive, thoughtful, and creative in our consideration of employees working remotely. Traditional Enterprise IT assumes that... 3. Flexible work arrangement assessments. “Anything outside of work is dedicated to them,” she says. Today’s flexible work trends favor the clever, well educated and self–motivated. If an employee has the ability to work remotely from home, they save time on … Overcoming the challenges of flexible working, What can skeletons teach us about leadership. Part-time working is the most difficult form of flexible working. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and other popular tech trends are typically practiced by technology firms, or at least companies that expect workers to be fairly technologically savvy. Telecommuting. Working from home will actually make neighbours and friends feel like you... 3. Also, organizations need to appreciate people that are honest about how they spend their time, and defend people from work–shaming. Increased productivity. She provides five guidelines for setting up a successful remote or flexible work programme that maximises the … However, if you do make money from creativity having a well rested, engaged and equipped organization can produce large returns. It is simply agreed between the employee and his or her line manager that they will work remotely a day or two a week, or will arrive at work a little bit later, or leave slightly earlier to accommodate non‑work commitments. It is clear that the future of work is not command and control . Your email address will not be published. Although there are many known benefits of being able to provide work / life balance to employees, there are also challenges which need to be carefully considered and strategised. This is a terrifying environment for many people, and benefits only a few people that are self–motivated, clever and highly productive. The John Hopkins Centre for Health Security aptly described the African countries as being the least prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic. Cons or Disadvantages of Flexibility in the Workplace: 1. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Traditional Enterprise IT assumes that users don’t understand technology, what tools they need, and will break the system if allowed. Having a transparent assessment system so any employee can apply to work flexibly is important. Her reduced schedule work arrangement means she can take one day off each week to care for her daughters. Comments are off. Balancing flexible work arrangements among employees Maximizing flexibility for all proves one of the fairest methods of handling the challenges the pandemic has thrown at workers. Driven by both legislation and evolving employer attitudes, flexible working has come a long way over the past decade. Flexible work requires a completely different style of management. Nor should this be surprising: when people change the way in which they work, invariably other things have to change too. Sometimes these have been foreseen, but other times not. Regular communication is vital to the success of … Flexible work arrangement is alternate schedules or arrangements which are flexible or adjustable from the traditional working patterns. ... How a flexible work arrangement will be supervised and evaluated. The trend towards flexible work arrangements isn’t slowing down. Today the value is in creativity — efficiency and even automation are just prerequisites. However, in the long-run who do you want working at your company? Supervisors may experience challenges overseeing and evaluating off-site employees. Flexible work programs have many apparent advantages, but critics point out that ill-conceived programs can have a negative impact on businesses, and they add that even good … Learn how your comment data is processed. By Leon Gettler. At CAN we make sure that employees, their spouse and their families understand CAN’s work environment before their first day of work. Part-time work can be used to attract a workforce that … Clearly, in order to maximise the benefits available from flexible working, employers need to pay attention to how different working arrangements will actually influence how a team operates. While, today’s trends and technology place a premium on quality and cleverness over efficiency: typically by creating flexible work environments. In short, despite flexible working becoming more widespread, its upsides may be counter-balanced by some unanticipated downsides. 1. Since you are judged not by who sees you sitting at your desk when, the only measure becomes the quality of your work. Set your voice mail, auto–responders and your calendar to let people know that you are unavailable because you are working on a project, family time, or just getting away from it all. If you are able to work all the time, then that becomes the expectation. Creating a flexible work environment is not about embracing anarchy. Microsoft’s #GetItDone Campaign. Trends such as BYOD, MOOC’s, results-only workplace, and Holocracies such as Valve and Spotify emphasis the importance of creative, well executed ideas developed by self-motivated employees. However, today’s work trends are not without problems. At EY, we understand life’s challenges and complexities. However, as with so many aspects of people management, the devil is in the detail, and some organisations have found that implementing flexible working policies presents them with a number of challenges. Challenges that African countries faced in implementing flexible work arrangements during COVID-19. It all comes down to how clever do you need your employees to be. Slowing down while, today ’ s companies are filled with engineers, designers and programmers instead non-technical... At can and here at Cranfield, our research into flexible working arrangements companies. Work is not command and control is the most challenging of the time, then becomes. 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