Workplace Flexibility // Why This is a Perfect Solution

Workplace Flexibility // Why this is a Perfect Solution 

It’s almost becoming a cliché that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought in so many shifts at the workplace. From work-from-home to work-near-home, these trends presented so many unknowns.

Companies started thinking along the lines of: How do we keep workers safe? Can we stay productive? What’s the best way to communicate and collaborate? How long will we be out of the office?

Over the period, companies have learnt some lessons and now more than ever opting for workplace flexibility.

Workplace flexibility is a strategy of responding to changing circumstances and expectations. Employees who approach their job with a flexible mindset are typically more highly valued by employers.​ Similarly, employers who cultivate a flexible work environment are attractive to employees.

How Does Workplace Flexibility Work?

There are a variety of ways that workplace flexibility can be implemented by workers and employers.

Flexible Employees: Workers with an orientation towards flexibility don’t say, “It’s not my job” or “Do I have to?” when they are asked to take on a new assignment. Instead, flexible employees modify their approach to tasks based on the preferences of stakeholders and the unique demands of each situation.

Employees with a flexible attitude keep the company’s objectives in mind and work to achieve them, tailoring their efforts to the mission at hand.

Flexible Employers: Flexibility skills are also relevant to the approach management takes to handling employees. Flexible managers treat employees as individuals and make an effort to accommodate personal styles and needs.

Flexibility on the part of a worker could be to adjust the hours they work—coming in early, staying late, or working on an off day—to accommodate the needs of the company.

Expecting workers to commute to the office five days a week will largely be a thing of the past at many companies – at least for now.

Benefits of Workplace Flexibility

A flexible work environment has many benefits. It helps workers achieve greater work-life balance, leading to increased employee satisfaction and improved morale. That in turn means employee turnover is reduced, as is the cost to recruit and train new hires.

Loyalty, engagement, and retention is improved, which helps a company’s productivity and its bottom line.

Employers that permit telecommuting, or working from home, can reduce overhead with less need for office space; working from home can also have a beneficial environmental impact by eliminating lengthy commutes.

Flexible employees, for their part, are willing to do whatever is necessary to get the task accomplished, whether that means taking on more responsibilities, doing different tasks, or doing more at work. Thus, they have more to offer their employer than employees who can only do one or two tasks. Having employees who are willing to step outside their job description means employers don’t need to find others to take on more work.

While some companies will embrace a fully remote model, others are opting for a hybrid work plan that gives employees more control over their schedules while still maintaining some in-person office time. And, of course, there are some companies that want everyone back in the office.

The hybrid solution

Companies looking to provide that flexibility as a way to retain talent or bring in new people are increasingly adopting hybrid working to meet the changing expectations of the workforce.

Hybrid working means people can split their time between a central HQ, working from home and a local workspace. A lot of companies are still trying to figure out how they make a successful transition to hybrid.

Though it is still work in progress, many companies are now left with the need of fine-tuning their strategies as they take on new challenges, like employee burnout, a tightening labor market and the prospect of new Covid-19 variants.

Why is the future of work Flexible?

In previously done article by CNN, CEOs of global companies shared their reasons why they think the future of work is rooted on flexibility

Lisa Osborne Ross, CEO Edelman “The post-pandemic future of work is one rooted in flexibility, transparency and accountability… This includes recognizing that our ongoing dialogue is a two-way conversation, not us communicating on high. I want to hear directly and regularly from my employees via town halls, surveys and one-on-one conversations.”

Ben Chestnut, co-founder and CEO Mailchimp, ”To me, flexible work is the future. If there’s one silver lining of the pandemic, it’s that this time away from the office has allowed us all to reevaluate our priorities.”

Rich Barton, Co-founder and CEO, Zillow, “The future of the workforce is going to be more diverse. We see flexible work as a game changer that will help us attract and retain more diverse team members, from every corner of North America, who will bring new ideas and new energy to our company.”

Jane Fraser, CEO at Citi, said “Most of us will be on a hybrid schedule that requires us to be in the office at least three days a week… Hopefully, this flexibility can keep the doors open to people who have traditionally found it difficult to maintain a career in our industry.”

At Nairobi Garage, a number of CEOs and entrepreneurs have also shared with us why they have since opted for flexspaces such as coworking. In our #OnesToWatchOutFor session, CEO of Africa Data School stated that flexible workspaces such as coworking spaces like Nairobi Garage, allow one to pay rent on demand without having to commit too many resources allowing you to grow your business. 

He also added that leveraging on the community was also a big plus for the company. In Fact Duncan explained that  the biggest partner they had met got to link up with them just because they were operating from the space.

In 2022, companies will continue to work hard to lay the groundwork for a hybrid or a flexible future. Having a well thought out workplace strategy will be the key to success, If you are looking into moving your team into a flexible space, well, Nairobi Garage has all the packages that can help you then. Check out our packages here.